Scopes question

Hi,

Firstly I'd just like to say : "Newbie alert!!" before anyone is _too_ brusque
about my almost total ignorance :-) Also my intended use is general including
deep sky, planetary and photography.


I'm thinking of buying a scope and have been looking around. ISTM that
Dobsonians give better value for money and I've come across several :

1. SKYLINER-250PX £455.00
available at, eg
http://www.livingstonetelescopes.co.uk/S-W%20SKYLINER-250PX%20COM.htm
is a 10" F4.72 (according to my sums, 5.91 in their advert, has Pyrex mirror

2. Unnamed 10" Dobsonian £396.12
at
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/10-Dobson-Teleskop-Super-Comfortausstattung_W0QQitemZ7617142526QQcategoryZ3 2942QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting
BK7 mirror, has an optional lens pack that I'm interested in peoples opinion of
? Does anyone know what make of scope this is and is it any good ?

3. Revelation 12" Dobsonian £449
at eg
http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk/page.aspx?pointerid=45A5E15DCB2C44A39F27ECCB579BE9 0E&thelang=001lngdef
They also do a set of Revelation lenses at a higher price (£180) are these any
good ? Has a BK7 mirror.
There's a review of this at
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robin.scagell/reviews/Revelation12.html which
mentions a minor astigmatism problem but other reviews praise the optics for
this telescope, eg
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/501257/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/all/vc/1
and http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/408271

The spec for the optics is 1/12th wavelength according to the first link,
surely if they're that good there shouldn't be any astigmatism visible atall ?

4. Smaller 8" Unnamed Dobsons
eg :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Telescope-Dobsonian-8-200-1200mm-TOP-OFFER_W0QQitemZ7616372009QQcategoryZ3636QQcmdZView Item


Twon non-Dobsonians I'm looking at are :

5. Seben 8" Newtonian (£150 ish)
at eg
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7615397719&ru=http%3A% 2F%2Fsearch.ebay.co.uk%3A80%2Fsearch%2Fsearch.dll% 3Ffrom%3DR40%26satitle%3D7615397719%26fvi%3D1
seems to come with lots of accs and is half the price.

6. EXPLORER-250PX (EQ6+2") (10" Newtonian) £849.00
at eg
http://www.livingstonetelescopes.co.uk/S-W%20EXPLORER-250PX%20EQ6%20COM.htm
Comes with an EQ6 mount with dual motor drives and an SLR camera adaptor (would
hopefully take my EOS 350D. Also has Pyrex mirror.


The one I fancy is the Revelation 12". Mainly because of the extra aperture,
but also because of the good reviews. The thing that make me think twiceis the
fact that it is a Dobsonian and so, from what I've read, photography is likely
to be difficult and also high-mag viewing (like planets). Are these two issues
real or am I confused ? I do want to do photography and also obviously look at
the planets as well.

I asked Telescope House about buying a mount for the Rev 12 at a later date and
they said "It is not cost effective to mount this instrument equatoriallyas it
is very long and would require at least an EQ6 (NOT IDEAL) at £699." Isthis the
right price for an EQ6 ? Are there cheaper equatorial mounts available that
might be suitable, at that price it's almost worth buying the EXPLORER-250PX
and selling the tube but I don't know if the Revelation 12 is enough better than
the Explorer for that to be worth while ?

An alternative would be to make an equatorial mount myself like the one that
is/was described at Chris Heapy's website. I'm going to post about this in a
separate thread, suffice to say here that it's a big job although I do have the
equipment available.


So any comments about what is better value and/or better equipment are very
welcome. The £850 of the Explorer 250 is more than I'd really prefer to spend
but obviously the mount is worth having for photographic purposes. The extra
apperture of the Rev 12 looks nice. Having read around, the Seben si probably
not worth getting, the others I don't really have any strong feelings about.

All the scopes will fit into my car boot and astronomy for me will alwaysbe a
car journey away : Light Pollution in central Brighton is beyond a joke :-(

So, thanks in advance chaps,

--
Boo

Boo wrote:
....

The one I fancy is the Revelation 12". Mainly because of the extra aperture,
but also because of the good reviews. The thing that make me think twice is the
fact that it is a Dobsonian and so, from what I've read, photography is likely
to be difficult and also high-mag viewing (like planets). Are these two issues
real or am I confused ? I do want to do photography and also obviously look at
the planets as well.

Dobsonian and astrophotography don't usually go together but if you buy
an equatorial platform you can do short (up to 30') exposures in one go
(before resetting the platform). As for planets it all depends on the
quality of the sky and that of your equipment, regardless of what type
of telescope you have.

Andrea T.