It’s all about acceptable compromise really. Most people who do it quite seriously have both a permanent rig and a ‘grab and go’ rig.

I sold my permanent rig when I moved accommodation but will be looking to get another in the near future.

The key item in all of this is always the ‘mount’.
In a permanent setup, this would preferably be set on a pillar or effectively unmovable fixture.

For grab and go (such as mine) you are looking for something that will be easily movable but still have a good load weight once setup. Star Trackers such as the Skywatcher Star Adventurer (£269) and iOptron Skyguider Pro (£375) have dominated this market recently.

Good permanent mounts start roughly from about £800 - £20k+ This is were the sensible compromise needs to rear it’s head. Are you really going to get a return on £20k given UK weather and seeing. IMHO, I wouldn’t do it (unless I won the lottery).

Being in this position myself I would recommend what I consider to be the best and most helpful online Shops available to the UK astronomer, in no particular order...

Modern Astronomy
First Light Optics
Rother Valley Optics

They will all give sound advice, once they know the context and your requirements.

The standard recommendations (which coincide with my own preferences) would usually be:-

Good mount with wide scope for growth from beginner to more advanced.

Skywatcher HEQ5 - £789
Skywatcher EQ6-R - £1,229 (My choice)
IOptron CEM40 - £1,440

Scope - to big a choice to go into here but I would recommend a flavour of ED80 apochromatic refractor to cover the widest range from visual to photography.

I would say s good mid-range permanent rig would cost roughly -

Mount £1,200 approx
Scope £1,200 approx
Camera £1,500 approx (with filters)

Then, like hifi, you can throw as much money as you want at tweakery [emoji4]


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