Please can some one help me!

[cyroflame]

hi all,

Was wondering if some one could please help with this quick question.

forgetting the money aspect, which of these would work better?

Skywatcher explorer 130p SupaTrak Auto

or

Skywatcher explorer 130pm?

[John]

They are both the same scope but on different mounts. So the views will be the same. One mount, the SupaTrak, is a motorised (but not GOTO) alt-azimuth mount so, once you have found something to look at, the mount will track it reasonably accurately for viewing at high power and possibly enough for simple planetary or lunar webcam imaging. The other mount is a traditional equatorial mount and I think the M means that it is driven in one axis so it will also track objects.

The equatorial mount will take a bit more getting used to but, if you stay in the hobby, that's knowlege that will stand you well for the future as bigger EQ mounts work on the same principles.

I had a SupaTraK mounted scope (the 127mm Mak version) and I thought the mount a little "light" - the tripod legs in particular seemed too thin to me. So for that reason I think I would reccommend the 130PM.

Hope that helps

Don't get caught in "paralysis by analysis" - they are both decent scopes and a very good place to start in the hobby

[cyroflame]

Thanks john, that really does help! i think you're right about "Paralysis by Analysis" theory, i will have the money for the scope on about two weeks, and have had some really incredible help from everyone here in the forum (especially you, bizbilder or something like that and brantuk) so need to just choose a scope now! luckily where i live there are no main roads and very little disturbances so i think the mount should hopefully remain still either one i decide to buy.

i think i will go with SupaTrak auto, as the set up looks simpler and is also £10 pounds cheaper which i can use to buy accessory of some sort

does this sound ok? what kind of accessories do you recommend purchasing first?

[John]

Spend the £10 on a good guide book to the night sky like "Turn Left at Orion".

Don't worry about any other accessories for now. Get the scope and get used to using it - you will then start to form some better idea of what accessories will be useful to you.

[John]

You are not near / in Lincolnshire by any chance are you ?:

http://stargazerslounge.com/heads-up/101470-skywatcher-8-dob-lincolnshire.html#post1413003

[cyroflame]

unfortunately no where near there! but thanks anyway

[Cornelius Varley]

They are both the same scope but on different mounts. So the views will be the same. One mount, the SupaTrak, is a motorised (but not GOTO) alt-azimuth mount so, once you have found something to look at, the mount will track it reasonably accurately for viewing at high power and possibly enough for simple planetary or lunar webcam imaging. The other mount is a traditional equatorial mount and I think the M means that it is driven in one axis so it will also track objects.

The equatorial mount will take a bit more getting used to but, if you stay in the hobby, that's knowlege that will stand you well for the future as bigger EQ mounts work on the same principles.

I had a SupaTraK mounted scope (the 127mm Mak version) and I thought the mount a little "light" - the tripod legs in particular seemed too thin to me. So for that reason I think I would reccommend the 130PM.

Hope that helps

Don't get caught in "paralysis by analysis" - they are both decent scopes and a very good place to start in the hobby

There are two versions of the 130 ota. The first is the 130/650 which is used on the Explorer 130P and the 130P Supatrak. The other is the 130/900 which is used on the Explorer 130 and Explorer 130M.

The 130/900 has a spherical mirror and the 130/650 has the better parabolic mirror. As far as I know the Explorer 130PM (parabolic/motorised) has been discontinued and is no longer shown on the OVL website.

Peter