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Whats your budget?
I have an HEQ5pro mount and an 8" newt on it. I just bought a canon 1000d and I'm loving it.
In my experience your better off getting what you want and doing it drip by drip. I have a ETX125, I got sick of the poor tracking on it and bought the HEQ5pro mount and used the 125 on it for a while. Then I bought an 8' dob from bintel with out the base for about $400 about 6 months later. six months later I bought the camera for $800.
It worked out really well because the new pieces of kit tie you over until you can afford the next bit of kit. For me learning how to use the HEQ5 took for ever, mainly because the weather was so crap for weeks when I first got it. I went a couple of months not even bothering with it. Vitually all drift alignment tutorials are for the norther hemisphere and it confused the life out of me.
YOu can buy an Heq5 (not the pro) for $999. I think the only diff between them is one is goto the other isnt. If you have laptop you dont need the goto hand box anyway. Theres plenty of software out there that will run it. To tell you the truth the Synscan hand box is a bit crap anyway, the meade one is much bettter. Slap your old scope on it and off you go. Later on you can upgrade the scope if you need to. While your learning how to align it all properly save up for a decent camera.
I went the DSLR because you can use it for non astro stuff as well, $800 gets you a very nice camera.
I dont know what your expierience level is but unless you know how to drift align you wont be taking any pictures. And it takes while to get the hang of it.
Let the spending begin.
Buying stuff is half the fun lol.
Sandy
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