Looking at my first telescope

[Cj7000]

Hello there my name is Chris I have always loved astronomy but never had the chance to own a scope until now I have narrowed it down to two scopes based on my research and wondering if you can advise which is better or pros and cons for each. The scopes are Skywatcher Star Discovery WiFi P150i GOTO Telescope or the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian Telescope also what accessories would you recommend thanks In Advanced

[OleCuss]

Welcome to the forum!

I think either rig will serve you pretty well. I think I'd lean toward the 200P since it has slightly slower optics (a higher focal ratio) and that generally means better optics. But GoTo can be very nice indeed.

For accessories?

1. A chair for observing. You'll see better/more if you are seated reasonably comfortably. A LYBAR chair is easily made. Various other chairs are made/used - searching eBay for musician/hobby chair pops up several popular choices for me.
2. An eyepatch for that great pirate astronomer look! But seriously, if you have to go inside you put one over your observing eye and you'll preserve some of your dark adaptation.
3. Since both Optical Tube Assemblies (OTAs) are Newtonian you will need to get something to use for collimation. A Cheshire collimating eyepiece may do the trick for you.
4. Most of us want to have a headlamp. Amber light (590nm) would be best but are pretty impossible to find so you'll want to get a relatively dim one with a red light option.
5. A piece of carpet. Things get dropped in the night. If you have a piece of carpet under your rig and a little around it - the part just might not be lost and/or broken. There few things I've heard which are worse than someone's $600 eyepiece giving off crunching/tinkling noises when I examined it after he'd dropped it (the views were no longer good either). A remnant of carpet can be pretty inexpensive.

[JayTee]

Ditto on everything OleCuss has mentioned above.

Cheers,
JT

[Shabadoo]

Got binos?

[Cj7000]

Thanks for you responses. No I currently do t have a pair of binos

[Shabadoo]

Most do. 10x50's 8x40's. I have a pair of 8x42 high quality "birding binos." It's amazing what I can see!
Jupiter and 3 moons, Venus, Saturn, m45, m42, the comet from last year, the open glob cluster in Cassieopia, m31, ... Just with birding binos. Easily to recline in a lawn chair wit h bumps and look around. Of course, it helps to know what your looking for...
So a sky chart book or a good planetarium.
A compass, a level. (Or find the ones you already have).
Download Stellarium.

[helicon]

I'd also get a pair of binos. Also, OleCuss is spot on.

[Bigzmey]

Between the two scopes I would go with 200P Dobsonian. It provides larger aperture on a steady mount. You will see more targets with it and more details in targets compared to P150i GOTO.

GoTo is indeed nice, but I am concerned how well this particular one will perform. I feel that the telscope is too large and heavy for the mount it is paired with. The mount will straggle to align, track and find the targets and may burn prematurely,

If you want better performing GoTo package in the same price range I would go with

Sky-Watcher StarTravel-102 AZ GTe

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-wa ... z-gte.html

[ARock]

+1 for the 8" Dobsonian, will show you more, does not need power, fewer things which can go wrong, and forces you to learn the night sky.
If you get the Dob a few upgrades I would advise
1. Change the finder scope with a Right Angled RACI. Add a red dot finder or telrad in addition. A RACI and RDF/TELRAD make it easy to find objects in the night sky.
2. Don't know if it comes with any collimation gear. At least get a collimation cap if that is not included.

Some common gear you should get for either of the two telescopes
1. Stellarium. A free planetarium app on a desktop/app to learn the night sky.
2. The book "Turn Left at Orion" (used copies are really inexpensive and fine) to tell you what objects you can expect to see and how to find them.

and Welcome to the Forums !!

[russmax]

All good advice you're getting. Welcome to the forum.
--Russmax

[TCampbell]

I would also nudge you in the direction of the 8" Dob ... for two reasons.

#1 The ability to "resolve" detail is related to the physical aperture of the scope.

When I bought my first scope (a 3.5") I could see that Saturn had rings and Jupiter had cloud bands... but when I got a larger scope, that's when I started seeing the swirl patterns in Jupiter and the Cassini Division (black band) in Saturn's rings. Large physical apertures are helpful (until the scope gets so large that it's hard to lift, set-up, take-apart, etc. and then you stop using it so much because it's a hassle to use it.)

#2 A "Dobsonian" telescope isn't really so much about the "scope" as it is about the "mount" system. Both scopes are newtonian refractors. But one is on a tripod and the other is resting on a cradle that sits on the ground (it does not have "legs"). This makes the Dobsonian style mount inherently more stable.

When I bought my first scope (on a tripod), I would want to tweak the focus. As soon as I merely touched the focus knob, the scope would vibrate ... and the image in the eyepiece would shake so much that it was a struggle to tell if I was improving the focus or making it worse. Dobsonian telescopes don't have "legs" ... the optical tube rests in a "rocker box" that typically has solid walls and all of that is mounted on a turn-table. The design is inherently very stable ... so you probably wont be dealing with vibrations (they would be minor) as you would on a tripod-mounted design (there are some VERY solid tripod mounted designs... but those are more expensive.)

These days if I use a tripod-mounted design, on want that tripod to be rock-solid.

There are some trade-offs and there is one particular area of concern... the 6" goto scope doesn't have collimation adjustments for the primary mirror. Collimation is a common practice for newtonian telescopes ... this is the process of aligning the mirrors so that the image being reflected back up the tube toward the secondary mirror (the one at a 45° angle that bounces light into the eyepiece) is exactly centered on that mirror and not reflecting the image off to one side. If this happens then stars don't look like sharp points and the image doesn't focus as well. Collimating is pretty easy to check and perform. But it can't be performed on the 6" model (it can be performed on the 8" model).

