Hello all - and thank you for having this forum!
I'm about to invest £200+ in my first ever telescope. I'm hoping to look at planets mostly, and while I might try and take photos, I've got no illusions that I can improve on what others are already doing! I live in London, and plan to mostly use this in Cornwall, where I visit a couple of times a year.
I seem to be settling on a Skywatcher Explorer 130P.... at least I was, until I noticed that there is a Skywatcher StarQuest, which costs almost exactly the same amount, and seems to have the same parabolic mirror.
The StarQuest is described as a "grab and go" telescope, and it seems to have a much simpler looking mount, but without some of the knobs (slow-motion adjusters?). It also seems to be quite new, so I haven't seen reviews of it.
Are there reasons to prefer the StarQuest?
Peter Judge