Hi again Malcolm!
I see, it's good to know what's only said to make things sound fancy instead of having actual relevance - as a first buyer it's far too easy to get sucked into these things.
I actually ended up buying a Skywatcher Explorer 130 EQ2 (
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SkyWatcher-E...1949625&sr=8-2). I decided that, as much fun as the dobsonian seemed with it's easy set up, it meant limited places for us to be able to use it (at least without getting a bad back!).
So then looking more into the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ, I found a fair amount of people saying that the Skywatcher Explorer 130 EQ2 was similar but of better quality for around the same cost and went for it. Shame I can't set it up until Christmas, it looks amazing in the box hah!
Hannah