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I very much agree with our fellow's opinion. The Star Sense range from Celestron is an excellent option to get started, although in my case I would reject the 127mm reflector model. It is an innovative "push to" system that is not based on the gyroscope and accelerometer of your smartphone, nor on encoders installed on the mount, but rather uses the cell phone camera to take images and resolve them in specific software previously installed. The support has a simple mirror whose reflection coincides with the mobile camera. With a few small controls, the correct centering is achieved so that what is displayed in the center of the smartphone camera screen coincides with the optical axis of the telescope. From then on, it becomes a plate solver and is able to orient itself quite precisely in the night sky to guide you in the search for any celestial object, particularly faint objects that you would otherwise spend a lot of time trying to locate with the classic "star jumping" method. Although it usually requires good observing conditions, with clouds or the glare of the full Moon it may fail by not obtaining the necessary references. Almost two years ago I purchase a 70mm refractor as a gift for a beginner. Before delivering it, I wanted to test both the optical tube and the Star Sense system, and both passed the test with flying colors. I was even surprised by the good optical quality of the lens, which I think makes this tube a great bang for the buck. The stars were very sharpened (it arrived in a perfect collimation status) and, although chromatic aberration was present, it didn't bother me at all (CA ratio = 3.63). The focuser, despite its simplicity (the typical linear r&p), it worked fine. The two eyepieces that came in the pack are basic but correct (I think they are a modified achromatic design, MA), the 2x Barlow is better to change as soon as possible. I added a 6mm Plössl eyepiece to the pack to better complete the magnification range. The mount and tripod were basic, made of very light aluminum, so I devised a device to suspend a weight of at least 2-3 kg from the center of the eyepiece tray, which gave greater stability to the setup. Precisely its lightness makes it a good grab and go. As Second Time Around explains, the 80mm is tempting, 1cm more aperture for little more money, but you have to consider that there are 20cm more focal length and more weight in the same mount, therefore more lever arm and greater instability... Perhaps the most reasonable option would be to jump to the 102mm, which is already mounted on a seemingly more solid support, but the cost already exceeds, I'm afraid, your budget. Since the ability of the telescope to take images is important to you, I attach some photos and videos of the Moon and Sun that I took in my tests. They were taken with a Galaxy S20FE and a Celestron NexYZ smartphone adapter. Solar photos, of course, with the corresponding Baader Solar Safety film. In this case, I didn't do the test with planets, but I still think it would be perfectly possible to take short videos as they travel through the field of view, and even also images of some bright DSOs using low-light photography applications. 20221106_234640.mp4 20221106_235453.mp4

It will be another big loss to UK AP if you decide to quit Steve. There is remote imaging of course, but I think you need to have a certain mindset to enjoy that approach, I’m not sure I have it…

Of course John 😀. I only had the Binos out tonight but the Moon did look very good. Many of the larger craters really stood out. Cheers  Ian

I might pop down. I am only 30mins away.  Cheers  Ian

A quick session between passing clouds. Copernicus with a tight crop to give a closeup view. Skywatcher 300P Flextube goto,  asi462mm, IR pass 685nm, 2.5x TV powermate.