8" newtonian with Aldi equatorial mount?

Thanks a lot for the advice.
I will go for dobsonian 8".
Does it take long time for telescope of this size to cool down in our conditions?
Is it easy in the future to put dobsonian on equatorial mount? - I presume dobosnians have a different mounting detail than OTA purchased with equatorial mount.
Funny enough - I have never used the circles on my existing mount. I always find objects by star hopping.

If you're comfortable star-hopping then you'll be comfortable with a Donsonian.

With respect to cooling down I dont know - I keep mine in the shed so its always close to ambient temperature.

For mounting later on onto an equatorial mount have a look at the attached photograph of mine mounted.

The black disc (with red circle on it) is also located on the other side of the telescope. These are the extra bits that allow it to be simply rested on a Dobsinian cradle and these serve as the altitude (up/down) bearings. The azimuth (left/right) bearing is part of the cradle (not in image).

As you can see mounting the telescope onto an equatorial mount is no different from a scope that was indended to be equatorially mounted in the first place.

You buy two 8" tube rings and if the mount doesn't come with one - a long Dove Tail bar (mine is 33.5 cm Vixen GP).

The only risk is that you can't balance the scope because the Dobsonian altitude bearings would obstruct one of the tube rings. This was a worry of mine but I sought may materials and advice from Bernard at modernastronomy.com (in UK) and my fears were dispelled and the problem never arose.

In this image view the dovetail bar is behind the scope - and in this particular configuration I have that dovetail bar mounted on an ADM dual dovetail bar so that I can also mount my ETX-70 as seen here.

The mount will be the more difficult choice later on because its a performance/cost balancing execise - they're not cheap.
We know that's doable so I wouldn't worry too much now and enjoy the Dobsonian - it maybe that what you eventually want is a larger Dobsonian (aperture fever).


Hope that helps.
Mark

I bought myself an 8" starhopper just before christmas, it was my first real scope and I love it. The views are fantastic with it and real value for money as your not paying for a GEM. I do intend to get a mount for it as soon as I can afford a good one to hold its weight plus some(I hope to use it for photography in the future). But for good aperture and ease of use you can't go wrong.
I would usually leave mine outside for about an hour to cool down before I start observing with it.

Edit - Ive already started designing a 16" dob for when I mount this on a GEM.

So dobsonian it is.
Thanks for the advice and the picture.
I think i will go for skywatcher because of the good price and positive reviews.
Thanks again, I will let you know how i got on.