Last weekend I thought I had figured out what I wanted.
After reading lots here and visiting the shops and talking with the sales guys (all of them astro enthusiasts). I thought I was about to buy a 10" Dobsonian.
One of the shop guys had told me that buying a dobsonian (we were looking at the 10") would mean that later on down the track it could be hoisted out onto an eq mount to facilitate tracking if I decided later on I wanted to take some snaps of the sky I was visiting.
(Photography looks very appealing to me but certainly not initially, the idea of being able to choose a telescope initially (dobsonian) that is sound enough to do so after being remounted onto a eq tracking mount seems like the way to go.)
The place I was about to buy the 10" from has emailed me with an emphatic NO it is really not feasible to mount the 10" on a eq mount due to 'flex'.
Are 10" dobsonians just too big to mount successfully on a eq mount? Maybe 8" is a better prospect or is the step up to 10" worth it even if mounting in a eq is out of the question?
I understand that the dobsonians are a really good all rounder for viewing purposes, as a beginner I am obviously going to say I want to look at everything
, but my preference initially at least has to be DSO.
Cheers for you advice.