Hi all,
Good to be here, this looks like a great site. I'm looking for a little advice on what's the best choice for my future amateur astronomy exploits. I'm sure many of you have some really awesome kit, but I am currently about as amateur as you can get with a rather pathetic cheap 60mm refractor! But even with it's terrible optics it's enough to whet my appetite for more.
Even with this cheap scope I can see great lunar detail (even though it's blinding without a filter), Saturn's rings are clear and Jupiter + the 4 large moons can be seen clearly, at least when it's in view at a reasonable time rather than the current 2-3am.
So... I am trying to decide what to do next. I guess it's prudent to state my requirements:
- I would love to see greater detail on the planets, such as the banding on Jupiter
- I would love to be able to see deep space objects with some clarity
- I understand that DSO's will always appear as fuzzy grey blobs to the naked eye, so eventually I'd love to try astrophotography
- Motor tracking/goto would be nice, I'm sure I can manage without it though
- Budget is not huge
But, being an amateur, I have no clue about what to get. A great big Dob is obviously the best choice for sheer aperture to cost ratio, but then there is no hope of motor tracking, and photography is really difficult, yes?
There is a Celestron Nexstar 4 for sale that I have my eye on at the moment. Are they any good; would it be a good scope to move up to from the one I have at the moment?
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Kind regards,
Colin {R}