Hello everyone! For a bit of context:
I’m not an absolute beginner, I owned an Astromaster 130eq and the Celestron 1.25”eyepiece and filter Kit and I was very happy with the views I got but unfortunately I had to sell my equipment. I have no problem with an EQ mount and actually prefer them over dobsonians or ALTAZ mounts but I’m open to suggestions.
Right now I’m not into astrophotography since my budget is limited at the moment.
I live in Mexico but I’ll be shopping from US websites so international shipping is necessary.
My budget consists of $850-900 USD tops including some eyepieces and shipping.
Since I can’t afford two telescopes for two different purposes, versatility is much appreciated. My old Astromaster wasn’t the best telescope ever but I did check a lot of Messier objects off my viewing list since we have a lot of clear nights per year. I could also get fairly decent views of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and the Moon (the moon filter in the celestron kit helped A LOT).
I’ll be observing mostly from an urban area with low light pollution but I can ocasoionally move to exceptionally low polluted rural areas.
I’m not married with Celestron but I trust them. I own two pairs of Celestron binoculars and they both do the job just fine. I’m open to new brand suggestions.
Having said that, my only option at the moment is a Celestron Omni XLT and the same Celestron eyepiece kit (I remember the big eyepieces were the best from that kit, the ones with low focal length were good enough but not great).
Those two pieces of equipment cost a total of $850, shipping included. Since I’ve only got that much money I don’t want to mess up and buy the Omni XLT and those eyepieces without hearing suggestions and considering more options.
Some people have told me I could get a dobsonian but my main issue is the difficulty to track an object at high magnifications. If you could give me some insight on how that could work, that would be awesome.
Thank you all in advance!
Alfred.