|
it has all been said on this thread already but i will add my 2 cents worth. if you want something that is good for both astronomical observing and terrestrial observing, you cant go wrong with a refractor. the problem with refractors is that you really get what you pay for. a cheap one will produce large amounts of chromatic aberration on bright objects. spend a bit more and you get an Achromatic (2 lenses) which will help but to get really good views you need a Triplet APO lens. That is when the $ start to get really high. the other limitation with refractors are the aperture, generally you are not going to get a huge aperture with glass as the cost becomes prohibitive (the Sydney observatory glass lens is only roughly 10" if i remember correctly). this means that you will get great views of the planets, moon, sun (with a solar filter), double stars, open clusters and you can pick up some of the brighter DSO's but don't expect to clearly see galaxies and fainter DSOs.
+ 1 to the AZEQ6 mount, that will give you the options you are looking for, but, it will be quite heavy. although you can set this up each night, the more difficult it is the less likely you are going to be to do it. and the best telescope set up is one that gets used regularly. if you are looking to have something that is very portable and quick to up for a night of observing you might want to consider something else.
if you do decide to get a APO with the AZEQ6 mount, then you are also only a T-ring and a DSLR away from taking some amazing images of nebulae and larger DSO's.
|