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Hi Ashlin, Adz and Ben,
Welcome to IIS!
That thread was my one and while its getting on a bit, the advice is still sound, but unfortunately, the prices for the dobs (esp the goto one) have gone up...in the case of the 8" goto, its now $1199 and not $999.
The prices I quoted were from Andrews Communications which is the place to buy your first scope as their prices cannot be beaten (if you find it cheaper somewhere, they will beat it, not just match it)
As for pics, you can get better results afocally (camera looking into the eyepiece either hand held or with a bracket) when you have a tracking goto dobsonian than a standard non goto one as this means what you are looking at, stays locked on in the eyepiece rather than slide past and wreck the photo. This is especially true at higher magnifications as the Earth's rotation is quite fast when you are looking so far out at high magnification.
As you are looking for beginner's packages and scopes, my suggestions are still valid, obviously, if you are wanting to save on costs, you can troll around the Ice Trade classifieds here for good second hand dobs, solid tube or collapsible come up often.
If you are not a technical or scientifically interested person and want the convenience of goto (which have around 45,000 objects in their databases) then a dobsonian with goto will last you for years and years.
Astrophotography can be tricky, especially when you are on a budget as there always seems to be more things to buy to make the pictures better, dont expect to be getting much better results on planets than what was posted, unless you are prepared to connect a webcam like a phillips toucam (without an eyepiece or camera lens) connected to a PC/laptop. Even then, there is some processing required to split the videos into pics, stack them, process and sharpen them to get an average result.....this can be quite disappointing unless you enjoy the challenge and have deepish pockets to improve past your technology limit.
As for the packages I created as a starting point in my thread, both will excel as visual packages for a long, long time, with the manual version meaning you will have to "learn" your way around the sky with charts and star hopping techniques. If you want the ability to align your scope on stars and then press some buttons to make the scope GO to where you want to go, as well as do basic photos, then the goto version will be the choice for you.
Collimation of the mirrors (aligning them) is a CRITICAL thing you should do everytime you set up your scope, whether its a solid tube or collapsible as they BOTH move around somewhat. I have had both types and never found the collapsible ones to be more sensitive to movement, and I collimate the mirrors every time I set it up as it only takes me a minute with the Bob's Knobs, considerably longer if you have to use a screwdriver....and more annoying.
Dont be scared of reflectors either, while they might seem fiddly (they arent) they are the BEST way of getting LARGE aperture and more light to your eye for the least amount of money and should be the first scope on every beginner's shopping list, one reason why I included them in my starter packs.
Please feel free to post any other questions here, I will help if I can.
Cheers
Chris
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