MattG

Hi all, A friend very kindly gave me a Celestron Powerseeker 70EQ for my birthday last year and I have really enjoyed using it, mostly looking at the moon. I want to upgrade in the new year and have been doing some reading trying to decide what scope & mount to go for. My priorities / thoughts: Budget is in the region of £500, happy to slowly spend more over time to get additional accessories. I am probably only going to be able to get out a dozen or so times a year where it's dark enough and clear enough. Because of this ease of set up and use will be important. Although I will spend a lot of time reading around this new hobby I am unlikely to be able to go out more than about once a week. The best telescope for me will definitely be the one I use rather than necessarily the best telescope. Although I would love to get into astrophotography, I'm aware that those amazing pictures of DSOs are probably going to be out of my ability for a while. I was therefore thinking of focusing on planetary viewing - being able to view and photograph jupiter and saturn in any sort of detail would blow my mind. The same goes for being able to see a galaxy, getting even a crappy photo of andromeda would be incredible. This is a more exciting prospect for me than spending weeks taking 1000s of long exposures and then stacking them etc etc to eventually get a (stunning) shot. Observing would definitely be the priority over imaging but being able to take photos (with a canon DSLR) would be a bonus, even if the quality isn't amazing. I'm aware that I think that I'm looking for 'quick wins' here but with a baby on the way I'm just realistic to the amount of nights I'm likely to be able to get out in the next few years. I live in a small town and have a park within walking distance which is probably going to be where I use the telescope most. I'm 32 and so happy to carry a fair bit of weight though, it's only a few 100ms. Occasionally though I could get in the car and drive 10 minutes to be further into the countryside to get away from light polution. For portability I was thinking a Schmidt Cassegrain or Maksutov Cassegrain. I was therefore looking at getting a reasonably slow telescope with a focal ratio of above 10, preferably with the biggest apeture I can find in the price range. Ideally I think having a motorised goto mount would be good, preferably wifi controlled as it's the 21st century. I was looking at either the Mease ETX90 or the Celestron NexStar 4SE. However, the Sky Watcher Star Discovery P150i also appeals though this might be a bit fast? Does the ETX90 have too small an aperture? Does anybody have any other recommendations or advice? With my priorities, is my understanding right so far? Any advice would be gratefully received! Matt