Telescope suggestions

[Mrshredder2]

Hey all

One day in the future i will be looking to upgrade to a better telescope as the celestron astromaster 130eq is good but i would like to get a better one.

Could you please post up some suggestions preferably ones round the £250-300 price mark, also what goto is that a feature where you can choose what place you want to view? if so i want one of them on there too lol.

Cheers all

Mrshredder2.

[russ]

Sadly for £250-300, if you want GOTO as well you won't get much of a scope upgrade because all you'll be able to afford is a goto version of your current scope:

AZ GOTO - Skywatcher Explorer 130P SynScan AZ GOTO

This one would be a scope upgrade and goto could be added later:

Reflectors - Skywatcher Explorer 150P EQ3-2

Or if you were willing to forget the goto you could buy a better scope upgrade in this form:

Dobsonians - Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian

All are within budget but all are a compromise. The 150P is the closest to your brief, as you get a scope upgrade, a mount upgrade and the option to add Synscan later (a hefty £265 for the goto kit alone). I don't think it would make sense to just buy a goto version of your current scope. While the 8" dob is totally manual but could be mounted onto a goto EQ mount at a later date and probably cost no more than adding the goto to the EQ3. A secondhand LXD75 or Celestron CG5 go for £250-300. The 8" dob is going to give you the big scope upgrade though and will give you a completely new experience on deepsky.

[jgs001]

As you've been asking about astro imaging, then I'd suggest that you probably want to save up more and get a really sturdy mount before upgrading the scope. The difficulty is, that imaging, especially longer exposure, deep sky imaging, requires a solid mount. The recommendation I was given is the HEQ5 is a minimum, the SynScan is cheaper and can be made to be goto.

[Mrshredder2]

ok thank you both for the suggestions really appreciate it.

i was look at the skywatcher explorer 130 synscan AZ goto before we got our current one but wasnt sure what it was like lol.

[russ]

I didn't realise imaging was on the cards too. Playing the secondhand market is your best bet, only bet really. A secondhand 150P ota for £80-90 and secondhand EQ5 with dual drives for £150 would get you started. If you got really lucky, remained patient and watched the classifieds like a hawk, you may snag a standard HEQ5 for £150 (i've seen two come up). With the 150P ota, that's within budget. And keeps your imaging on track for the future.

It maybe worth contacting Rob as he was selling a new Diamond Black 150P and Vixen GP with drives. Pretty sure it was within budget and would give you a good quality mount to start imaging with and also a good scope upgrade. Synscan can be added to the GP too.