If have the opportunity to buy a telescope after saving for a bit. If a person has the money to either buy a Schmidt-Cassegrain (Meade LX200 8" ACF, Celestron 9.25" CPC) or a truss dobsonian (Orion Skyquest XX16g) which would you choose?
I have narrowed my focus to these options (or a Celestron CPC 800).
I do not have aperture fever, however the 16" dobsonian is attractive. I am more concerned about owning a telescope I will use, rather than the biggest which may collect dust. My only concern about the Orion dob is it being unwieldy in terms of weight and dimensions (although I know you can break it down to the baseboard if need be for transport). I will be quite frank and say weight is an issue of concern for me. So for instance a Meade LX90 10" or LX200 10" would likely be a little too weighty for me.
I like the idea of larger aperture to view the night sky, but I also like the idea of being able to take images of the night sky. I have had no experience imaging so I am not going to even try to say I want to do this right away. I have however been learning goto and the night sky with my Meade ETX105EC which I do really like. The idea is viewing first and then gradually start looking into imaging ad there is an arm within the astronomy club that looks at this specifically I could talk to later on.
I always assumed you could not take any images through a dobsonian, but have been told by local club members otherwise. I guess this relates to the newer dobsonians that have goto on them, whereas manual movement versions it would not be possible.
If anyone has any comments to choice it would be great to hear from you.
