Which 8" Mak to buy?

[mldee]

In a few months I am planning on replacing my 8" SW Dob (thanks, AlexN) on my I-beam-piered EQ6Pro with a physically smaller scope, basically for DSLR imaging and to free up space in my little 2.25m RO observatory here in outer Brisbane. I use a side-by side mount plate with a SW BD100 refractor also on it. I like Maks' design concept.

I'll probably try and pile more small bits on the mount as well, so a nice light Mak as big as I can afford is the object. My budget is for an OTA under (hopefully) AUD2.5K.

Dealer sites show SW Mak, Vixen 200, Meade LX200 8", Celestron 200 and a few others.

Which would be most suitable? Buying bigger S/H would be nice, but 8" new is probably my preferred route.

Advice would be appreciated.

[marki]

I don't know about the celestron 200 but niether the meade or vixen are Maks. Meade tubes are very heavy so if you are trying to save weight I would steer away from them. Don't know too much about the others.

Ciao Mark

[mldee]

Oops! Yep, I was sort of mixing/confusing Maks and corrector-plated SCT's. Either are acceptable, my main preference is something that employs the corrector plate for the secondary mirror/support so that there is no spider, referenced to a plain vanilla SCT.
Hope that clarifies my ineptness slightly.

[Maverick]

Hi mldee

This one from Andrews Communication is 7" or 180mm with good price.

PROMAK180 OTA 180mm x 2700mm Maksutov-Cassegrain OTA has a 1.25" visual back and is gold in colour.
It is supplied with a matching gold coloured 9 x 50 finderscope in a white holder, 1.25" push-in diagonal, LET 9mm and 20mm eyepieces.
A Skywatcher aluminium carry case is not available for this model. Now $1199.00 Complete package!

or if you want to mach black colour of your SW BD100 there is this one

BD-MAK180 180mm x 2700mm Maksutov-Cassegrain OTA
You save A$100 or more off competitors' website prices as @ 26-02-09$1999.00

Cheers:lol: