my thoughts on the ed80 were aligned with photography in mind as an option... sorry if didnt explain.....the photography is my personal main interest(i get a bit blinkered on that), and it seems that most people end up wanting to at least have a go, and i know that its the mount that will let most people down in this department, a lower budget scope delivers good results to start with............here i go again...........
Back to your initial issue. 8 inch plus newt , low f ratio, dont know much about the eq5.
could you go to a star party or a club and have a squiz at others gear?
if you just wanted to visual it would be so easy... big dob!
cheers for now AL