rdb22

Yes, that’s the one I’m looking at. Is the tripod better? It’s aluminium and I’d assumed it was a weak point that could use an upgrade.

Thanks for your input - particularly in pointing out the other brands. As a beginner it’s difficult to see beyond Celestron, Meade and skywatcher. I think in this case the economics make my mind up for me - the extra cost of the bresser plus the mount and tripod separately just doesn’t stack up against the SW package and the difference would cover a couple of eyepieces I think. So I think it’ll have to be the 127 mak package to start and then pick up a refractor once funds have recovered a bit. re: the trees, I have a good 90 degree arc to the north which is clear but very little view to the east. Hopefully I should still be able to align ok. The tree are all under protection orders unfortunately, otherwise I’d have another thread running asking which chainsaw I should buy! thanks again.

Hi there, I'm hoping to buy my first telescope shortly. I have some sizeable trees in my garden so portability will be important, and I'm a lazy so-and-so, so I'm set on a goto mount - the SW az gti. I understand that no scope can do it all and given that I'd like to see a bit of everything, I guess this will mean that I'll end up with two scopes at some point. My question is, at this time of year am I likely to be better off observing planets or DSO's? If planets, then I'm likely to buy the SW 127 Mak which seems to get good reviews and which comes in a package with the mount I want and so saves a few quid. However, if needs be I can buy the mount separately, stick something else better suited to DSO's on it and defer the 127 until later. Would a startravel 102 or 120 be a good bet? If it's useful info, I've no particular preference between planets and DSO's and I'm not really bothered about astrophotography - just want to see some interesting things with minimal faffing. Many thanks, Richard