[corkwhit (David)]

After years of staring at the night sky with the naked eye, I am now in a position to buy my 1st scope ( yippee!).

I have trawled the net for weeks( hence finding this great site) looking for reviews etc on what is best for beginners and of course I have become totally confused as what to spend my hard earned on.
Looking to spend around the $700 mark

I thought I had settled on a 8" Dobsonian, but of course I have done some more trawling since and Newtonians are also appealing.

I have read advice about joing a local club to try different scopes, but being a shift worker makes that difficult.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Regards
Dave