I haven't used a GOTO scope but my experience with a non-GOTO scope as a
beginner might be useful to you.

I have an Orion Optics 6" Newtonian on a GEM mount. Finding stuff was quite
hard to begin with which I found frustrating. But you do get the hang of it
and it's rewarding when it comes together. I guess it could be compared to
learning golf or another sport. It feels odd and clumsy when you start, but
when it starts to click it feels good :O) Saying that, there is stuff I
can't find and to be fair, it's still irritating.

I wouldn't say my scope is very portable and the awkwardness of a scope can
put me off using it some evenings. To that end the dinky ETX would be great.
That said, sometimes I wish it had greater light gathering power than 6".
You mightl quickly want more than the 105mm if you like deep sky stuff too.

The problem with astronomy is expectations, the large range of scopes
available and the fact that different scopes are better at different things.
I was afflicted by choice paralysis for way too long - my advice is to not
think about it too much. You could always buy a cheap Dob at a later date.

Good luck,

Ash

"Pete Lawrence" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 01:35:03 -0000, "Lilian"
wrote:

I think the ETX105 is a good telescope. It is compact and the GOTO works
really well. I personally would not recommend any non GOTO scope to a
begineer because you wlil never find anything.

GOTO hasn't been around for ever and we were all beginners once!
--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.pbl33.co.uk
Home of the Lunar Parallax Demonstration Project