Personally (and I realise I will be in the minority here), I believe the best starter scope is a Celestron Evolution 6" SCT.
Advantages:
- It is an alt/az mount so it's easy to set up and look through
- It is easy to align, just point at 3 bright objects in the sky and you are done (you don't even need to know what they are)
- It is has goto functionality, so once you're aligned you can type in the object you want and it will automatically slew to the object with good (but not perfect) accuracy. No time wasted hunting for objects, although you can do this easily if you want.
- It has a great balance of size and weight, not too large, not too heavy
- It can be used to image the planets straight out of the box with good results
- It is upgradeable. Use an SCT reducer ($100 used) to use at f/6, a barlow ($100) to image at f/20, a wedge ($400) for moderate quality DSO imaging, a Hyperstar ($1000) to image at f/3.
- You can also mount an 8" (or even a 9.25 at a pinch) SCT on the same mount for added resolving/light gathering power.
Disadvantages:
- You can't do long exposure DSO imaging on it, for that you will need an EQ mount
- It's expensive. $3300 for the 6" at Bintel, $4400 for the 8". However, there's currently an 8" in the Classifieds for $2900 with a bunch of accessories...
https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/...d.php?t=205654
Andrew