Rank Category: Telescopes in the £1500 range
Spending over £1500 opens up the possibility of either a more compactible 12” truss/collapsable Dobsonian or a GoTo scope of fairly large aperture and high quality. A 12” truss or 10” GoTo is a little more complicated to start out with but offers excellent performance for those willing to spend, and a 6” Schmidt-Cassegrain on a GoTo mount can be a great choice too for some.
StellaLyra 16″ f/4.5 Dobsonian
The StellaLyra 16″ f/4.5 Dobsonian, made by GSO, is considerably more compact and affordable than most other telescopes of this size. It features the same bearings, accessories, focuser, and base design as the smaller StellaLyra Dobsonians, but its tube is an easy-to-assemble 6-pole truss. This telescope is a monster, but it’s still easier to move around than the Sky-Watcher FlexTube scopes and at a price that can’t be beat.
The Sky-Watcher Skyliner 350P FlexTube is significantly more compact than a solid-tubed instrument of this size without the complexity of a full truss tube – though it’s still quite heavy and bulky. The 14″ (350mm) primary mirror gathers plenty of light for fantastic views of deep-sky objects.
Rank Category: Telescopes in the £2000-£3000 range
Various GoTo 8” Schmidt-Cassegrains and other telescopes offering astrophotography capabilities and usually computers in some form take the lead at this price range. However, remember that a 12” can be a lot to handle even in a truss tube, while astrophotography typically is better with a separately purchased mount/OTA and a much higher budget.
The GoTo version of the Sky-Watcher Skyliner 350P FlexTube can still be aimed manually thanks to its FreedomFind encoder system, while the addition of GoTo and motorised tracking saves you plenty of time in locating and maintaining your aim at targets. However, it is quite a bit heavier than the manual version of this telescope.
Skywatcher Skyliner 400P FlexTube GoTo
The Sky-Watcher Skyliner 400P FlexTube is already a nightmare to move around, and the added weight of GoTo electronics doesn’t help things. However, if you can find a way to conveniently store and set up this beast, the views at the eyepiece are extremely rewarding, and you of course get all the perks of tracking and GoTo and still have manual aiming as an option thanks to the FreedomFind encoders.