Telescope Reviews: This newbie is a bit confused about the concepts

First off, as a relative newbie myself who recently went through the process of researching and choosing what I believed to be the best "primer" telescope which would give a good all-around level of optical performance, portability and quick set-up, for a modest entry-level budget (I also was working with $1000 CDN) I must give a hearty "Thank you very much!!" to all the folks here at CN who asked the right questions and to those who provided the invaluable replies to said questions. Again, THANK YOU ALL!!!

That being said, here's what I decided would be the best choice for me, and my reasons for these decisions...

First of all, I wanted enough aperture to show me most of the more visually impressive sights in the sky. The moon, planets, bright nebulae, some of the brighter galaxies, maybe some open clusters and some globulars... and even a comet or two. From all that I'd read it seemed obvious I was looking at a minimum of a 6" newtonian (remember the budget) to adequately reveal these treasures to my eye.

Next, I wanted to ensure that this scope would be portable enough that I could lug it in and out of the house willingly, on very short notice (cuz clear sky doesn't wait for anyone) so it had to be reasonably light and compact. VERY IMPORTANT if your "day-life" requires you to pack up early or if Ol' Man Winter chases you indoors under threat of frostbite (once you stop feeling your fingertips you don't want to have to stay out for another 15 minutes tearing down - you'll have frostbite by then) so tear down and setup time (including ambient cooling of the optics)should be kept to a minimum for a beginner who has yet to actually "fall in love" with their scope to this point. BACK UP SCOPEHUGGERS!!!! Us newbs wanna look through the scope, not AT it...

Ok, next on the list was the ability to "roughly" (or vaguely) align the scope to the target object and keep it in the field of view. Star hopping is a breeze with a dob, but tracking is nudgy and thus limits the usefulness of high power visual observing to whatever limit your manual dexterity (and mount quality) permits without becoming a hassle. Due to my interest in observing planets and smaller DSO's like plantary nebulae and globular clusters I settled on an equatorial mount, for more precise hunting and tracking at higher magnifications.

Oh yeah, BTW did I mention the BUDGET???????

Accessories. Gotta have those. A couple EP's with decent eye relief will make observing the sky more enjoyable than trying to squint through a sleeked up little peephole which requires 100x more cleaning because of this... especially at shorter focal lengths. A good quality barlow lens, star-charts, red light... all of these will make your observing more enjoyable - although really are not immediately necessary to get started out. They're merely beginner's luxuries.

So keeping all those criteria in mind, ESPECIALLY the BUDGET, I settled in the realm of a 6" - 8" newtonian reflector on an EQ mount with a couple additional eyepieces to start out. After conveniently stumbling upon a very favorable review of Orion's SpaceProbe 130ST (with the superior parabolic mirror)... I looked into the 130mm f/5 EQ2 platform across a variety of manufacturers and found a VERY economical starter scope in the SkyWatcher line (actually made by Synta) identical in specs to the SpaceProbe 130ST. It also garnered the same praise for it's high quality optics and solid construction. I believe that the 130mm (5.1") f/5 offerings from Orion, SkyWatcher and the like could in fact be the best VALUE (there's a much underused word around here) in entry-level telescopes. You get far more than what you pay for with these scopes IMO. And with the money you save, those beginner luxuries can easily be purchased without hyperextending your budget or your waiting time to break into this fascinating hobby. Who wants to wait another week, month, year... whatever to save up for that "highly recommended and equally beyond the current budget" telescope which is only going to give you *marginally* better views (to the eye)?? At least if you shop today you can have a better view tomorrow rather than some point in the distant future. Beginners need to get into this hobby. NOW. Get out under the stars now and save up for your "ideal" scope when it coincides with your "ideal" budget. You wanna wait til you go blind????

So anyways, my choice was the SkyWatcher 130 F/5 EQ2 supplemented (for now) with a 2.3mm and an 18mm Celestron X-Cel pair of EP's (to go with the 25mm and 10mm stock plossls) giving me from 26x with a 2 degree true field of view, up to 283x with a 0.2 degree TFOV - a good combination of powers (albeit there are some gaps to fill in the future between 65x and 283x, but a barlow should help there) with vast usefulness.

My choice may not be the best choice for you, but it would be a wise option to consider, especially before you know if you can handle or enjoy staying up all hours of the night feeling somewhat uncomfortably cold, staring at faint fuzzies which resemble the cloud formations we typically associate with rain. Hey, if a 5" won't impress you, neither will a 10" that costs 3-5x as much money. You wouldn't buy a Porsche 911 for your teenager to learn to drive in, right? Easy on the gas till you "get it" I say. Spend less and get more.

I apologize for the length of this post... truth be told it's actually a credit to all of you here at CN who have helped me learn enough to have something to say.

Thanks again! Hope this rambling proves equally as helpful.