Dob to EQ?

[Glen Hughes]

Hello all.  Bought a skywatcher 200p dobsonian a couple of years ago and have had great fun with it.  Is it feasible to put this on an eq mount?  or would I be better off selling it and buying one already on an eq.  Thanks.

 

If it isn't just a silly idea that only an absolute newcomer would think of, would anyone recommend a suitable mount?

[RaDec]

Welcome to the forum Glen. It certainly is not a silly idea, loads of people do it, especially if you know the scope and are comfortable with it. You will need to source suitable sized mounting rings, and dovetail and then a mount with a good weight capacity like an HEQ5 or EQ6 or equivalent. IOptron do some excellent equivalents as well, just depends on your budget.  

[TerryMcK]

Hi Glen welcome to the forum. Yes you can put a 200P onto an EQ mount probably in the size of a EQ6 type mount. I tried it with mine on an HEQ5 and it worked ok as long as there was no wind.

Wind makes it like a sail. You also need extra weights with the smaller HEQ5 mount. The EQ6 has more capacity but will still be affected by wind.

 

You need a pair of mounting rings and a vixen or losmandy slide way to fix it onto the mount. The 200P isn’t really suited for astro photography though and even visual can be a challenge due to the eyepiece sometimes being at unusual angles to the observer. You end up rotating the telescope within its rings to get the eyepiece at a convenient angle for the observer.

But you will probably need to inch the goto mount to get it back on target.

 

 

[Demon]

Regarding mounting, definitely as others comments however i would drawer your attention also to a few other aspects. If your going eq then presumably your thinking of imaging in which case you may struggle to get focus. Unless it was a 200pds model which I believe gets the focal point further out. If youre new to but want to try imaging then most recommend a little wide field refractor to start with for lots of reasons. Is your dob manual of goto? Do you have a camera?

[Carastro]

I agree with all the above comments.  

 

I would say an HEQ5 is not really substantial enough for a 200P

You will have trouble focussing for Astrophotography.  If you are OK at tinkering I think this can be overcome by moving the Primary further up the tube.

As a learner imager it would make you life much easier to start off with a small APO refractor

Edited April 23 by Carastro

[StarHugger]

Small apo I agree, the learning curve will be way easier and the little widefield scope will always be useful too you.

 

Even with an eq6 a 200p without wind protection like an obsy or similar and electric focuser would be an exersize in struggling.

 

Besides moving the mirror getting an electric focuser, rings, dovetail, guide camera and guidescope starting out would be spendy in itself along with a reliable eq6.

 

You will be imaging the trees before ever even understanding imaging the forest itself, with the narrower field of the 200p you may also winde up buying another camera with a larger sensor as a result when two scopes with two very different fields of view and magnification would give you a much better range of targets than 2 cameras would.

 

Welcome to the Backyard and,

 

Best of luck out there Glen...Indeed.

Edited April 23 by StarHugger