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Message:: [QUOTE="Sallent, post: 2857841, member: 76194"]Thanks for the tip. Although I've always liked astronomy, I've only been interested in sky watching for a few months. I'm still a little confused over the whole dobsonian vs. schmidt-cassegrain vs. maksutov, etc. There's a lot to take in for a beginner. I'm just glad I at least bought a dobsonian with a larger than 4 inch aperture, instead of a 60mm refractor telescope, or smaller (which is a typical newbie mistake.). My first choice might be far from the best out there, but considering all the pitfalls I think I did relatively decent. I do want either a 6 or 8 inch telescope eventually, and one that is computerized for quick work of the sky, but I would like it to be as light as possible too to encourage me to drag it out as often as the opportunity presents itself. I have a lot of research to do on that before buying. Ease of travel and convenience is always important as I'd like to start dragging out my scopes and binoculars to the Fox observatory in Broward County on occasion for the public stargazing events, plus it's also nice to be able to take one's telescope to a friend's house to share the hobby. I did that the other night and carrying the 12 pounds of equipment for my 4.5 dobsonian to the car, taking it out again and assembling it at my friend's house, was so easy that even a child could do it. I might not feel the same way if it was 70 or 80 pounds of equipment[/QUOTE]