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Can I just offer my 2 cents worth, as someone who started out with an LX-90 and then bought a GEM & Refractor for imaging.
I started with an LX-90. I stupidly thought that autoguiding would make imaging a breeze. I have learnt that the quality of your mount is paramount to imaging - you can't making chicken salad from chicken *^$&. A 10inch LX-200 OTA is a 2500mm focal length lens. The accuracy of tracking required for that is almost unfathomable. I have just started imaging at 6-800mm on a high quality mount and am discovering this will be a long road to travel. When I talked to people in my club about imaging they said to cut my teeth at ~800mm before trying anything above 1000mm, let alone 2000mm. (Remember, even with a focal reducer, your 10inch OTA will still be 1575mm - and the standard focal reducers don't work on the ACF optics)
Please don't do what I did, and think that buying a fork mounted LX-90 or LX-200 will let you get into imaging one day. A fork mount is not friendly for imaging. I know people do it, but they must have the patience of a saint. I have kept my LX-90 as a visual scope - it is fabulous for that in Alt-Az mode - the tracking and GOTO are brilliant. The optics are impressive and one day I may defork the OTA and try imaging with it on my GEM.
The suggestion of buying an LX-200 OTA and EQ6 mount would be preferable, but I'd put $2 on the fact that you'd end up with a 3-4 inch refractor when you wanted to start imaging. Unfortunately, there is no one scope that will fill all of your wants and desires.
DT
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