Hi Bill,
I am in Indooroopilly and very close to the Westfield shoppingtown
If you want to try out some astro gear, some of the SEQ ice in spacers meet regularly at Mark Hodson's place in Glenore Groove (sometimes twice a month). Andrew astro_south Durick usually organizes them. Maybe I can get him to PM you when we will have the next gathering. In fact they are having a gathering today up near Kenilworth (did I spell it right) at astrorons place (pity I can't be there...it is going to be a blast with Paul's new binoviewer). There is a good selection of scopes usually represented there. I have a modest Celestron/Vixen C6 tube on an e b** EQ mounted, an Orion 80ST on photo tripod and a 15x70's Saxon binoculars. Andrew has a 12.5" f/6 truss dob, a 6"f/5 EQ scope, a 4"ST refractor and the same pair of binoculars. Mark also has a 12.5" which has yet to be mounted on his humongous fork mount and an 80ED on an EQ6
I am a visual only observer. Regarding your question, I say go for the Celestron. I am a big Celestron fan
Darren