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Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian Telescope $599.08 ($584.10 with eBay Plus) @ Ryda via eBay

250
Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian Telescope $599.08 ($584.10 with eBay Plus) @ Ryda via eBay
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Lslimpickings on 08/06/2023 - 22:11 ebay.com.au (606 clicks)
Last edited 08/06/2023 - 23:24
SEOFY20SEOFY22

This seemed popular last time, and its now $23 cheaper. 10 available at time of posting. I don't know much about telescopes, so from the previous post:

8 inch is a good beginner’s telescope. A dobson mount is simple. Plonk, level and view. (Need to adjust your scope of course)
If you do get one, a laser collimator is essential, followed by a bahtinov mask

Ryda has some other good prices, for example:
Flextube 200P Dobsonian for $679.08/$662.10
Classic 250P Dobsonian for $791.08/$771.30
Classic 150P Dobsonian for $383.08/$373.50

It should stack with the bonus $10 at TopCashback if you're quick.

Original Coupon Deal

Sports & Outdoors End of Financial Year Sale Sky-Watcher Telescope

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closed Comments

  • Milkywayss on 08/06/2023 - 22:58
    +2

    Great scope and price! I need to transport mine and short on space so just got the collapsible version of this from ryda, that’s now down to $697 with SEOFY20. Assembly took maybe 45 minutes but was easy enough solo.

    • slimpickings on 08/06/2023 - 23:25

      Thanks! based on your comment and @AJAJAJ below I added the flex 200p to the post.

  • cyrax83 on 08/06/2023 - 23:02

    Do you need a clear night sky? Does light pollution matter from suburban city?

    Anyone have samples of images of what to expect?

    • whatsnail on 08/06/2023 - 23:39
      +1

      It is difficult to show what you really see in a photograph because a camera can collect light over a longer period of time.
      Don't expect to see the universe as you know it from pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
      You can see the moons of Jupiter and so on.

  • AJAJAJ on 08/06/2023 - 23:11
    +3

    Personal choice but my suggestion will be to go for flexi tube. Easy to store and transport. I have 250P flexi tube bought from ebay . To see optimum result, you need to buy extra eye piece and a multiplier. And for cell phone, you need to buy extra adapter to hang phone. Any query, you can ask freely. I have tried to cut down technical words as much as possible

    • BuyoTheCat on 08/06/2023 - 23:49

      the 250p classic fits in the back of a hatch or across the back seats of the most cars. it is 120cm long.

      I bought the classic save $200. However the $200 will not even cover the cost of a good eye piece.

      • AJAJAJ on 08/06/2023 - 23:59

        You missed one very important factor…The classic is Highest Practical Magnification 400X. However the flexitube is Highest Practical Magnification 508X. It all depends what do you want to see

    • gofree on 09/06/2023 - 01:01

      What eye piece do you recommend for the 250P? It comes with 1.25" Super 25mm (48x) and 10mm (120x), is something in between needed?

  • netwolf on 09/06/2023 - 00:46
    +2

    Used market for Astronomy gear is better way to go to save money. You can look at forums like iceinspace.com.au for a good knowledgeable people who will be happy to help and answer questions. The Astro community in Australia is one of the best bunch of people. Pre Covid there were lot of new moon nights where local groups gather to stargaze its. Good opportunity to look through telescopes and get a feel for the hobby.

    The best telescope is not the biggest one it’s the one you will use most. I.e consider effort involved in setup breakdown. If your time poor , you don’t want it to become a chore that you then avoid, Dobsonians (Newtonians) are great light buckets and even in light polluted skies you can see quite a bit. However they are not really for Photography though with patience and effort you can do it, it’s not ideal. For photography your better of with smaller portable setup even a camera on a tripod can do. Lot of beginner YouTube videos around to look at, electronic goto or push to can help you find objects more easily but comes at a cost.

    Don’t forget good eyepiece makes a world of difference. Buy used you could pickup a full set someone is upgrading from.

    Don’t impulse buy do your homework try to join local groups and use other peoples scopes and eyepieces to try them out. IIS has links to many local groups.

    Best of luck and Clear skies..

    • GeneralSkunk on 09/06/2023 - 07:36

      Yeah I’m a bit of a lurker on the iceinspace forums too. Its a great community.

      I have this scope. It’s pretty good. It’s heavy though! My father in-law gave it to me because it was hurting his back to bend over while using it. I recently bought a collimator for aligning the mirrors and I think it’s improved the picture a little.

      I once found Neptune with it. The other inner planets are very good to see, including Jupiter’s Galilean moons.

  • joeno on 09/06/2023 - 07:31

    Are these good for backyard viewing and ready to use out-of-box? Probably not going to do much photography. Just want to see the moon, planets, things can't see with naked eye. I'm a beginner.

    Perhaps the 150P is more suitable for me?

