Help me decide between two telescopes

Mr Bloat

I have a budget of around €500ish to spend on a scope. I have done a lot of research online and have narrowed it down to two models. If anyone has either of these, I would be delighted with some feedback.
I'm linking to KTEC's website simply because I have settled on Skywatcher and I will be buying from them, I am not affiliated in any way with them.
Option 1: Skywatcher Explorer 150PL EQ3-2
Pros over option 2: EQ mount so I won't have to nudge it along while observing, smaller and lighter. Potential for basic imaging in the future.
Cons: Not as much light gathering, more expensive.

Option 2: Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian
Pros over option 1: Bigger light bucket, cheaper.
Cons: It's huge! No chance of imaging.

Now, the fact that the dob is huge doesn't really bother me. I have space at home to store it. In my head, I'm leaning towards the dob because I'm a bit nervous that if I go for the 150PL, I'll always be wondering what extra I would have been able to see if I had went with the 200P. Having said that, I'm also slightly nervous that not having an EQ mount will bother me eventually, should I end up with the 150PL. I don't think I will ever feel the urge to try astro imaging but I'll be ruling it out completely if I go with the 200P.
I do know that I don't want a GOTO mount.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

Kersh

My own personal opinion, for observing, there are 3 things to consider - aperture, aperture and aperture. Especially if you will be mainly using it at home.

Like you say, it eliminates the "what ifs", which, when you are down the end of the garden looking for that faint fuzzy, might niggle with you.

The other option, the particular one you linked, the 150PL, is a long focal length reflector, so is really slow for any future astrophotography you might have in mind. By "slow" I mean its F/ratio - the higher the number, the longer it takes to get an exposure.
Its not a commonly asked for scope, and if it was planetary/lunar work you wanted, I'd be checking out the Skymax 127 EQ3-2 anyway, its much better than the 150PL.

If you did want to stay along the route of future proofing yourself, and you had to consider the EQ3-2 due to budget, then the best scope to put on it would be a 150PDS. Nice and fast, at F5, and a dual speed focuser for getting fine focus when you do attach the camera.

For astrophotography down the road, a motor set would be needed for the EQ3-2, so I reckon its best to stay purely visual right now, with the Dob, and get a dedicated tracking EQ, like an EQ3 Pro, or EQ5 pro, which ( I know you say you dont want it) will have goto also (a great help with photography, as you wont need to keep removing the camera to check object location, and refocus, which takes time, much longer than you might think), and get a faster scope (130pds/150PDS).

murphyme2010

I agree with Kersh. I tried to image with a manual EQ mount and it was too frustrating. You really need to consider a tracking mount for imaging.

I've a similar Skywatcher dob and love it.

Michael.

Hmmzis

I'd also second the on the dob. Have a 200mm dob at my parents house under decently dark skies and it has shown me alot of faint and not so faint fuzzies. Planets are also fine once you get some practice with nudging it the right amount.
It's also quick to set up and to take down and the storage footprint is smaller than for an EQ mounted 150mm scope (any type). Both base and tube together can be a bit heavy though. If my back is acting up then I would need two trips to the house to carry the whole thing out.

Btw. for long exposure photos with a 150mm f/6 newt you'd need a rather decent mount with tracking (CGE5 or thereabouts). An 80-90mm fast APO on the EQ3-2 with tracking would get better results on average.

Mr Bloat

It looks like it's going to be the dob then! Thanks for the advice.

Seanie M

The bigger the scope, the better. Dob all the way for me (given the budget constraints in this example).

Seanie.

astroman145

i also have the 200p dob and also a small goto mount by the time i,ve set up the goto mount i,d be observing with the dob .
its quick and easy to set up and as the lads say aperture is king .i,d actually spend more time with the dob and my daughters find it easy and love looking through it too.btw stephen at ktec is a sound man and will look after your needs .clear skies val

Mr Bloat

Thanks again for the advice everyone. I have put through my order for the dob and would like to apologise in advance to everyone in Cork for the next two weeks of cloudy nights, as I invoke the curse of the new telescope.

Edgarfrndly

You won't regret it. I have the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P a few years now and it's a great scope. I'm upgrading to the 12" version soon. You wouldn't be able to do any imaging with the 150P anyways - Aperture is too low for it to be useful for any sort of meaningful astrophotography.

Word of advice - Invest in a laser collimator and make sure to collimate your scope regularly. It will make the difference between good views and great views. Invest in a barlow, and upgrade the eye pieces at some point also.

You will be able to do some basic imaging of Jupiter and Saturn with it, along with the moon. The dob is very easy to use. Just align your finder-scope with the scope, and away you go.

Initial targets to look at for this time of the year should be Jupiter and the Orion nebula, along with the moon. All very easy to find, and will be great to look at. Take it away from the city lights and find a good dark spot. Escaping the light pollution really makes a difference.

The scope is pretty heavy, so be careful with it.

All the best with it - let us know how you get on with your first light.

Mr Bloat

After having the scope for over a week, I finally got a clear night to take it out last night. I absolutely love it. I was blown away with the views I had! I mainly concentrated on Jupiter and the moon using 32mm and 12.5mm Plössls both with and without a barlow. I have other eyepieces but I wanted to get the hang of using the scope properly - focussing and nudging it along mainly - before going mad with different power eyepieces. One thing that did strike me was how quickly the planet moves when you briefly step away from a telescope! My first night was a great success and hopefully I won't have too long to wait before the clouds allow me to have another one.

shedweller

Theres a thing that has me curious. At high powers everything is going to whizz by a stationary scope. So at high power how do you keep, say, jupiter in the viewfinder long enough to get a clear view. Because while you are nudging the scope i can't imagine its easy to see anything. Or i could be wrong of course!

Edgarfrndly

shedweller wrote: »

Theres a thing that has me curious. At high powers everything is going to whizz by a stationary scope. So at high power how do you keep, say, jupiter in the viewfinder long enough to get a clear view. Because while you are nudging the scope i can't imagine its easy to see anything. Or i could be wrong of course!

It's easy to keep it in your view, a slight nudge will do it. If you lose it momentarily, Jupiter is so bright - you'll be able to just nudge it towards the direction of light it emits to reacquire it.

This is really only an issue for the planets - deep space stuff stays in view for much longer.

OP: Wait til Saturn comes around in some time. You'll be pleasantly impressed when you see it. Also, like I said previously - invest in a laser collimator if you don't have one already and collimate the scope everytime you take it out. It should only take you 3 or 4 minutes to do.

mickmackey1

Edgarfrndly wrote: »

This is really only an issue for the planets - deep space stuff stays in view for much longer.

That's nonsense with respect - it's the movement of the Earth which causes the vast majority of the drift, so a consistent rate of tracking will be required regardless of the target object.

Edgarfrndly

mickmackey1 wrote: »

That's nonsense with respect - it's the movement of the Earth which causes the vast majority of the drift, so a consistent rate of tracking will be required regardless of the target object.

I never stated at any point that no tracking is required for DSOs. Of course it's required, but relative to the viewer - planets will be in the FOV for a shorter period of time and require more adjusting with a dob.

mickmackey1

Edgarfrndly wrote: »

relative to the viewer - planets will be in the FOV for a shorter period of time and require more adjusting with a dob.

That depends on the angular measurement of the target - Jupiter appears bigger than some DSOs so will need more adjusting but is narrower than others such as M45 and M31 - anyway the OP will soon discover this for himself.