Hi all, recently joined here after scouring the Reddit /telescopes and /astronomy feeds. Looking at getting into the hobby and reading tons so I have some limited understanding of types of equipment and terms, though still a newbie.
I think my place in all of this will settle out somewhere around wanting a good medium level scope but NOT wanting to go balls deep into astrophotography but WILL want to be able to take decent pics of planets and some DSOs. That said, I will attempt stacking shots et al at some point but I'm thinking of a budget of around $1000-$1500 CDN (Vancouver, B.C.). GOTO? Maybe, I've looked at the Skywatcher 8" Dobsonian GOTO but maybe the non-GOTO is a better option, then I would look at the 10" possibly.
Anyways, here's a couple I'm thinking of:
https://www.brandonoptics.com/Sky-Watcher-Flextube-SynScan-200P-8-GoTo-Collapsible-Dob-Telescope_p_245.html
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-200p-eq5-goto.html
Just trying to nail down a good starting point. I'm a quick learner and have learned not to go cheap right off the bat. Getting a crappy telescope and not enjoying it or getting lame results is just a waste of money. Anyways, there you are...
I’ll add one more to my list, narrowing it down. May possibly look at the 6” version, too but this seems to be checking a lot of boxes. Or get the mount separate and look for the OTA in a skywatcher? In any case this should keep me busy learning the skies plus has a decent enough eq goto for basic AP. Also keeping my eyes open for used equivalents...
https://markarianfineoptics.ca/reflectors/-celestron-advanced-vx-series-go-to-equatorial-8-newtonian-reflector