Food for thought, thanks so far.
I already read the linked review for the starsense dx130, from that it seems very middle of the road. I'm starting to see very mixed reviews and don't know what to make of it. My worry is that I'm putting money into a gimmick rather than quality optics with that one? Does anyone have this scope who can comment?
At the end of the article the Celestron astro-fi 130 is suggested as an alternative, however on paper the specs seem virtually identical? - more confusion!
Scousespacecadet, you suggest the Sky-Watcher SkyMax-127 AZ GTi, if that is going to be significantly better then I would be willing to spend the extra, I'll look more into this option. Any further info on this would be greatly appreciated.
If anyone has any further suggestions I'd be most interested to hear them, specifically what level of detail a particular scope would be able to offer; bands and red spot of Jupiter, rings and Cassini division of saturn, level of detail of the moon. Any captured images would be fantastic (more to give me an idea of what to expect, astrophotography is not an aspiration at this stage, purely observation).
Thanks again. 😎