You know, as you get older, certain truths emerge. Myths, hype, commercial BS subsides and crystal clarity finally smacks you in the face. Its a bit like with cars, in the end, the only things that really count, are Horsepower and a monster Subby in the back. life is for living. For DS Astrophotography anyway, aperture counts, astronomy is about zooming in, after that its a just a matter of time over money. Enough of tiny refractors and high quality wide fields. How many times can you image the same top 10 big objects?, boring, narrow field rules
. The best scope is the largest aperture you can afford balanced with the amount of time you are willing to spend on processing to cover the lack of money you spent on the scope
.