    • GeneralSkunk on 09/06/2023 - 07:38

      Yeah this will be good for that. Bigger the better. But a refractor could also be good for planetary viewing, though they can be expensive too.

    • BuyoTheCat on 09/06/2023 - 10:07

      you have to put the dobsonian mount together yourself. it is not hard. I took my time and did it in 40 min myself. its just screwing a few planks together.
      no assembly required for the telescope, just putting the accessories on it.

      Moon is a very easy thing to view in detail. even with just binos on a tripod. planet is more tricky. they are usually quite small even with strong magnification. but you can make out the red bands on Jupiter and its moons and saturn’s ring. its quite exciting. the real magic is seeing deep space objects.

      There isnt that much difference beetween the 150p (6 inch) and 200p (8 inch)
      I would go for the 200p. especially if you do not have to move it far.

      • joeno on 09/06/2023 - 17:15

        Thanks. What do you mean there is not much difference? It is more than $200 more. So unless there is some distinct advantage of the 8inch that makes it worth the extra $200+ then i'll go with the 6.

        • BuyoTheCat on 09/06/2023 - 17:50

          opps. typo. I meant:

          the focal length of the 150p 200p and 250p is 1200mm
          the only difference is the amount of light gathered.

          you can use a light pollution map to see what zone you are in.
          red and green 150p and 200p, not much difference
          in blue or blue/green, you can see brighter deep space objects.

          • joeno on 10/06/2023 - 00:35

            @BuyoTheCat: Thanks. Might get the 150p then. Do I need to buy anything else or ready to go out of box? E.g. attachments. I prefer not to buy anything else unless crucial.

            • BuyoTheCat on 10/06/2023 - 12:54
              +1

              @joeno: out of the box you are unlikely to need much.

              in order of importance as and when you feel you need it later

              1. 2 x barlow (svbony 2x barlow is about $40)
              2. collimator (about $30)
              3. bahtinov mask (look for 3d print template and ask some kind person to print it for you, or $20 from ebay)

              a barlow will give you 2x magnification. useful if you are looking at planets.

              a bahtinov mask will help with focusing but eyeball focusing is perfectly ok.

              if you do move the scope around alot, a cheshire or laser collimator will help in future to get it back into collimation after getting bumped around.
              If a scope is slightly out of collimation, you cant tell visually. you can if looking at it as an image.

              • bargainshooter on 13/06/2023 - 12:44

                @BuyoTheCat: Why would you recommend a barlow on a 150p when anything under 10mm will turn into a blob? I would invest in better eye pieces before going the barlow. Also a variable/zoom eyepiece can be a fantastic investment.

                • joeno on 14/06/2023 - 02:45

                  @bargainshooter: What would you say is the "must have" for the 150P (if any)?

                  • bargainshooter on 14/06/2023 - 09:50

                    @joeno: I'd look for a zoom eyepiece. Game changer from my experience. Remember stars and planets move/earth rotates - so by the time you find what you want to look at using a wide focal eyepiece, swap to a more narrow (higher magnification) eyepiece, the object would have moved. Can be quite frustrating.

                    Then look at other quality eye pieces with good coatings and eye relief (how far away from the eye piece you are able to look through).

                    • joeno on 16/06/2023 - 00:34

                      @bargainshooter: Thanks. What's a good zoom eyepiece for the 150P?

                      • AJAJAJ on 22/06/2023 - 22:38

                        @joeno: 150P has Highest Practical Magnification 300X. Whichever eye piece you go, Make sure it is not mare than 300x

  • netwolf on 09/06/2023 - 20:37

    You can get shorter focal length 6" (150mm) FL of 750mm on a Goto Alt/Az mount for around 800-1000 bucks look at Bintel, Andrews Communications , Astropetes and other stores for Az-GTI 6" newt combo or Az-gti with 5-6" maksutov combo (if you want longer focal length). These are more portable setups the Newt at 750 will be more widefiled and you can always use a Barlow (multiplier lens) to extend your FL to magnify more. Against my friends advise i started with a 10" dobsonian which was an awesome light bucket but i soon realised it was not for me. Now there are people who lug around 12" 16" and much much larger telescopes with ladders and I have been fortunate to look through those at star parties and been blown away by the views. However they dont suit my time poor personality i prefer ease and portability.

    My advise is a small compact 5-6" setup with goto. Celestron Evolution or Nexstars come up used marketplace (far to expensive new). Skywatcher Celestron and others also have some other mounts like Az-gti az-gtix stardiscovery etc etc which are quite versatile mounts as in you can exchange the Optic between a small Newtoniang, to a refractor or Mak/Cas (Cats/Catadioptrics). Again this Alt/Az mounts are not great imaging platforms (you can do planetary moon/planets/sun) but deep sky you will need mounts that cane be polar aligned ( a whole other ball game especially as we dont have South Star like North Star to make it easy to align for us).

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