[Cody (Cody)]

I have a budget of $4k.

I've been looking at the Celestron 9.25" SCT scopes. I was interested in the one with the CG-5 mount but can splurge up to the VX mount which seems to have much better reviews. The VX mount is priced close to the CPC mount but as far as I've read I should stay away from CPC if I want to do imaging (even though the advertising has "astrophotography!" written all over it).

I was then going to get the 2" eyepiece set and whatever adapter I need to stick my Sony Nex camera onto it.

But I can't afford to go up to the CGEM series of mounts.

What I want to know is, is it even worth it? 9.25" VX + my Sony Nex camera should get me somewhere with astrophotography right? Or am I just going to come out unsatisfied?

I've read enough reviews of the 9.5" to tell me it's a great tube, some reviews on the SC-5 that dither between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" for astrophotography (to be fair, people whinge about the CGEM too!) but almost nothing on the combination with the VX mount.

I owned an 8" SkyWatcher refractor about a decade ago but it wasn't motorised so had no hope of ever doing astrophotography and was too bulky (I didn't have a car at the time, now I do!), so I sold it and have wanted to get back into astronomy ever since...

I feel a bit lost. I don't want to be buying extra equipment above whatever I get this time.