Hello from Cheshire

[mattifor]

If I were you find where you local Astronomical society is located. They are usually very helpful.

Try and locate someone near to you that has the Orion Optics SPX 300 f/4 so you can look if that is what you really want.

Members are usually only to keen to show the kit to you.

I found that on a cold night the Europa was too big to handle on my own trying to mount it onto the EQ mount, the one you are looking at is even larger.

I would encourage you to handle one in the cold not just in a showroom.

I find that the shorter Cassegrain is far easier to handle when you are getting cold a tired.

I find at my age I can see better and clearer with the Cassegrain and my refractor than with my wife’s Newtonian even though the aperture on the Newtonian is larger.

It’s a matter of preference.

Get few good quality eyepieces that match the Focal length of the chosen scope.

A lot of money can be wasted getting the wrong ones.

[ron.s.g]

Hi RW and welcome,

good to see you are getting advice for the purchase of your new scope,

have you looked at the equipement page regarding other equipement people use.

regards ron.s.g