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I would pick a small refractor on an alt azimuth mount, to make the experience as simple and enjoyable as possible for the kid.

What about the Heritage 150p? The specs say the scope is 7.5kg, a couple of pounds heavier than the 130p but not sure how much of that is the wooden mount that comes with it.

For deep sky objects, you need as much aperture as you can. You can see the Orion nebula even with the naked eye so yes your 70mm scope would see it, though it wont look like a Hubble image of course. Perhaps something like the Skywatcher Heritage 130p would be good general scope for you.

70mm is a bit small for Mars. You seem to be mainly interested in planets, so perhaps a Maksutov or larger refractor is in your future. 90mm is personally the smallest scope I would aim at a planet, in either a Mak or a refractor. With reflectors in the cheaper price range you need to be careful that you don't buy a Bird Jones type reflector, which tend to be of questionable quality. With a reflector you need a bigger aperture scope, say 130mm.

Would the OTA of the Skywatcher Heritage 130P work ok with this mount, or would the tube be a little too long?

I saw the GTI mount, but I know that the Celestron wifi go-to mount with WiFi has had complaints of the WiFi signal being too weak. Any such problems with the skywatcher gti mount?

I recently moved back to Ireland, having been in the USA a long time, and I had to leave my 8 inch Dob behind. What i did bring was two OTA, a 80 mm Orion Goscope refractor, and an Explore Scientific 100mm Mak. Now i do has a basic alt az mount for these but i have a longing for a very basic GoTo system like the iOptron cube-e. Would that work ok? P.S. sorry if this shouldnt be a beginner question

Is a Mak on a Goto mount kind of a waste, since it is best on planets, not hard to find DSOs? edit: The type of scope I want next, if any depends on how my new camera will work on my Dob; if I can get planetary images that are acceptable to me, then I may not need a new scope, and if I don't then... well that is the reason I post on here about telescopes If the Dob works I might be content with an ETX 80 to learn where the DSOs are, then aim the Dob at the target.

I may as well tell you the refractor I was interested in, its the Explore Scientific AR102 https://explorescientificusa.com/collections/firstlight/products/fl-ar1021000eq3

I either read here or on CN, that a 102mm long refractor was roughly equal to a 127mm Mak. Is this true, and if it is true, is it based on a average quality refractor, or one that costs thousands of dollars? Does Mak have an advantage over a refractor other than the Maks small physical size?

EQ (equatorial) mounts are hard for a beginner to work with; they require you knowing your latitude on the Globe etc. The focusing knob should be beside where you put in your eyepieces. Start with the eyepiece with the highest number in millimeters on it (your 20mm), it is your lowest magnification eyepiece, then focus it on an object using the knobs. Also you may need to adjust your finder scope/ red dot finder so what the finder shows you pointing to, actually shows up in your eyepiece.

Top row, left to right: UHC filter, a red and blue filters, Celestron 9mm Kellner eyepiece, Orion 2x shorty barlow, Celestron 25mm SMA eyepiece. Middle, left to right: Celestron 10mm SMA eyepiece, a moon filter. Bottom, left to right: Agena 7mm-21mm zoom eyepiece, Celestron omni 32mm plossl eyepiece, box of 4 Orion color filters,Orion Sirus 25mm Plossl eyepiece and a small credit card shaped red light flashlight.

My picture is a little boring, but it is of my 8 inch Dob. Note the high tech "counter weight" I use on my scope, it's a steel wrench stuck on with magnets.

I have a wide field 80mm refractor I suspect I could use on the Virtuoso mount also, if I wanted a less narrow view. I also have a tripod I hope I would be able to use with it.

I am not getting a new scope right now, but the idea of what I need is starting to crystallize in my brain. I need this 90 Virtuoso and I need a ZWO ASI120MC-S camera, but as a future purchase.

I was wondering about the capabilities of the mount along with the little Mak telescope.