Which one of these should I get?

January 23, 2022

22 hours ago, Gerrypfc said:

I do like the look of the 150pds eq5 Pro goto (£999) or 200pds heq5 Pro goto (£1299).

Something to consider if I catch the bug.

Or would there be something better you'd recommend for that price range? Would like the goto function.

I got a 150PDS over Christmas and have been experimenting with it. It's a nice scope and gives good results, especially if you add a coma corrector to sort out the star shapes. It's surprisingly heavy, and with a DSLR loaded up (and shortly you will want to add a guide scope and camera) it is at the higher end of the range weight-wise for an EQ5. It would be ideal on a HEQ5. Similarly, the 200PDS may well be a tad heavy for a HEQ5 once it's fully loaded.

The best advice for starting AP is always to over-spec the mount and I suspect in both of these cases the mount is under-specced.

Nightspore beat me to it by suggesting an 80mm refractor as possibly a better route - my ideal budget setup would be something like an 80ED DS-Pro (or the 72ED) on the HEQ5. My best current rig is an Esprit 80 on a HEQ5 and it is a joy to work with (granted the Esprit is top dollar Skywatcher).

What would be fun as a starter kit would be to get a HEQ5 and a Startravel80 - the ST80 is not an ideal AP scope, but is cheap as chips, super value for money, and you will always be able to sell it on they are so much fun to use. You may be able to get a HEQ5 or similar on the forums second-hand. They're like VW Beetles - hard-wearing and very maintainable.

January 23, 2022

Here's Bode with the 150PDS without Coma Corrector. Looks nice, and picks up good detail in the galaxy.

If you're a perfectionist, you can see the stars in the corner look funny. This is what the Coma Corrector fixes.

January 23, 2022

49 minutes ago, Padraic M said:

I got a 150PDS over Christmas and have been experimenting with it. It's a nice scope and gives good results, especially if you add a coma corrector to sort out the star shapes. It's surprisingly heavy, and with a DSLR loaded up (and shortly you will want to add a guide scope and camera) it is at the higher end of the range weight-wise for an EQ5. It would be ideal on a HEQ5. Similarly, the 200PDS may well be a tad heavy for a HEQ5 once it's fully loaded.

The best advice for starting AP is always to over-spec the mount and I suspect in both of these cases the mount is under-specced.

Nightspore beat me to it by suggesting an 80mm refractor as possibly a better route - my ideal budget setup would be something like an 80ED DS-Pro (or the 72ED) on the HEQ5. My best current rig is an Esprit 80 on a HEQ5 and it is a joy to work with (granted the Esprit is top dollar Skywatcher).

What would be fun as a starter kit would be to get a HEQ5 and a Startravel80 - the ST80 is not an ideal AP scope, but is cheap as chips, super value for money, and you will always be able to sell it on they are so much fun to use. You may be able to get a HEQ5 or similar on the forums second-hand. They're like VW Beetles - hard-wearing and very maintainable.

I'll might have a look at the st80, nice n cheap as u say and gives me another option to play around with. Thanks

I did pick up the 130p az today. Will have a play around with it when we have some clear skies again.

On the mean time....ill create a shopping list of future purchases 😁