[eze]

Hi everybody

Finally I am about to buy (or my lovely wife is going to give me for father's day) my first telescope.
I bought last year a pair of 12x60 binoculars and I start knowing the sky. But I want more.

I think I am more interesting on DSO than planets, so after reading a lot I thought about a 8'' Dobsonian. I was thinking of buying one from bintel for au$ 429 basically because I am in Melbourne and I will save a lot of money from the post. The other option would be the GSO deluxe version from Andrews that would be about au$ 380 with post, but it won't include a 10:1 fine focus Crayford focuser, that I have read it is quite useful.

Now , before giving her a go, I would like to check with you about some other kind of scopes, because I don't know exactly what would be the difference.
The budget woudl be about 450 all included. I think I will have to spend some more money for the collimation tools.

I was intrigue by Skywatcher 150 x 1000P newtonian reflector that is 349 included post at Andrews with eq3-2 mount. Wouldn't it be a good alternative. I can see that the aperture is 2'' smaller, but shouldn't I be able to see some good DSO stuff and It won't be as big as a Dob and more easy to transport. Would it be better for planets ?

The other option would be something like Skywatcher 102 x 500 AZ3 refractor for $499 or even 120 x 600mm OTA + AZ3...A$499. Wouldn't this be good overall scopes to have some nice DSO views and also better much more better planet views?

Like I said before, my first option would be an 8'' Dobsonian, but I just wanted to know a bit more about the differences with this two others scopes before buying.

Thanks a lot for your help
Cheers
Eze