Hi guys,
I've got myself some binoculars and started learning about exactly where each star and planets reside in the night sky with help from other astronomy sources (books, software, etc) and I'm starting to research into getting my own telescope. I'm in no real rush to do this, however I don't want to buy a mediocre telescope, I'd rather invest in something decent to have for a very long time.
What my question is, what minimum spec telescope would I need to be able to get decent visibility of say, another planet, or nebulae, or even a galaxy. Some of the pictures I see here from other amateurs are amazing, and I just wanted to know if these kind of pics were taken with affordable priced telescopes.
What I'm trying to avoid I guess is spending a bit of money on one and only being able to see the spec of a planet or star only a tiny bit bigger and being pretty disappointed.
I know this is a very amateurish question, but thanks in advance.
Oh, and I know a lot of you will say join a club or find someone who has one that can show me around, but let's put that answer aside for the time being.
