[johngwheeler (John)]

I've recently rekindled a childhood interest in astronomy, and wanted to get some advice on equipment choice. I'm not in a hurry, and happy to do naked eye / spotting-scope observation and visit an astronomy club to get a better idea of my areas (and degree) of interest before I invest more heavily.

I currently have a Celestron Regal M2 80mm ED spotting scope, which I also use for target shooting and general nature observation. I have been trying to use it for astronomical observation from a Sydney suburb, but have quickly come to realise the limitation of using a table-top tripod - almost useless anywhere except on a table or lying on the ground at shallow elevation angles.

I've ordered what I hope is reasonably stable photo tripod that will allow appropriate elevation (Vanguard Abeo Pro). I’ll try taking this setup to darker sites.

However, I'm wondering really how useful an 80mm spotting scope (f6) will be. I had some fanciful notions that I could get a good quality short focal length eyepiece (e.g. 5mm) and use it for planetary observation, but I think I would be limited by the photo tripod, even if the optics held up to nearly 100x magnification. There is no finder on the spotter, and it's pretty hard to locate and track objects without some fine adjustment capability.

There's an almost overwhelming selection of telescopes available, and I have two main decisions:

1) What kind of telescope to buy for my particular situation?

2) How much do I need to spend to have a good experience with the scope?

These are broad questions, I know, so here's some more detail:

I live in a city suburb, so it's often quite light-polluted, although there isn't a lot of really bright street lighting - mostly city glow from Sydney about 12km (7 miles) away. Ideally, I'd like to do some observation from my back garden which is at least not illuminated by any lights. Any setup needs to be small and convenient enough to easily take to more remote location, and quick to deploy.

i) Would a smaller refractor (e.g. 4") be more suitable for urban use than a 6-8" SCT / Maksutov in terms of usability in light-polluted skies? Or does the telescope type make no difference?

ii) What kind of telescope is the most portable with minimal setup time, if I were to seek a darker site? My thinking is that something that makes it easy to set up and view for a an hour or two would get a lot more use that something that takes 30 minutes to set up and take down each session

iii) I will probably start purely with visual observation, but I like the idea of astro-photography. I would ideally like a system that could grow for more advanced use, without having to replace the major components, i.e. a telescope and mount that could be added to (drive motors, computers, camera fittings etc. ) rather than need to be completely replaced.

iv) Regarding price, there is clearly a lot of complete rubbish out there. At the top end (Takahashi, Astro-Physics, Questar etc.), the price is prohibitive, and can't be justified for a beginner. I'm looking for good quality / value ratio in the middle range (like everyone else!). How much is a "reasonable" budget in order to get an instrument of good to very good optical quality and solid mechanical accuracy and reliability? I'm familiar with good quality rifle scopes and would expect to spend US$600-1200 to get something "decent" and up to $2000 for the top tier products. I imagine the story is similar with astronomical telescopes but with a far more expensive top-end. Good optics cost money, I know. (My spotting scope was about US$600 and is mid-range).

I would rather “buy once, cry once” and get something I really enjoy, than make do with inferior quality that doesn’t perform well.

The mount is an unknown quantity for me. I think I should go for a German Equatorial (ease of manual tracking, option of adding drive motors, and essential(?) for photography.) I also imagine that going heavier is better than lighter (so maybe "EQ5" size and above). Other than this I don't know what I should be looking at. One thought is that getting bigger than I need now would allow me to upgrade to a bigger scope later without changing the mount.

So, lots of questions in my mammoth post! If anyone has any recommendations or stories of their own experience, I'd love to hear them.

Many thanks,

John.