Best scope for upto £350 ish..pls help me

[stafford_stargazer]

I am in the market for a scope just for astronomy,i would like to pay around £300 or a bit more if needed for my purchase.

For portability i was liking the idea of a matsukov cassagrain type scope or maybe something else.

Ist on my list was a skywatcher pro 150 tube assembly,as i have a few very high quality tripods already.

my main interest will be planets but i do love deep sky stuff and nebulae.

What would your top 3 scopes be for around this price if you the choice.

Please help with ideas and good makes as i want to purchase this on wednesday.

any makes to avoid?

thanks you all Gary

[moocher]

8" f6 Orion optics Newt. A great all rounder. Does this budget inc a mount? You can`t go wrong with an 80ed either but the newt will be better due to its larger aperture....

Alan:D

[Moonshane]

Hi Gary and welcome to SGL!

I am quite new to this myself and a major consideration is whether or not you wish to image. On the budget you mention this will be very difficult to get anything like reasonable results so I'd forget it for now if you were considering it.

If you pushed me for three scopes I'd suggest the following:

Dobsonians - Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian

Evostar - Skywatcher Evostar 120 OTA - you may need to get a bracket or tube rings to fit this to your tripods.

Maksutov - Skywatcher Skymax 127 OTA - you may need to get a bracket or tube rings to fit this to your tripods.

if you pushed me for one I'd say the first one. All of these allow some spare cash to buy a red dot finder/telrad and maybe a couple of other cheaper eyepieces to get you going.

will be interesting to see what others suggest. the suggestions I have made are aimed at giving you ideas as there are a number of similar scopes on the market. these scopes from this supplier will definitely not disappoint!

cheers

Shane

[russ]

When you say high quality tripods do you mean EQ mounts? Even the best camera tripod will be all at sea with a Skymax 150 or 8" newt on board. They need an EQ5/CG5 minimum.

As an allrounder you can't beat an 8" newt at this price, especially an 8" f6 as already pointed out. Another alternative to the Orion Optics 200, and my preferred choice by quite some margin, would be the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P. Had one for almost two years now and it's simply superb. Does everything well. One of the very best scopes i've owned (and i've owned a lot). It ran an Orion Optics SPX200, which had the best newt optics OO make, very close on the planets and there was nothing in it on the deepsky.

I'm reluctant to recommend anything else because i honestly do not think there is an alternative upto £300.

[pvaz]

Another vote for an 8" newtonian, be it on an EQ or dobson mount. They are good all rounders and it will take time till you out grow it.

Bare in mind that for stable views the most robust mounts usually come with a tripod with 2" diameter legs. An 8" newt weights a bit over 10kg and is usually 4 feet long so it's a bit demanding on the mount. If it's not sturdy enough there's a risk any vibration will make it impossible to observe with, as the view won't stop shaking.