Hi all,
I have been playing with my dad's Celestron 8" SCT/AVX combo on an off for a few years now and finally feel ready to get a scope for myself to make this hobby more accessible and enjoyable. My dad is only into visual, but I have attempted imaging on his gear and find that the OTA/mount struggles when pushed in this direction. I have got myself a SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro mount and now need an OTA to sit on it (along with a myriad of other accessories).
I have been doing as much research as I can and have had my eyes on the
Celestron 9.25" EdgeHD SCT for a while since it appears to be much better for the imaging side of things, without being too large and heavy to still be portable with 1-2 people. I have read that people do not like this route due to the lack of focal reducer, however Celestron has since released this, so thought that should it it solved...
Since then I have been looking at Astrobin, and after noticing that a lot of fantastic photos come from refractors, started to second guess the SCT. I have had a look on Bintel for an APO with a similar price to the 9.25" and found the
SkyWatcher Esprit 100mm Triplet Super APO. I understand that the refractor is ~2 stops faster than the SCT, and of course it has a much shorter focal length for fitting in large DSO's and will make tracking much easier. However, I'm worried about it's ability to image planets, and how planets/the moon would look visually through it at outreach events compared to the SCT.
I'd love to get your experienced opinions about this.
tldr: I plan to get into planetary and DSO astrophotography (stating with a full frame dslr), while also wanting to use this for outreach events (so portability/viewing matters). Price limit ~$3,500 for the OTA to be paired with a EQ6-R Pro mount. What do you recommend?