|
New to the forum, kind of.
Hi, long time lurker here. What a great forum this is!
I have been interested in astronomy as a hobby my whole life.
In my childhood my father would allow me to use his spotting scope in the back yard to check out the various celestial objects.
As a young teenager when my pocket money allowed I purchased a 70 mm refractor from Australian Geographic and got a lot of use out of it.
Then when I was at uni I upgraded to a Meade LXD 55 10' schmidt newtonian.
This did me for a lot of years and at one point I even started to dable in astrophotography. Sadly in the last few years it has not been touched, mostly because I now have young kids and that kind of scope does not work so well for us.
I have been looking around for a new scope for a little while now and after reading a lot of reviews I am thinking maybe the Celestron Nexstar is the scope to go with, either of the 4, 5 or 6 inch. I am also wondering if the Meade EXT might be a good option.
Anyway my criteria are:
- goto star finder is a must
- quick set up is a must ~15 minutes
- portable as possible, we are planing a 9 month trip around Aus and it will be coming with us
- robust as possible as it will spend a decent amount of time in the back of a car
- ability to use a Cannon 60D with it is a nice to have
- budget <$2000
It would be great to hear from anyone in a similar situation that has purchased or used these scopes. Also I welcome any other scopes that would fit the bill that I have overlooked.
Thanks in advance for any assistance!
Cheers
|