Oldtimer

Great advise especially not rushing to sell as the sky here is looking like a good clear sky.I also need to new box to box up the old telescope  for selling.

Thanks to the advise on viewing problems from yourselves and with the never ending help from Adam at RVO  (16 emails .) I am now waiting on a supply of Skywatcher Skymark 127 with Goto  to come into stock and then hopefully I will be placing an advert for my complete 6 months old Skywatcher 130/900  for sale. ( When I figure  out how to place the advert first.)

Thanks again all for your help and advise.

Thank you for that advise and information .

Interesting times ahead

Thank you all so far for the comments and advise 

From the comments it might help by giving you some more information. 

I am using a Reddot finder and also a Telrad

I have replaced all the eye pieces supplied with my package

I use a Collins Planispire and a Clestrion Sky Map

On my mobile phone I have downloaded Skyview /Skymap/Skysafari and from the advise given from a comment I today have downloaded the  Stellarium app but I will have to wait for some better weather in the S/E before trying it out.

Sorry if I missed out on some of the comments but did one say I needed a dove tail on my EQ2 mount to use Goto and what is a Dovetail ?

And can I still keep using my S/W 130/900 with a Goto added and replace my tripod or can my existing tripod be adapted to suit.?

Thanks again for your help and I will update on any developments 

21 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Learning your way around the night sky requires a bit of effort, starting with buying a night sky atlas like Norton's and/or one of the books that give a monthly guide of what to look at. There are also various websites.

If you definitely want a GoTo (they are great once you have learnt how to use it) you have various options, which require some decisions:

You could clamp your telescope straight onto a GoTo mount, as your telescope almost certainly has a standard dovetail clamp fitting.

Or you could change the whole system.

Gotos fall into two main designs: the alt-azimuth (commonly a single arm) and the German equatorial. The latter design is needed for long exposure astro-photography but for visual use mainly introduces the annoying and unnecessary complication of an equatorial mount which needs polar alignment.

Then there are different operating systems: Celestron's Nexstar, Skywatcher's Synscan and a number of others.  These actually differ significantly in features and ease of use.  IMHO the Nexstar is easier to use than the Synscan.

You can buy all the Skywatcher mounts on their own, but some of the Celestron mounts, particularly alt-azimuth, are only available bundled with a scope.

Mounts come with a tripod and I would not recommend trying to retain the EQ-2 tripod.

Hello 

New member Old timer here

I have recently  retired from work and was bought a Skywatcher 130/900 Eq2 reflector telescope  as a farewell present.

Despite lots of trying all I have to been able to locate is great views of the moon.

I am considering buying a Goto system but do I need to start again with all new equipment or can i just buy a new tripod that is comparable or and attachment for my old tripod.