Craig F

You're very lucky living in California, a few years back (pre-astronomy) I spent a lot of time working in the high desert region of Ridgecrest. The night sky there was mindblowing when you got into the hills and away from the town.

Just need to wait for it to arrive now..............

Thank you Spile, some good advice and links there.

So, just looking longingly at my FLO account to see if there has been any movement on my order (Skywatcher 200p Dob), not as yet, but noticed that the same scope to order today would be over £100 more expensive . Glad I orderd when I did.

Not really a problem for me, our local council turns our street lighting off at around 11:00pm every evening, to "save money".

Thanks for all the advice thus far. I have ordered a pair of Helios 10x50 binoculars to get me started and learn where some of the popular sights are, I’ll let you all know how I get on once my equipment starts to arrive. And no doubt I will have countless questions to ask along the way.

This is great, thanks Geoff.

Thanks @wibblefish and @nephilim, some great advice there. It's a bit overwhelming all of this, but as I said in my OP, its something I've wanted to get into for many years. I think I'll look into getting some bino's to use whilst I'm waiting for the scope, to get me used to the night sky and learn where "things" are. I'll also look into the apps and book suggestions.

@Wulfrun, many thanks for the explanation, that makes a bit more sense. I think the reason I hadnt got into astronomy sooner is the minefeild of equipment and what it all does. i guess all will become apparent .

Thanks. Yes I'm prepared for the wait, who would have thought astronomy would be so popular during lockdowns lol. I will hold off on the accessories. I hadn't even thought about a pair of binoculars, this would be a good idea to use for basic recognition of common objects, whilst I'm waiting. In the mean time I'll get a collimation cap.

Hello, thank you. I have ordered a book called " The stargazers handbook" by Giles Sparrow, basically an atlas, again based on reviews, so I will have a read through that and then have a look at your recommendation as it might answer some equipment questions.

Hello all, I have had a huge interest in astronomical veiwing for many years, albeit with the naked eye, staring for ages at the night sky. I have finally taken the plunge, after a long time researching different scopes, the pos and neg of each type, and settled on a Sky-watcher 200P classic Dobsonian from First Light Optics (literally ordered 10 mins ago!). This was based purely on sifting through web searches for "best beginner scopes" and looking at the reviews etc. I am aware that covid has decimated stocks of scopes worldwide, so I am intending to spend the "in - between" time readin