[MrAstro (Andrew)]

Guys.... I'm embarrassed to ask this question but I need some advice.

Here goes...

My existing equipment:

I have a 16" F4.5 homemade truss dob which has been my main scope for the last dozen years and will be into the foreseeable future.

That said I also have a 10" F4.5 equatorial Newtonian in an aluminium tube with baffles and velvet and so-on... I haven't used it since I made the 16".

Originally it was a Meade in a cardboard tube but the only thing that is original now is the German equatorial mount which never worked properly since it was under engineered (well it is a Meade)...

Equipment recently acquired

I have just been very generously given a very nice Starwatcher ED80 Refractor Fitted with Coronado Filters and an Orion ShortTube 80 fitted with a glass/mylar style filter. The Shorttube 80 mounts onto the Starwatcher 80 on a dovetail plate.

The combined weight of the two OTA's with modest Plossl style eyepieces is 7.25kg.

The scopes do not come with a mount.

The question...

Because my 10" Newt doesn't have a very good mount and both of these refractors don't have a mount I wondered if any one style of mount would kill two birds with one stone ie. Can I buy an over engineered mount that will allow me to sometimes mount the newtonian and sometimes mount the small refractors.

I'm also thinking ahead into the future and perhaps I might later buy a larger aperture refractor and try some imaging - especially if I get older and don't want to lug the 16" Truss tube dob - I'm talking down the track I'm 'only' 45 y/o :-).

I could in theory splurge out on something like a G11 - but would it work at the height of the refractors and the lower height of a newtonian? I've never really taken an interest in equatorial mounts because I mainly do visual astronomy with the 16" truss tube dob.

Also would such a large mount like a G11 drive me mad - are they heavy and tedious to setup?

I'm also trying to avoid gear overload - I've got too much 'crap' in my garage as it is so I didn't want to buy a smaller mount only to need a larger mount later....