Redmike

Thank you for the info. I won't be far away from microglobe so I will pay them a visit

I'm in London for a few days next month and wondered if anyone can recommend a shop that would have some telescopes on the shop floor so I can check them out. I sure there's nothing right in the centre but is there anything within the tube zone that would be worth a visit?

Based on budget and not wanting to get in AP just yet I think I will go with the 150pds leaving me with approx £200 for the AZ4 then upgrade to EQ if and when needed for AP. Thank you to those who contributed to this thread. Clear skies.

Will do 👍

Thank you all for the replies. so I wasn't being stupid and it seems to be a good idea that nobody has actually put in a production as a standalone purchase, pardon the pun. I'm looking at a mount for a SW explorer 150 and FLO offer this scope with an AZ4 or an EQ3-2 mount and I'm torn between which one or buy the OTA separately and choose another mount but my budget is £500 and that will take up half of it hence my initial reference to the combined starquest 130 mount. I'm not into AP (yet)so AZ is the sensible option for now anyway I guess !!

Whilst researching what scope to buy I noticed a view sites stating that the SW starquest 130p has a EQ mount which can also be used in alt az mode. Am I missing something here? isn't this a great idea and if not why not. Is the mount available separately?

Hi all, newbie here from UK. I have a small dob but rather than go bigger (6") as many people have recommended I'm leaning towards a reflector /tripod combo, partially for portability and storage and also the option to upgrade individual items should I want to at a later date. I'm drawn towards the SW Explorer 130 (OTA or eq2) or SW explorer 150 (OTA eq3-2 or AZ4) or the SW starquest 130 (EQ/alt mount) and have a few questions. 1) the two 130's are very similar in price and similar specs so what is the difference and with just naked eye viewing, what difference could I expect to see between them? 2) is the explorer 150 worth an extra £200 to the 130 explorer in terms of what I can see? 3) How does the p version differ from the pds version in terms of operation and view quality? 4) Ive looked at buying as a combo and buying as a separate OTA and tripod and I know they are available with EQ and alt az mounts and I know the difference between the mounts but does anyone know which is more stable, the combined EQ alt az of the starquest 130, the EQ of the explorer 130 or the eq3-2 of the 150? 5) if I did buy any of them just as an OTA, what tripod would you recommend? Budget would only be £200 - £300 depending on which scope I purchased. I know that mount is the most important thing in a lot of people's mind but difficult to do with such a small budget. INFO My budget is sub £500 and astrophotography is not of great importance, certainly not to the level of some pictures I see on her but I would like to image what I can see in the view and maybe just do some basic tracking & editing etc as I don't think I have the time or patience to take 100's of shots at 30 seconds then sit in front of a pc and stack and edit ( or whatever the technical term is). I do have a DSLR which I would like to use but as I say above it's not the most important thing to me. What do I want to see? As much as I can 😊 If you have read this far then thank you. If you can offer constructive comments and advice then thank you even more 👍