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Depends on what they want to observe. You'll struggle immensely to see any hint of DSO targets in a light pollution environment. Solar system, star clusters, double stars etc no problem. Usually a good planetary scope and a general browsing the sky scope are two different pieces of equipment hence the first sentence.

And today the FLO delivery for me seems to be the rain resistant packing - just in case. A new SW wedge to try out EQ mode on my Seestar & Dwarf smart scopes (weather permitting).

Similar scopes would be the Sharpstar 61 but it's a triplet so will be a bit heavier and take a bit longer to acclimatise, Skywatcher Evolux 62 and Stellalyra 66, all differing qualities.

Well your amazing image made me have another go at post processing mine, but for limited gear I need more total integration time, though I am getting hints of the nebuluoslity, nothing like your striking image. As Orion (my reason for trying this simple, uncomplicated and not at all frustrating hobby) is too low now and my fov seems a bit small for the few reflection nebulas still visible, I'll just have to stick with galaxies. Except Andromeda which is also too low now and would fill my fov perfectly. M101 and possibly m51 are maybe big enough so I might try some long multi night projects on them. Also smilie face in markarians chain and wait for November for Orion to return. By then, I want to have try mosaics and get all of Mr Orion from Betelgeuse all the way down to er whatever the bottom right star is lol. Flame, horsehead (maybe not sure without it) running man everything. Good enough for an a2 print. Just for me. I'm also very interested in suggestions for other targets I can get with my gear that I might not know of. I tried looking for where I updated my signature but can't find it again lol. My quote is better anyhow

That's 150mm F/8 newtonian right? Aluminum has about thermal expansion of about 22um per meter Celsius. You have about a 1.2 meters, so you get something like 26um of expansion for every C. F/8 system has critical focus zone of about 156um, so you should be good for about 3C change in temperature (give or take - it might be even a bit more, depending where you landed with original focus). Slower scopes are harder to get knocked out of focus due to temperature change because critical focus zone grows as square of F/ratio. Btw, Coma free zone of F/8 newtonian is about 5.7mm radius, so 11.4mm diameter circle. That is shy of 16mm diagonal of ASI533, but you'll likely not notice much coma to the edge of the sensor as it is very small at that F/ratio.

You want a proper focuser when doing visual, the GS won't be of any use. The equivalent will be the Zenithstar which I've got, it's an excellent scope. The weights aren't quite accurate, if you add the additional rings etc the whole thing will be closer to 3Kg. Is there a reason the scope needs to be so light (mount?), as it's very restrictive.

The ZWO Seestar S50 is new and interesting and worth considering if your son is OK with, and will enjoy, looking at things on a screen. There’s a general assumption that the younger generation all love tech. My 12 yr old daughter is well into mobiles, tablets and social media etc, but she’s not interested in something like the Seestar. She wants to observe through an eyepiece. Not sure on your transport. The Dobs that you listed are all surprisingly big. We have an Skywatcher 200p and with the back seats down it just fits into our car. Of course that means that only two of us can travel with the telescope. If you are in a light polluted area you might find that anything larger than a 200mm doesn’t give you much of an advantage for DSO - beyond that point it can just magnify the light pollution. The planets and the moon are a different matter as they are bright, so light pollution isn’t such an issue.

Thanks Vlaiv. I'm tempted to take a chance on the Bresser. I have a 10% off voucher, and it won't need a coma corrector. Might make a good lunar/planet/galaxy scope with my existing set up. It's a long aluminium tube so focus might change a bit over the course of an evening..

Welcome JP You have landed in the right place. Best Astronomy forum on the net, lots of different sections to help you on your journey. If you can get the family hooked, that’s Galveston the journey. Manual for that mode is Here

Point is faster system with 150 F/8. Both setups will have roughly the same pixel scale 1.4"/px vs 1.3"/px - but 150mm will have much more light gathering surface over 90mm. That and, if both scopes are of decent optical quality - 150mm will produce ever so slightly sharper image.

