Hi all,
What a great asset this site is! My name is Brian, and I live in Sheffield Tasmania
. I am the owner of a gifted Tasco 114x900 reflector which has not served to dim my enthusiasm yet despite it's best efforts!
I am in the procrastination phase of buying a real 'scope
.
As I live in a flat in the centre of town my inclination is to buy something that is portable such as an ED80, but I do not have too far to travel to get to some excellent dark sky sites in the mountain areas to the south of town, so the temptation is there to get something just a little larger, like a 10" or 12" dob! I won't get into my considerations so far re goto's, larger apo's, sct's, mounts etc!
The Meade Lightbridge range look like they may fit the bill for both size and portability, and they are in the right price bracket so I would be interested in any comments re these scopes from members who have experienced them.
My real interest is in DSO's so obviously a dob would be a better choice, but I am also enthralled by the wide field views that I have witnessed through an Orion ED as well.
Decisions descisions
.
Eventually I would like to get into astrophotography, but I have a lot more to learn yet about telescopes, astronomy and photography before I take the plunge, and it's softly softly as far as the budget is concerned.
I have been spoiled by a friends 14" LX200GPS, which regretably is way out of my price range. I still get to play with it when I visit him though, but this is not often enough as he lives on the other side of the island and works offshore.
I would love to make it to the upcoming IIS astro camp, however I have just started a new job and will not have accumulated enough leave credit by then. Next one!
If there are any other members in Tassie, especially on the NW coast please make yourselves known, maybe we could organise our own star party.
Regards to all, and let the dob v refractor debate begin again!
Brian