webmonkeyuk

Appreciate the help and advice from everyone 👍. It's something I will research and read up more about before I jump into anything. I actually got myself up into the loft and found my old telescope which I thought I'd got rid of ages ago lol It's a Skywatcher Explorer 130p. Now I've been unable to find the eyepieces yet but will continue looking, so I'm thinking I could probably get more use out of this than buying something else that doesn't fit what I'm after. So what sort of eyepieces should I look for and what are the best quality, I've found the tripod and motor but I think I'd just use it manually and I'm thinking maybe download a good Night sky app and track planets and stars using that. No point spending hundreds on a telescope that wouldn't actually suit my needs. If anyone could recommend some eyepieces I'd be very grateful and once again thanks for the suggestions 🙏

Oh wow thanks for the help everyone, the main reason for wanting a GOTO system or equivalent was I thought it would just be easier to find the planets and other objects but it sounds like having to align them might be past my skills lol. And I hadn't factored in the power part as I thought they maybe have built in power packs or batteries. Id realised that my budget would probably be a big limiting factor and been a novice I didn't really want to spend loads but I guess to get anything decent you would have to. I'm not familiar with the push to systems or the Skywatcher syncscan ones, do these have to be linked to a smartphone or tablet? I was having a quick look at some of those but wasn't sure about them. I did say I'd be taking it camping but I'd be in the motorhome so I guess the power issue wouldn't be such a problem ☺️ Thanks for all the help and suggestions, I think maybe some research is needed to see if anything fits what I'm after

Hi all I just joined and am looking for a little advice on buying a telescope. I'm looking for something between £300-500 as a starter scope, but I'd like something motorised but not sure what to go for. I'm not sure which is the best system and have only heard of the GO-TO one, many years ago I had a Skywatcher Explore 130 I think it was 🤔 it did have a motorised mount but I could never get it set up right 😬 so I'd like something where you just press on the keypad and it automatically goes to that planet. I regularly go camping so something that would be relevantly easy to carry would be good and I'm just looking for something that would perform in general stargazing and planet observation. I know for that price range it's probably not going to be spectacular and you would probably struggle to see deep sky or galaxy stuff but I'd be more than happy observing some of the planets. Id appreciate any suggestions or tips on which scopes could suit my needs. Thanks kindly Jonathan