Steve Reed

Thanks for all the replies. I am tempted to go for it. Looks like a fair price for a very lightly used (but quite old) setup and I can always upgrade the mount at a later date. Steve

If they were in stock I would definitely go for this combination. Maybe I just need to be patient!

A dew shield is on the shopping list. Sounds like the supatrak is a bit below par for this OTA. Also, from what I can see there is no easy manual override for finding particular objects as it all needs to be done via the hand control. Steve

I have pretty much decided on getting a Skymax 127 but have yet to decide on the mount. Supply of new OTAs and mounts is difficult at the moment so I am keeping my eye on secondhand items. I have seen a 127 on a Supatrak mount advertised local to me. Does anyone have any experience, good or bad, with this mount for general observing? Cheers Steve

Many thanks for the responses. Lots of food for thought! I think it is probably best to forget astrophotography for now and concentrate on general observing. I guess this means an alt-azimuth goto should suffice. Having done a bit more reading, the Skywatcher Alt-azimuth GTI WiFi looks good for mounting a number of different scopes on to facilitate general viewing. Just a case of deciding which one to go for to get me started. Steve

I am in the market for a first scope and I am going round in circles in making my first purchase. I guess I am after the holy grail in a scope that allows some good observing of planets, the moon and a few DSOs. Some basic astrophotography potential would be good. I keep changing my mind between buying the mount and scope separately or going all in one. Also flip flopping about whether to go refractor or reflector. Budget is probably about £1K - not keen to spend more in case I don't take to the new hobby. I guess whatever I get will be a compromise. This scope caught my eye today Celestron Starsense Explorer DX 6" | First Light Optics. Seems to tick many of my boxes. Does anyone have experience of this relatively new scope and would you recommend it to a starter like me? Thanks in advance. Steve