Ian-H

Thanks Freddie - I may be falling into an old trap of too much choice and not enough knowledge. I know that is where you ‘old hands’ can help, hence the re-evaluation of the mount from eq to alt-az. Telescope wise, am I I’m the right area with a decision for an 80ED for a starter with the ability to go on to AP using that telescope. In fact - don’t answer that, I’ll put all the info up on another thread when the time comes for deciding. Thanks for the welcome and wishes in the meantime!

Thanks to you all for the welcomes and suggestions! I have just ordered ‘Make every photon count’ along with ‘Turn left at Orion’ and will be having my nose in one of these books for the next few weeks (and on here of course)!

Yup! I think you may be right - running, jumping and walking need to be thought about in the right order! I’m going to start crawling soon and take it from there... Thanks for the link, unsurprisingly, I was not aware of this mount/tripod and it is well within budget so will be going onto my list for further research!

Nope - no experience of eq, alt-az or even holding a telescope! I’ve been using my binoculars for a while now and that’s as far as I’ve got! Thank you for your suggestion on the alt-az and as you, and another, have both said the same thing, I will definitely re-think my strategy... there is a reason you guys have said it, so it’d be stupid of me to think I know better... 😊

I’m learning something new every time I look at this forum! A lot to take in and many new abbreviations to work out, it’s great when’s I see something I understand! In the meantime, I’ll be using Google a lot to work stuff out. Thanks for the welcome!

Thanks for the welcome, I’m feeling at home already!

Hi from Sussex. Thanks to all who contribute to this fantastic site, I am slowly getting to grips with what I need to start my journey. I thought it best to start on here before I make a purchase, but currently have in mind an 80ED refractor on an EQ mount poss eq6 or similar, but with the potential to GoTo at a later stage (as I want to find my way around the old way first) with a tripod to support the lot, with the aim of occasional AP (but hopefully more of it as I progress) - that’s the first time I’ve written ‘AP’, makes me sound as if I know what’s aim talking about... I don’t... yet! Am I ok to lurk for a while and chip in when I need some advice?