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Thankyou
Well I'm astounded by the great responses. Thankyou.
Lots of good advice given. I guess I'm still leaning towards a dob despite a couple of convincing arguments for a refractor and now think that a 10" is the way to go, as it seems that my concern over collimation might exist just as easily with an 8" with little difference in the two. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it though....with practise! I still have a bit of time before I make up my mind - I tend to labour over purchases such as this for quite some time before I make a decision.
I'm not interested in astrophotography.....yet and by the sounds of it may need to get a second and third job if I go down this path but at the moment just want to get myself and the kids looking up at the stars. One of the fond memories I have as a kid was when my dad bought a telescope so that we could witness the passing of Halley's comet and the conversations we had about the universe as a result of this and I would love to emulate this with my children.
In the days since I've posted I can see that I might need to purchase a star atlas to get the hang of star hopping. I have stellarium loaded already and use frequently when I go out with the binos to try and pick out a few objects. Maybe this would be just as good as a star atlas??
Also the scopes I mentioned come with an 8x50 RACI would I need a Telrad as well or is this probably overkill?
So many questions. Like I mentioned in my original post there is no club near me (the closest is probably an hour and a half away) but I am lucky that there is such an awesome online community here.
Thanks again, Dan
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