Hi from North Devon

[HIP3802]

Hi, Andrew, and a warm welcome to SGL - and to the worlds of amateur astronomy!

[Andrew W]

cheers  

[C7tsj]

Welcome to SGL,

Mark

[Andrew W]

thanks.

[Gasmac]

Welcome and enjoy

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Andrew W]

thanks Gazmac

[rowmcc]

Hello and welcome to SGL!  ​ 

[bob-c]

hi andrew,welcome to the forum,

                                                   bob.

[Vox45]

Thanks for the welcome!

gear wise I've just scored a black head EQ3 equitorial mount and a bunch of eyepieces. all unused off someone that bought a package purely for the OTA and is selling off the rest of the gear.

I think I'm planing on a flextube 130p DOB with a view to being able to use it on both the dob mount and the EQ3 as circumstances dictate.

Every day I end up second guessing myself and thinking get a refractor, then a MAK and back to a dob.

In short I want to see a bit of everything. No doubt whatever I get I'll end up in six months time kicking myself and thinking I should have gone with 'X' or 'Y'

Still we learn from the mistakes as well as the successes so I shall just enjoy the journey.

Like they say: "the best scope is the one that oyu use"

From what I read from the old pros is that you will go through a lot of scope during your journey so don't kick yourself, it's part of the process. I decided to buy second hand from the start as the prices are pretty stable on the used market, so you might buy something used now and sell it for the same price in 2 years to get something else.

I don't want to gloat (but I will anyway): I had the chance to meet someone at a star party who had just upgraded from a C6 to a C8... So he sold me his old setup of a Clestron C6 on an Sirius EQ-G mount with solar filter and focus motor for 600€... I got a used EOS 1000D with a shutter count in the 1000's on ebay for 146£, so good deals are possible.

What I mean to say is that you can build a good setup at a low price and at no risk if you buy within the community, usually people take care of their stuff and it is pretty easy to spot a bad scope.

Cheers

[Andrew W]

cheers,  this is pretty much the route I've been going.

I almost went for Rother Valley Optics 90mm refractor but once I priced it up with a 2" diagonal and one eyepiece it was getting towards ED80 money for a scope with good but basic glass in it.

I've managed to pick up some stuff already and will probably go for a second hand ST80-ST102 and grab a canon eos to get me started whilst I work out where I'm headed and what the next upgrade will be.