In article ,
says...
First off...

I've been a long time star gazer and I can read a star map and know my
way around the sky with out the map. I understand setting up a
telescope manually to use map coordinates to find objects with out a
finder scope. But...I have always had cheap telescopes or binoculars
growing up. Recently I purchased a Discovery stores Sky and Land 70mm
refractor for my son along with a Clestron lens kit from
telescopes.com. I plan on using the lens with my soon to be purchased
telescope. I was able to show my son Saturn and Jupiter also fuzzy
comet Machholz. The new lens really improved my sons telescope. But I
want something better, much better for myself.

Now my questions, errr plea for help...

I know you all get tired of seeing these post but I don't have anyone
or know anyone to help guide me on this purchase.

I'm interested in buying a telescope for DSO. My main use would be
educating my kids, showing friends and family and exploring random
spots, maybe find my own comet. Let me dream =) I would also like to
do astrophotography using a web cam. I understand aperture is the most
important thing. But I want a portable system I can put in the back of
my midsize suv and setup by myself. I'm in the military so it would be
packed up and shipped every 3+ years. So it would need to be rugged.
Although I only have 8 years left till I retire I might be better off
waiting on the massive aperture scope. Thoughts?

I'm considering the Meade ETX-125PE since it looks good for
portability and web cam astrophotography. Plus it should be ready to
use pretty quickly. It appears to be fairly rugged compared to other
designs.

The Meade ETX is okay, but the views of DSOs will be disappointing. Yes
it makes it easy to find them, but most will look like faint smudges.
Another issue you will have with it, is the cool down. It takes about 90
minutes to reach ambient temps. So the ETX is not something you can just
grab and be observing with in a couple of minutes. Yes you can see
things immedieatly, but you will also be seeing thermal currents in the
tube which will give poor images.


Dobs look good for the price. But they are so cheap which sort of
scares me. Also the mount system looks like I have to manually move
the scope which could make finding DSO a real burden. Is this correct?
Astrophotography possible with these?

You do have to move the dobs manually, but you get the most bang/buck
with them. They also have to cool down, but typically take about 30
minutes to cool.

One thing you can look at is Orion's Intellescope series. It has a push-
to system that directs you to what direction to move the scope to your
target.

Truss mounts like teeters telescopes planet killers look very tempting
due to the huge apertures. Has anyone used these? Are they worth it?
Can 1 person set these up alone? Are these manual moving only? Can you
do astophotography with these scopes?

I'm not familiar enough with these to answer this.

I do apologize I'm just lost in all this. Does anyone have any other
suggestion or know a website that has plenty of reviews?

Check Cloudynights.com or scopereviews.com for good reviews of
equipment. Also check out your local astronomy club and go to one of
their meetings and Star parties. This will give you a chance to look
through a variety of scopes and talk to the owners of them to find out
their pros and cons.

Hope this helps
Craig


Thanks all!