Can I bin a 533MM Pro? Mono camera, 3000 x 3000 pixels at bin 1, so 2x2 bin would bring this down to 1500x1500? With a 150mm F8 newtonian the pixel scale would be around 1.3"/px With my 90mm f6 I can get 1.4 "/px, so presumably not a lot of point in binning to use the f8 newt at 1200mm?

One little scope comes to mind, that’s the Skywatcher Evoguide ED50, very light and good FPL53 glass, with an optional flattener if needed, it’s an non rotating helical focuser, but it’s used a lot for imaging too, but in your case you only want for visual so no need for the flattener. I think a scope with a traditional focuser will always be in the realms of 1.5 ish KG…just my thoughts for an ultra lightweight little scope.

No flat frames taken for this, nope. If I understand the cause of the ring I can understand how to remedy it, but at the moment I'm not sure. This cam has been used many times on my smaller rig from the garden and I've always managed to produce something decent even without flats. I guess the only thing to do is try things and see what happens.

Have to say Nina (and phd2) is amazing. it does everything except taking lens caps on/off and physically adjusting the alt/az bolts

I'd like a recommendation for a travel telescope which has nicer optics than my £50 f5 achro, weighs no more than 1.5kg and costs in the range of ~£250-300. Visual only. Does it exist? I was staying in the mountains in Turkey last week. Trying to keep the backpack light I only took my Celestron Travelscope 70 on a photo tripod. The total weight of the equipment was 3.7kg: Telescop: 800g Spica Mount: 900g Carbon photo tripod: 2kg The little Celestron has been upgraded to a nice diagonal, decent eyepieces and extra long dew shield. It's a decent scope and an incredible value for money but the optics are still quite basic. I'd like something a little nicer to take hiking. My Heritage 150 is much better but it's a bit too heavy and bulky for this purpose. I've shortlisted so far: Heritage 100 - much smaller than my 150. Could it better than the Celestron? I think so, although the focuser sticks out a bit, which is not ideal for the backpack William Optics GuideStar 61 APO with FPL 53 glass - with a discount it now costs £269 but it doesn't have a proper focuser. Not sure how frustrating it would be to use for visual. The SVBony 70 and SW72 ED are very nice but a little too heavy. Are there other options?

A proper telescope. Nice! Excellent m51. The aperture makes it a lot easier, but did you take flat frames? They're not really optional and you'll find it much easier to process. Cheers.

First thing I would advise is look at the zwo see star 50 and some of the images taken with it. It might be a good option,it's so easy to use and find lots of DSO.

A proper telescope. Nice! Nice m51. It's easy with all that aperture, but did you take flat frames? They're not really optional and you'll find it much easier to process. Cheers.

Cheers. Nice to get feedback.

The Hyperion is a lot less then £200, about £110-120 new. The Morpheus is about £220, were you thinking of that?

Would you believe I had a nagler zoom, sold it! Damn damn.... Unless I find another in a lucky bag, it's the svbony for now. Chaz

Hello @tico Going from 80mm to 100mm is a good jump in performance 👍 If I did not already have a 4” Takahashi I would buy that Vixen 103Swt in the for sale section.

Don't underestimate the size of the telescope, all the ones you have listed are fairly large and will take up a fair bit of space both in storage and transport. Obviously I don't know your circumstances, so it might not be an issue, especially if you have a garage or shed for storage, but just something to consider. I think any of those scopes would give great views, and especially if you can get to a dark site.

..and there is a fantastic Vixen ED103swt apo refractor on the for sale forums right now! Right up there with Takahashi and a bargain at under £700.. Dave

Thanks for the welcome and the great advice. I'll take the next opportunity to collimate in the daytime, outisde and wait for a clear night and let you know how I get on. Glad I didn't actually spend any money on this particular telescope (which is a Seben Big Boss 150/1400 6" bird-jones style) but I think it's going to be perfect for a newbie.