My thanks to all who have responded. I knew I could count on IIS members for helpful advice. Portability of this thing shouldn't be a problem as my position 15 km SW of Alice in a semi rural area means I'm getting nice dark skies so the majority of my viewing should be of the backyard variety. A 20 meter shed right next to me stuffs the Eastern horizon somewhat but I can always drive about 1 km down the road to the claypans where the viewing is virtually horizon to horizon. I've got the trusty old Falcon uterus and I figure there's enough room in the back of that (1650 mm with the tail gate up) to transport most scopes.
So it really does come down to a simple question of whether or not an extra 2 inches of aperture is worth another 200 or so dollars.
Had to chuckle at Ian's reply though. Here's me trying to avoid aperture envy and a man obviously riddled with it slyly advises me to go with a 14.5 inch!
All the same Ian, what you said and the figures supplied confirm this as actually very cunning reasoning. I'd be very interested in hearing from you if you do upgrade, but I think that size might exceed my budget
Thanks to all for posting. You've given me a bit more to think about.
