aeneas

Hi all, we've been enjoying watching moon and planets with our poor old Astromaster 130EQ for years now with kids and they have been begging to upgrade at some point to a serious telescope - maybe even a home observatory. With Mars promising some nice views in October I'm thinking of taking the plunge. We have a decent suburban location with relatively dark nights... I would only occasionally take the telescope out to the mountains for a weekend of stargazing, but mainly it would stay fixed at home, so transportation is not that critical. I would almost certainly go for a 11" scope or possibly a 9.25" one. I have a good relationship with a local distributor for Celestron, so can get good price on their scopes. But Celestron has so many different models, costings and mounts that I get lost in options. Furthermore, after seeing their 60-anniversary rerlease of Nexstar Evolution 8 HD with built-in StarSense, I wonder if they may soon be updating with newer tech also some of the other larger models? Their EdgeHG 11" models seem to have been out there on the market for quite a while so if they get updated in the next year or so with more connected tech that would be quite a bummer not to wait till then. Does anyone of you know if there are any such plans by Celestron in the near future? So, with that said, what would you recommend as my best option? Priorities as follows: - 11" preferred, but would consider 9.25" - live observation will be main use at the start but I would like to be able the system to allow decent astrophotography so we may get into that progressively in the future - ease of use for amateur family would be highly important with computer control or preferably iphone/ipad control Ideally price range around €5,000 (+/-). Any other recommendations to consider? Many thanks in advance!