Portable Goto?

[Dobbs (Anthony)]

Ciao Everybody

In brief 3 months ago I moved to Milan(Italy) from the Southern Highlands in NSW. Astronomy was only a recently discovered hobby and just when I was getting the hang of it all I find myself on the other side of the planet a new sky to learn and well no scope.

Im an english teacher, travel around northern italy quite a bit and as a traveller funds are tight. As such, I want a scope that is portable, a goto and of course there is the budget.

Any suggestions? Does such a scope exist?

I was thinking Meade ETX or Celestron Nexstar.

Thanks for your help and well yeah my first post. WOOHOO!!!!

Anthony

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Anthony

Welcome to IIS and congrats on your first post

What is your budget? Conversion from Euro may be difficult for me

An LX90 8" is a good mix of aperture, goto and portability. These can be picked up from around $2k AUD second hand, or more new (obviously).

I've never looked through an ETX or Nexstar, but ETX owners generally seem very pleased with them. I wouldn't go for the small 70's, as a minimum I'd get the 125. The problem is the very long focal length (focal ratio f/15 I think) making the magnification typically always high, very difficult to get nice widefield contrasty views.