Nebulas look sharp and colorful. You don’t realize how colorful nebulas truly are until you get a great look at them with a telescope like this. Distant galaxies have defined arms and structures to admire. The farther you peer into dark skies and deep space, the more stars that appear from farther and farther distances. For anyone who has a love for the farther reaches of space, this telescope has the chops to reveal them. In these 10 months or so I’ve seen dozens of galaxies and planetary nebulae, along with hundreds of open and globular clusters, as well as ‘resolving’ many, many double stars. Factors such as aperture, atmospheric conditions, and the quality of the optics are important. Limiting stellar magnitude The 9x magnification also makes it easier to see faint objects that may be difficult to see with the naked eye.

For imaging you want to get at least ED refractor or APO triplet. Regular doublet refractors (without ED elements) suffer from chromatic aberration - making stars bloated in images and having purple halo around bright stars. It is very hard to find imaging refractor in 300euro price range because of this. For those interested in astrophotography, a more advanced mount and telescope combination may be necessary.The StellaLyra 8”/ Zhumell Z8/Orion SkyLine 8 offers a significantly improved 2” dual-speed Crayford focuser with a compression ring, a more comfortable right-angle correct image 9×50 finder, a built-in cooling fan, slightly better bearings that can be adjusted for balance, and a 2” low-power, wide-angle 30mm eyepiece instead of a 1.25” 25mm Plossl or wide-angle design.

With the Sky-Watcher 200P’s large aperture, you can observe galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters in great detail.The globular started out as a mass of cotton wool, which became a swarm of stars at higher magnification with a hint of the dark propeller shape many observers comment on seeing with larger instruments. The Sky-Watcher Explorer-200P is quite striking with its blue tube, EQ5 mount and sturdy tripod with stainless steel tubular legs.

The scope is heavy and a little bulky - but still very manageable. It really is in the sweet spot where size and aperture are just right. Comes with a set of accessories, including a 2-inch 28mm eyepiece, 10mm and 25mm Plossl eyepieces, and a 9×50 finderscope. The image quality and light gathering ability is bolstered by mirrors which have been highly polished to be 94% reflective. This level of near-perfection is not present in every reflector telescope. This is fitting since the founder of Sky Watcher was allegedly a polishing technician at the lab where he hatched the idea for these telescopes. His past expertise shines through in the polish on the mirrors found here. Large aperture parabolic mirror for serious deep sky astronomy, the only way to see fainter objects is light grasp - these popular, affordable and easy to use telescopes are the best way to see galaxies and nebulae. Large apertures not only give great deep sky views but also have more resolving power than smaller instruments, that means more detail visible on the planets. The mount has manual slow-motion controls that allow you to make fine adjustments to the telescope’s position.

The Tension Control System allows you to adjust the friction setting; to increase or reduce the amount of resistance when moving the tube on the wooden mount, so you always have the appropriate resistance. The secret of the design is to correctly balance the optical tube with the specially designed handles (found on the base) and this adds enough friction and tension to allow the tube to move easily when nudged or to stay solidly in position. The 9×50 finderscope is a small telescope mounted on top of the main telescope tube that helps you locate objects. It provides a wider field of view than the main telescope, making it easier to locate objects. This is what it will look like in image (extreme example - in your case it certainly won't blur as much, this is just to get idea what this aberration really is all about ?

On the side of the tube is the finder scope, this is a relatively cheap and cheerful telescope in its own right, with a very wide angle field of view and a cross hair inside. This caters for extremely fast locating of the celestial object you are trying to observe, so long as it is visible to the naked eye. For deep space objects which cannot be seen, a goto computerized system is required (see HEQ5), because if you can’t see an object (a galaxy for instance) due to either its distance or light pollution (or both) – then you cannot visually point the Skywatcher 200p in the right direction! Main purpose of reducer / field flattener in case of 72ED is not reduction - it is field flattening. If you direct the telescope towards the planets, such as Jupiter, you will see a small ball with some colour. For example on a clear night with good seeing (this is the term used to describe atmospheric conditions which can sometimes distort the view) you will see two bands on the planet Jupiter, and very clearly be able to see four of the moons depending on their current orbital position. A photograph which includes both the planet’s clouds (or bands) and the moons at the same time is difficult to attain, the reason being that the exposure required to capture the clouds is much lower than that required to capture the moons, as they are so much dimmer than the planet itself as it reflects the suns rays. So one (high around 800) ISO setting is required for the moons, whereas another (low ISO 400) is required for Jupiter. The effect is as follows :- The tension control handle is designed to allow for smooth and easy movement of the telescope while also providing a level of resistance to keep the telescope steady and prevent it from drifting when focusing on a celestial object. Great choiceHaving now used the scope here in rural Dorset, I am delighted; observing the Cassiopeia region was a revelation – the M52 open cluster was absolutely stunning. The light gulping capacity of this scope will definitely out weigh the benefits of a smaller mirrored motorised systems at the same price. (23/03/2017) Kevin Davis - North Dorset

Pros

On topic of refractor vs reflector for imaging and aperture size, things are not as simple. I can try to briefly explain some aspects to help you decide but topic is complex one and you might want to research further (or ask additional questions). The finder scope is equipped with crosshairs that help you center objects in the eyepiece for easier observation. Sky-Watcher 200P optical performance The first night out there wasn't a cloud in sight.Looking up with just my eyes I was eager to see what this scope would find. The Sky-Watcher 200P telescope has a magnification range of 40x to 400x, which is quite impressive. However, it’s important to keep in mind that magnification isn’t everything when it comes to observing celestial objects.