"mark" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I guess this has been done to death but I want to buy a telescope and dont
know what to get! I want a general purpose scope where I can see the rings
of saturns, nebulae and what have you. I have been recommended a meade etx
125 but that is by the guy in the shop. I was just wondering whay your
thoughts are?

I started with an ETX105, which is a decent scope. But if I would start all over, I would not
start with an ETX. the field of view is very small, the aperture is small, hence one can only
see the moon, planets and the brighter deepsky objects. This is good enough of course for a
beginner-scope, but such a scope does not need goto and the fancy electronics. I would start
with a 80mm shorttube refractor. Much cheaper, and easier. Then upgrade to a bigger scope if
you want to become more serious about astronomy.
--
Martijn (astro-at-pff-software.nl)
10" LX200GPS-SMT
ETX105. Coronado PST
www.xs4all.nl/~martlian