Hi all. I want to get into visual astronomy and astrophotography. I had a telescope when I was a kid and loved it. I was this close (my index finger and thumb are about 1/2 inch apart) to buying a nice telescope, and then I had kids and that was that. It's now 30 years later, and I want to get back into it. The bad news is that I'm too old to make this a lifelong pursuit. The good news is that I can afford much more than I could when I was younger.
I'm primarily interested in deep sky objects, but I also would like my equipment to be capable of solar system astronomy as well.
I have some constraints...I won't buy anything made in China, and I prefer to buy things made in USA. From all I'm reading, a good quality refractor is the way to go, along with a really good equitorial mount. For example, I am considering the following setup:
https://www.stellarvue.com/svx102t/
http://www.losmandy.com/gm811g.html
I realize there's a lot more to it than jsut the telescope and mount. But let's just focus on these for now. And as I said in the title of this post, I want a setup that I can grow into, as opposed to something I'll outgrow in a few short years.
If you all had about $6-7K to spend on a telescope and mount, what would you do?
Thanks much!
Mike (in the Boston area)