Mate what would something like you have roughly be worth and best place to shop ........................... xmas is coming and I love new toys
Hi Diginit,
The major question for people starting out in astronomy is pretty much what sort of astronomy do you want to do. Visual or Astrophotography.
If you would be happy with visual use, a 8" Dobsonian mounted reflector telescope would be good value. But they are bulky and tend to be a dead end as far as astrophotography is concerned although some basic imaging of bright objects like the moon and planets would be possible. An 8" manually controlled dobsonian would cost around $800 and one with a motorised goto wifi mount would be about $2000. (Goto means that once a telescope is aligned properly it can be instructed by wifi or a hand controller to "go to" any known object in the sky to view even if you can't see it with the naked eye).
If it is astrophotography that interests you would need an equatorial mount like the one in my video which is an iOptron ZEQ25 which can handle a telescope and equipment payload of about 11Kgs. They are sold generally as a mount, tripod and counterweight only without the telescope as most imagers prefer to choose their own. A reasonable, even cheap DSLR would be fine starting out in astrophotography and they can be attached to a telescope with cheaply bought adaptor rings that replace the camera's detachable lens.
Equatorial mounts require very exact setting up and alignment but that is the only way quality deep Sky images can be obtained. Once they are aligned they can also easily be used for Visual use. The modern updated equivalent of my mount is the iOptron CEM 26 and costs around $2000 and you would also need to outlay a further $400 for a polar aligning camera like an iPolar or Polemaster to achieve the exact alignment required.
Another popular mount in that weight handling class is the Skywatcher HEQ5 which also retails in the $2000 range.
There are telescope shops in most states Bintel, Testar and Andrews Communications in NSW, Ozscopes and Sidereal trading in Vic, Astro Anarchy and Sirius optics in Queensland and Bino Central in Western Australia. I have bought from most and they usually offer reasonable shipping rates. They all have their prices and packages on line to view.
Like quality detectors but probably even more so, quality optics are quality optics so don't be afraid to buy second hand either. I keep my eye on Facebook marketplace, Gumtree and the Australian amateur astronomy forum "Ice In Space" classifieds for good equipment bargains.
The overall rule is for Visual to go big on Aperture and for astrophotography go big on Quality.
Diginit you are welcome to PM anytime and if you would like we could arrange to have a chat as there is quite a lot involved and many mistakes to be avoided (personal experience) just like with someone starting out in detecting.