|
Nick,
The biggest problem for someone picking their first telescope is they actually have a pretty limited idea of their own needs just as much as they a limited idea of what scopes and options are out there and what is "best" or at least better for them.
Thus education from a wide range of sources that is localised to them becomes more important in the early stages.
Some real life experiences to see what interests them, how hard or easy they want to make it, what skills and knowledge they already have that help and guide them, whether they see themselves setting a complex ASCOM controlled GoTo system on a GEM requiring polar alignment or just a push to DOB as just one example of 1000's
Who can help them, what their local astronomy environment can offer, not just the site and seeing conditions but the people, clubs, observing sites, transportation etc
Whilst it may be a good idea in principle, actually trying to provide something useful in the way of program that somephow decodes their preferences, abilities, storage and the 999 other parameters that might be required might be much harder.
Good luck with it, but you might be better off posting a new thread that asks for all the things that a Beginner might need to know, ask themselves or think about first, so you have all of this to start with in decoding the complex matrix that is the choice of a first telescope
Amateur astronomy is very much a journey of exploration and the acquisition of knowledge and development of specialised interests.
This is unlikely to come out of a canned software solution.
Just my thoughts and not meant to be negative - just highlighting the difficulties I see.
Rally
|