New Stargazer looking for equipment advice!

[PlanetGazer]

A quick update.......

Firstly thanks to all of you for your advice. It has been very helpful to me. I have now bought a scope. It may not be what you would have bought but it suits me well and I got a nice little deal on it from Tring.

After seeing the skyline dob in the flesh I felt it was a bit too big for storing....mainly due to the base. I (and my wife!!) have a baby due in June so having it stood up in a corner is not ideal and it would be difficult to store the base in a cupboard etc. Therefore, I bought a Skywatcher 150p on an eq3-2 mount. I was a little unsure of the mount, but after having a good familiarisation session, I find it quite intuitive. May be its due to my day job being a Geospatial Engineer and using theodolites all day!!

I have just had first light with it viewing Jupiter and it's moons. I am totally amazed and chuffed to bits with what I have bough! I could see loads of detail through the 25mm and then the 10 and then more when I put the x2 Barlow on. This is just from my back garden with a fair amount of orange glow and people's house lights on. I can't wait to take it out to ashridge or the Dunstable Downs on a clear night!!! I am assuming that the eye pieces are relatively standard so I may look into upgrading those once I am a bit more experienced.

Again thanks for your help

Alistair

Glad to hear that, I hope you enjoy your scope

and as I have been told before: the best telescope is the one that you use regularly..