P or PL, Help!!

[Sharpiejas]

I am finally taking the plunge and have the money for the sky water 150 from FLO. Now which one to get? P or PL? They are both the same price so what would be better for me?

i am living in North London so the light pollution will be pretty horrific and as i am new to the hobby i want to give myself the best chance of seeing as much as possible. I would also like to try taking some photos as well.

Any help is most appreciated!

[SlipperySquid]

If you are going to take photo's mate get the P as it has the shorter focal length (f5).

The pl has the longer focal length and will be better on planets.

That's the easiest explanation

[brianb]

This issue has been done to death in several recent threads. PL preferred for visual of any target or webcam of moon / planets. If you want to do DSO imaging then you'll need a much better mount and a coma corrector, add a minimum of £1000 to the price tag, as well as a guide scope, 2 cameras, a PC, anti-dev kit and a power supply to run the lot.

[Sharpiejas]

Still confused, i realise that i am not going to be taking photos of any Dso. I would like to take some photos of the planets though and some of the constellations. I guess after reading some of the other threads it will be the PL. I'd better get ordering then.

[Capricorn]

Taking pictures is taking pictures. The subject makes little difference. Constellations move exactly the same as a DSO possible a bit more light so less images but no other difference.

Planets move at a different rate again, our rotation plus their orbital velocity, as very few are bright you still need a set up very, very similar, try exactly the same, as for DSO's and whatever.

You still have to track whatever you image so a good mount and motors are essential, so is getting the whole lot accurately polar aligned.

The PL is not that great a difference in f number to forbid a few attempts, what migh make it more difficult is the mount.

[andyr]

My 1st scope was the 150P and I absolutely loved it, saw loads with it, including Saturn and Jupiter, only got rid as I dropped on a 200P at a ridiculously cheap price.....

Have read in some reviews that the PL is a little long and heavy for the EQ3-2 mount, never had any problems with the P though, and found for a beginner that it was really easy to setup and get going.

Hope that helps anyway

[great_bear]

Taking pictures is taking pictures. The subject makes little difference.

Makes quite a lot of difference: Webcamming?