So my girlfriend and I are looking to buy a telescope for each other for christmas (awww) and we have a budget of around 700-1k to play with between us. Doing some online research and googling the crap out of everything, the best solution I've come up with for what we want is a Saxon 8" reflector on an EQ5 mount...
Now, my question to you all is do I have a better option in my price range? I've found the Saxon for
$950 in a localish store so we can go down and check it out in person which is a plus, and I haven't seen any reviews of it that slam it or the brand.
We'll be using it mostly for viewing at her place in Ballarat and some traveling to some of the bigger hills around on good nights if we can, but we'd like to motorise it later when we have the money and I'm looking at doing photography with it at some point down the line, but nothing super seriously unless I find I have an inkling for something other than landscapes. Unless it's easy to do deep space imaging, which from most of what I've read, it really isn't
On the photography bent, will a d300s with either a 35mm, 50mm, or 10-24mm lens be good enough to do some decent photography?
