Hi again everyone. I have gone and seen some scopes in the flesh today, and have come away with a couple of other quick questions thay I wonder if you would mind helping me with.
Basically I have narrowed the choice down to the skywatcher 10" collapsible dob, or the skywatcher SW380 (120x1000 refractor) on an EQ5 mount. One salesman I spoke to today recommended the refractor as I told hime that I thought my hubby would probably want to get into astrophotography.....now I'm confused, as I had thought that the 10" Dob would still be good for photography if we bought a different mount for it in the future (or am I completely off track?).
Some questions:
How easy / difficult is it to collimate the dob....and will it come with instructions? As I said before, if it is a hassle to get the scope ready, I don't think it will be used as often which would be a shame.
Skywatchertelescopes.com.au currently have the 10" dob for $885 plus freight...is this a good price?
Ig hubby wants to get into photography I'm under the impression he will need a motorised tracking-type mount... will it be cheaper to add one of these to the EQ5 or about the same price as buying this sort of mount for the Dib? (Sorry, that sentence has even confused me...I hope you can make sense of it!)
What are your opinions on the advantages/disadvantages of these two scopes? The predominate opinion seems to be to go for the dob, but now I am confused as the fellow at the store today was pushing for the refractor....he didn't even have it in stock, so it's not like his motivation was to make space on the floor
He was very helpful
I was worried about the portability of the Dob, but I think having the collapsible version will take away some of that concern...or is the refractor going to be a better "get it out, point it at the sky and look at stuff" type of scope?
Again, I would really appreciate your feedback.
Tasha