Sky watcher 8 inch dobsonian - Sky Watcher 8in. Flextube 200P Collapsible Dobsonian Telescope S11700

I bought this Sky Watcher 8 inch Dobsonian Telescope as an upgrade to my first real telescope, a Celestron 130 EQMD Astromaster. The 8 inch dobsonian is a significant upgrade with respect to the views you will get on deep space objects, and the resolution at high magnification on planets. My 130EQ Astromaster would really never provide great resolution about 200X, but I found with proper collimation, I get good resolution at 400X on this Dobsonian. I was also able to see the Ring nebulae on the first night out (I have found it before so I knew where to look), and I could actually tell it was the ring nebulae. On the Astromaster it was just a blur. I also saw the Orion Nebulae like never before. I could see the Cassini division of the rings on Saturn on my first night. I could never see this on the Astromaster. The Dobsonian mount is also very easy to use and rock solid. Yes, it doesn't track, but the 130Eq mount is so sensitive to the least vibration, it makes viewing of the planets difficult. The fact that it doesn't track is not really that much of an issue. With the wide field of view you can still focus and view your object at higher magnification. I had purchased Celestron Xcel eyepieves for my Astromaster (trying to get everything out of it that I could) and they work great on the Sky Master. I have not yet tried 2 inch eyepieces, it can only get better with those. Lastly, I would say for the price, it's hard to beat. 1200 mm focal length for $400. Be prepared to collimate. Celestron makes a collimation tool which works OK, there are probably better tools out there.
Pros: Price, quality, portability (per apperature)
Cons: collimation

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.