Telescope advice please!

[JamesF]

I wouldn't go for the Heritage 76. If it were all you could afford then fine, but I think it would rapidly reach its limitations.

The Heritage 130P is also quite compact for storage. Probably far more so than the Evostar 90 plus a tripod. In fact the 130P on a tripod is not going to take up a whole lot more room than an Evostar 90 on a tripod. There's no way the Heritage would support a DSLR though and the Evostar may be better for planets. Given the budget you've suggested I'd really not let the ability of use a DSLR affect your decision though. You could connect it to the Evostar, but it will still be a real struggle to capture worthwhile images with it. It would really be more sensible to come back to ideas about imaging later when you've decided whether you really want to make that kind of commitment of time, effort and cash.

My gut feeling is that there's more to sustain one's interest that's visible with the 130P than with the Evostar 90 and given the choice I'd probably go with the 130P, but we're really down to a question of personal preference at this point.

James

[Hightower]

If you want to image planets, invest in a £5 (or less) Xbox webcam - light enough for most scopes/tripods to deal with, and you'll end up with half decent images