Hi Malcolm
Thankyou for your advice, we'll certainly put it to good use. After looking through cheap 60mm - 70mm store scopes picked up from flea markets over the past years, it was time to upgrade to something well worth looking through. Originally we were looking at buying something like the Celestron Nexstar 8 SE computerised Cassegrain scope, but so many reviews recommended a dobsonian over these, especially for beginners, it was well worth NOT rushing in a buying the first thing that jumped out at us. What can be seen for the price, plus the relative ease of setup, we feel we made the best choice. Even if we purchased an 8" dob, we would probably have wanted to trade it in for a 12" by now already.
The Kendrick due heater for the secondary mirror is already up and running, the digifire 7 controller might be a handy addition for that so it's back to the store to enquire. Also added the 12V DC solution package from Bintel to run the heater & fan which will save a small fortune in battery burning and costs.
Next on the list is the nebula and/or OIII filter(s) and we should be pretty much set.
Guy is looking at all the tele vue eyepieces so it's time to start hiding money in offshore accounts until we know exactly what we want and don't really want
Guess the only question now is when buying better eyepieces comes around, is buying second hand to save $$$ worth the risk as apposed to simply buying new from the stores?
Thanks again, happy star hunting
Linda and Guy.