Got sick, and project put on hold. Life if back to normal now, and schoo work experience starts in 2 weeks with a Astrophysics team. Will commit after that.
As far as the equipment is concerned I like John's advice earlier in the thread (Hello John), of the HEQ5 and Evostar 72 that were listed in the classifieds.
As far as any career is concerned, .... Choose carefully depending on your loves, strengths and goals.
Hey,
I see that your rural and on acreage, me too. I just wanted to let you know about a few MOOCs I completed a while back and would recommend them to anyone wanting to learn about astrophysics.
I did 4 interconnected courses on the edX platform These were offered by the ANU and the instructors, Paul Francis (worth it just for the vests!) and Brian Schmitt (Nobel Laureate) Made the courses totally understandable. I managed to complete them, paid for a certificate (ego???) and learnt heaps. I cant overstate how knowing how all that stuff above our heads works increases the wonder of the night (and day) sky. Also a nice way of getting your feet wet.
As for 'scopes, I bought a second hand C8 and Orion 80mm refractor for a good price, forked out some dosh on an EQ6-R, happy days! The C8 is great at gathering data, spectrums, photometry etc, but the 80mm just makes things look 'pretty'. If I was just looking, I'd go the refactor any day. But really, give the edX MOOCs a look.
Cheers
