If someone new to this hobby asked me this question, I would first check out:

1. What is your first main interest – for example, deep-sky objects like nebulae, or planetary imaging within the solar system? Different equipment is needed for different images. In this blog, let’s assume nebulae.

2. Have you got a good enough view of the night sky, in particular, looking towards the east? Is the view free of obstacles such as trees or buildings? Are you in the middle of a city – is there much light pollution? In this blog, let’s assume a good-enough view and not too much light pollution.

3. Are you willing to invest a reasonable amount of money? In my view, it is better to go for more expensive and better-quality equipment to start with, rather than work your way up, which ends up being more expensive in the long run. For this blog, let’s assume the costs can be managed.

Then, based on my experience, and on what I use, this is what I would advise:

For the mount, I would go for a harmonic drive and would suggest the ZWO AM7 Harmonic Equatorial GoTo Mount. To me, harmonic mounts are much easier to set up and operate than German Equatorial mounts. Although ZWO has cheaper and smaller mounts, the AM7 seems to me a good investment for the future, as it can carry heavy telescopes. At the moment, I do not have an AM7, so I cannot vouch for it. I have an AM5, which I find very easy to use and tracks excellently enabling high quality images to be captured. The AM7 is on my future shopping list!

For the tripod on which to place the mount, I would advise a heavy-duty mount rather than the ZWO TC40 Carbon Fibre Tripod. I find the ZWO carbon fibre tripod is not stable enough when mounting heavy telescopes,  and I am always concerned that an accident may happen. One option to go for is the Celestron CGX tripod, which, it seems, can be adapted to carry the AM7 (see this video). This leaves open the future option of getting a Celestron mount and scope. PLEASE NOTE: I have not mounted my AM5 on my Celetron tripod, so I cannot vouch that it can be done.

Advice on further equipment to follow in a blog update…