The 6" *is* a "go to" scope. That means you'll need to do a star alignment process (typically you orient the scope in some "home" position and help it find and center on two bright stars). From there, it can usually find many other objects in the night sky with reasonable accuracy (go-to systems typically do not nail the object in the center of the eyepiece ... but it should be somewhere in the field of view of your lowest-power eyepiece). But this also means the scope is not designed to be *without* that "go to" system. So you will need power (most people tend to get a 12v rechargeable battery). All of my personal telescope mounts are "go to" mounts. But I'm a fairly technical person (I work in the computer field) and I enjoy using them. But I confess that not everyone shares my opinion and some people are frustrated by these mounts. Be your own judge for how much you enjoy working with or tolerate electronics as to whether you would enjoy this. But be warned... there will be a bit of a learning curve (as there is with everything) and will probably not "just work" out of the box until you spend some time to familiarize yourself with the system and practice using it.

The 8" is not a "go to" system. This means it wont find objects for you. Some claim this forces you to learn your way around the night sky -- and for some people this is part of the fun -- and for others, they don't like that they have a bit of extra work to do to find their objects. Also keep in mind that most objects are "faint fuzzies" even in the best of amateur scopes, so you are sometimes left scratching your head wondering if you actually *did* find the object.

There are "push to" and even "go to" dobsonian telescopes -- but they do cost a bit more and might break the budget.

Clear skies!
Tim

[Sky Tinker]

Hello there my name is Chris I have always loved astronomy but never had the chance to own a scope until now I have narrowed it down to two scopes based on my research and wondering if you can advise which is better or pros and cons for each. The scopes are Skywatcher Star Discovery WiFi P150i GOTO Telescope or the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P Dobsonian Telescope also what accessories would you recommend thanks In Advanced

Hello Chris,

If you haven't already purchased a kit, there are these go-to options...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-wa ... z-gti.html

Or... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-wa ... z-gti.html

Or, go with the 200P.

All three of those telescopes, including the P150i, are 100% false-colour free. However, the P150i is a bit too large for the "Star Discovery" go-to mount. You certainly wouldn't want to use one in windy conditions, as the size of the telescope's tube would act as a ship's sail of sorts. It wouldn't rip the telescope from the mount, but you get the general idea.

The false-colour of an 80mm f/5 achromat(refractor) is bad enough, and with that of a 102mm f/5 even worse. Therefore, both are unsuitable for the higher powers associated with observations of the brighter planets, stars and double-stars. Rather, the two refractors are for the dimmer, deep-sky objects, yet with small apertures. For those type of deep-sky objects, the larger the aperture the better. They're fine for a secondary or tertiary telescope, but not for one's first.

[Seawolfe]

Go with the binos first and a good star wheel or planetarium software to LEARN the night sky. THEN when you've enough money and night skill, make your purchase. That way, you'll be ready to know if this is really for you or not and have the money already for you scope and accessories that you'll want by then.

[LDW47]

Don’t forget a Planisphere ! If you are still learning all the aspects of astronomy, all the details, get a book like NightWatch or Backyard Astronomers Guide or both, you will learn what its all about, its all there incl. sky charts in NightWatch !

[Baurice]

Another vote for the binoculars. I use mine for visual observation more than every other instrument I have put together.

[smp]

Hi Chris, and welcome here to the Forum!

I'll apologize up front, but your topic title caught my eye in an off-beat fashion - With all the cloudiness we've been having up here in NH, I've been doing a lot of looking AT my astronomy equipment, too. So don't feel you are alone!

smp

[moth]

Hey Chris. I registered in order to reply to you, since a few weeks ago I got my first scope here in the UK, and I too was choosing between the Skywatcher Star Discovery WiFi P150i GOTO Telescope and the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P.

I went for the Skywatcher Star Discovery WiFi P150i.

In my case, the decision was resolved around the scopes' size. I have limited storage space, and I also wish to be able to transport the scope on camping trips when there's not much room in the car. The 200P/8" is a beast - far too big to store anywhere practical (YMMV). The Star Discovery has the benefit of being slightly easier to break down into smaller parts.

I'm aware that the Skyliner would have greater power, is cheaper, and is probably the better choice for a number of reasons IF YOU HAVE SPACE. I simply didn't - I have a shed - but the base on the Skyliner is apparently composite wood. I'd give that a few years before it would warp and fall apart in my damp conditions in the UK.

I'm not an experienced astronomer, and it remains to be seen how much collimation can be altered with the Star Discovery since the primary mirror is fixed. You can however adjust the secondary. I'm willing to take the risk though, since the scope + a few accessories came in at about £450 which isn't a vast amount of money (for me). I figure this will last as long as my interest or my willingness to invest further in more advanced equipment.

On the advice of 365, I went for the following replacement eye pieces and barlow;

GSO 2.5x Achromatic 3-Element Barlow
https://www.365astronomy.com/GSO-2.5x-A ... -1.25.html
8mm - The Planetary UWA Eyepiece - 58 degrees 1.25" 94x and with the 2.5x Barlow: 243x
https://www.365astronomy.com/8mm-the-pl ... -1.25.html
25mm - BST Explorer Starguider ED Eyepiece 30x and with the 2.5x Barlow: 75x
https://www.365astronomy.com/25mm-BST-E ... piece.html

I will also get the 5mm Planetary UWA in time.

Mine also came with the WiFi built in (no handset), and no barlow. Just a 10mm and 25mm eyepiece which are quite cheap looking. It comes with the finder scope, which is just about ok for now.

Thus far, I'm very happy with it, if a bit peeved that Jupiter and Saturn are several years away from being accessible in the night sky here in the UK.

Mike