ha ha Derek, thanks but i'm not that clever....
Best thing to do is get a book or borrow one about them, more complicated than it looks.
but definately get one with Equatorial mount, makes finding things so much easier, mine is a cheap one £225 at the time, for a 5.5 inch reflector, so i can see the 4 main moons of Jupiter and the shape of the rings around Saturn. The moon is ever so good so close you feel like you're on it! All the craters are so sharp especially if you look through at half moon or just waning. I got with it a moon filter too, as it can hurt your eyes so bright, the worst time to view the moon through a telescope is full moon, so you may need to get a filter anyway.
you also need a red torch, not white (so your eyes adjust quicker) and go and get for about 7.99 or 9.99 depending on size a planisphere from all good bookshops or Chichester Planetarium which is a twin disc and then you can line up and it shows you what you can expect to see for the time of night etc and where the planets are on the ecliptic.
You'll have lots of fun. oh and if you want something light, even a 3" refractor will do to see Saturn so you don't need to get huge as someone said using it more frequently being light is better than big and heavy and hard to carry. Unless you have room to make your own observatory which I wish i did.
20-Nov-2006, 10:10 
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