[niko]

Once again thanks to all within this community for the well considered responses to my query.

I should mention that I am currently assisting a nationwide retailer of related equipment in considering stocking astronomy equipment. It is my hope that they can provide budget priced but reasonable quality equipment in order to promote the hobby/passionate past-time to a wider audience. It is my genuine hope that they will not be in competition to the specialist stockists but rather provide a better alternative to the "toy" store retailers and be in better symbiosis with the specialists. I believe that with an emphasis on customer service and staff training that they can do a lot to bring this hobby to a wider audience. This in turn will hopefully lead to more adopting the hobby and then moving on to better equipment from the specialists (like we all have!!!).

So, once again, thanks for the great feedback and comments it will greatly assist in making better informed decisions.

I should hasten to add that my assistance to this retailer is being provided free of charge in the genuine interest of promoting the hobby - no cash for comment here!!!

If anyone in Melbourne would like to test some of the scopes I'm sure that could be arranged - the more thorough the testing and the more expansive the feedback the better the final result will be.

Thanks again everyone.

cheers

niko