Hello from Sussex

[VigdisVZ]

Hi and welcome! Good to to have you!

[JamesM]

Hi Ben and welcome to the forum. Goto with kids is great as you can organise a tour of the sky and they can also take it in turns to use the handset and select objects etc and helps make astronomy fun, particularly if they are very young children. Of course having Goto does not prevent you from star hopping to locate a given target, because of course you can direct the scope using the hand controller if that is something which appeals to you when observing on your own. Personally having GOTO provides options and the unpredictability of the weather does mean that we seem to have ever smaller pockets of time to do any observing and certainly this technology helps us get the most out this time. If the Goto option proves expensive, then I would certainly go for a setup that has some sort of motorised tracking which is essential at high magnification where objects move very quickly across the field of view and when you are juggling between young observers who will easily nudge the scope and put the target out of view - managed crowd control is just more relaxing!

Clear skies and enjoy the forum

James

[stellawolf]

Hi & welcome to SGL

[ben_e71]

THanks for all the welcomes, just a short update I went for a NexStar 4SE in the end as a I got a good deal on one and now waiting for some clear skies to use it in anger.