thekwango

coolio - so it's as simple has a that. i was, wrongly it seems, under the impression for the Dob's you'd need a separate mount or a flat levelled table to be able to use them.

thanks, yea i had read that Dobs were often recommended for beginners and i had looked at those but for me transportation would be a pain. Storage not so much. but i live smack bang in the middle of town so light pollution is a nightmare. it's practically daylight 24/7 front and back of my house! so most, if not all my viewing will require bunging everything in the car and driving (don't have to far though) so i had kind of ruled the Dob out. with something like that i assume i'd need to also bring a stable platform to set it on?

ah ok, that's a much better explanation of how a Newtownian works on an EQ mount. i had previously read about the complexities but hadn't fully understood what i was reading. that makes perfect sense. thanks

hello all and apologies for jumping straight in with the questions (that have probably all been asked seventy twelve million times!) i'm looking to take the leap into a bit of casual astrogazing and if i could eventually take a pic or 2 that would be great - i'm not naive enough to expect to be seeing hubble like images and know there's a lot of work involved getting astro images. so a little bit of background fwiw, a few years back i was bought a cheapo brasser telescope as a pressie which let me see the moon in great detail and i was blown away (even considering the limitations of the scope) life however stopped me pursuing the interest further (kids meh...who'd have them ?) but i am starting to get a bit more free time and the oldest is nearly 4 so i'd also like to introduce her to the beauty of the night skies. at this stage i'm looking at the second hand market (i don't want to be one of those people who spends 1000's) then finds they don't have the time or the 'love' wanes. budget wise i've tentatively set it at £200 (i appreciate the limitations this places) but i could extend this for the right scope.......thus far looking on the usual second hand places i've come across the likes of the below; (i'll link to the new items on FLO) but obviously i'm flying blind here and have no idea what i should be looking at. so any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.......please be gentle ? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-150p-eq3-2.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/az-goto/skywatcher-skymax-127-synscan-az-goto.html