Ken, I'm assuming your friend wants a fork mount for its ease of use in alt/az mode and I'm assuming he wants to stay with an 8" to keep weight down. The CPC weighs about 42 pounds and the LX90 weighs about 31 pounds. If he's particularly interested in alt/az but not necessarily the fork mount, Celestron is introducing a new one armed scope with detachable ota which would be super portable, the Nexstar 8SE
http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?...0-602-891-8380
Tony