Time to move up a scope.

Really, that many 'handling' charges(airline, customs etc). incl the $242 i pay for shipping. Its still miles cheaper than anything on this side of the Atlantic, but boy do they squeeze you!!!

Hi Stepthen,
It comes to one question,

Are you going to do astrophotography ??

If no, get the biggest Dob you can fit inot your car and afford

If yes, you'll need a German EQ mount or a SCT fork mount and a wedge, each has their advantages.
After having both myself, I'd go for the SCT + wedge, it crosses the meridan (the best part of the sky) much easier then german Eq mounts and it requires less space as there is no counter weights or arm.

Make the most of the Euro/Dollar conversion rate while you can.

Stephen,
I think Dave's advice is worth listening to. Personally, I'm not a big fan of equatorial mounts. There's not the most user friendly. I find a dob or SCT much easier to use. However, if astrophotography is your goal then you may need to consider it. A wedge can be used on an SCT also. However, IMHO, if you want to get serious about astrophotography you need a permanent setup. Accurate polar alignment which will allow really long exposures requires very precise polar alignment. This takes a significant length of time and so and is not the sort of thing you can do "in the field" every single clear night. Besides, to get anyway serious about astrophotography, you'll need to shelter the mount and camera from the wind.

From your list, you've narrowed your choices down to dobs which do offer the best value for money, aperture-wise. When looking for a dob, there are a few things to consider:

1) How good will the mirror be? Do you know where the mirror is coming from? Is it diffraction-limited?

2) Focuser. This is a very much under-rated part of a telescope. For each of the scopes you've selected, try and find out how good the focuser is.

3) Movement in both horz and vert axes. How smooth are they? Will you need to modify the mount after you get it to ensure it will work smoothly?
Somttimes it's best to pay a little extra on a scope initially in order to avoid future problems.

A site worth looking at is www.cloudynights.com
They have loads of reviews on various telescopes. It's likely that they have reviewed some of the scopes you have mentioned. Also, make sure you use the imternet to it's best to find out what owners have to say about their new scope.

Also, check out www.discovery-telescopes.com/scopes.html and a list of manufacturers & retailers are here: www.r-clarke.org.uk/astrolinks_vendors.htm

Sorry guys, I made a balls of posting this earlier....anyway,
Yes I have used cloudy nights extensively in my search for an upgrade.
One question I do have is this-
Are 10/12" dobs difficult to use. I mean like visually tracking an object with a 6/9mm ep must be quite hard, or does it just seem hard. It hard enough with the hand controller on a 4.5" goto scope (when I havent bothered aligning it and just want a quick peak at things).
Someone who uses a dob might convince me..

Sorry guys, I made a balls of posting this earlier....anyway,
Yes I have used cloudy nights extensively in my search for an upgrade.
One question I do have is this-
Are 10/12" dobs difficult to use. I mean like visually tracking an object with a 6/9mm ep must be quite hard, or does it just seem hard. It hard enough with the hand controller on a 4.5" goto scope (when I havent bothered aligning it and just want a quick peak at things).
Someone who uses a dob might convince me..

The club here has a 13" Dob which I used for a number of years,.
The main thing I found with Dobs is that it really helps if the tube is balanced (up/down), compare it to driving a car where the front wheels aren't tracked properely with one that is tracked. The untracked car is a pain to drive were you feel like your fighting the thing the whole time, while the other is a pleasure. I used to have a fiesta years ago where if I left go of the steering wheel , I'd be in the ditch in seconds

The second point is that the 2 axises must not be too stiff, so that a small nudge is all that is needed to keep an object in the feel of view, I found I could use high mags if these 2 criteria were kept to.

GOTO isn't the be-all and end-all, for me the tracking ability of a GOTO scope is more important then the actual GOTO feature, so using a handcontroller is a small bonus.

I have spent ages surfing for scopes and I came across a particular scope. Its for sale in a few places in the UK.
Its a Skywatcher Explorer 250px, its on a motor driven EQ6 mount, and it comes with camera adaptor etc. The scope is on www.skywatchertelescope.net .
What do you all think?
Thanks for the informed replies,
Stephen.