| Not an expert, but I'm delighted with the NexStar 5SE. Yes, it's a rather small aperture, so you're limited in deep space objects. (But I still took pretty amazing pictures of various nebula, so it's still pretty cool) It's compact - which was a large point for me. I don't have a giant thing sitting around. It's also able to travel in a (slightly large) carry-on, if we ever get to travel on airplanes again. It's not-too-expensive ($650 when I bought it. Not cheap, but not a $5K tube either) The autotracking is good enough for long exposure shots, calibration is super easy. But all that said: Get a good pair of binoculars first. Get a star map. Learn your way around the sky. That time investment is well worth it. For one, it means that for many objects you can skip all the calibration noise and just dial them in like the ancient pre-2000 people: By hand. Calibration is more setup, it's boring, I still dial in by hand when I can. And it's fun when you can just look at the night sky and know where stuff is. Caveat: Astronomy is ultimately a very opinionated hobby. All of the answers I gave might be wrong for you. |