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Was there a very limited run on the printing of these, they seem rare as hens teeth unless you have a spare ton? Quite keen to get hold of a copy, so wondering if anyone has the inside scoop on if there might be another print run etc. many thanks

ha, there is absolutely no danger of me buying a really nice scope at the moment, not only can i not afford it, but it is more fun learning on something you dont mind getting dinged by kids or chucking in the back of the car. My first nikon binos for wildlife were £140 quid and bring me so much more joy than if i had dropped more money as they come everywhere with me and i'm not precious about them. Anything i buy now will be orders of magnitude better than my 12x36 binos, and as you say its worth putting money into a tripod and some lenses, so budget for scope likely sub £500

@SwiMatt @JOC @Bivanus thank you very much for your comprehensive replies, i've been on an entertaining tour of old threads on the forum. Nudged by your insights, i have now got to the stage that i think a <102mm refractor is probably my answer, as much as i would like a Dob, the grab&go/travel element of them is just too appealing. plenty of thinking to do, will probably start a new thread once i have done some more digging. Very easy to start looking at a nice little reasonably priced 70mm Doublet ED and then find i've persuaded myself that i need a 100mm Tak (that i can't afford!). cheers

So much useful intel on this forum, really enjoying trawling old threads!

do you find the reduced FOV frustrating for star hopping, think i'd struggle with any less, though would be nice to have a bit more reach sometimes?

Your post is a really useful response, thank you very much indeed, and it has given me some food for thought. Given the amount of ambient light, i can totally see what you are saying makes sense. When you say your baby portable scope, did you mean the Vixen 80s? A smaller refractor would certainly take up a lot less space, and given i want the magnification to see the moon/planets, and there is too much light for many DSOs, that might make more sense. The issue then is cost, will need to do some digging on decent smaller refractors.

useful detail, thank you

thanks all!

i know, inclined to agree, even for birding - which is a worryingly expensive precedent!

Thought i'd say hello, been scanning the stars with binos for some years. I used to have a scope when I was little, but it wasn't really any better than binoculars, I've just started doing some digging on buying myself a scope and lo and behond, the internet points me to this forum which is a goldmine of info. With two small humans to look after, the opportunities to sneak out to darker skies are few and far between, so in terms of bang for buck, I have probably settled on an 8 inch dob, but going to let that sit a while as i trawl here fore more info and feedback.

Hours of reading to look forward to on the forum catching up on past topics! Bought a couple of books reccs already, thanks for sharing all the intel

Just want to say thanks for the info, I ended up upgrading my Nikon 10x50 to the Canon 12x36 iii and the difference is incredible. You do lose some FOV, and certainly without IS the 10x50s pick up far more stars, but once you press that IS button it is incredible how much more you can pick up and you notice how much wobble there is even when you think you are rock steady. Slight irritant that the button isn't locking, but if you can stretch the budget definitely recommend.