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Good grief but this is a minefield! Things I had thought would be 'obvious' just aren't, and the things that seem like they may be most important simply didn't occur to me a couple of weeks ago. Thank goodness I didn't just 'jump in'...
PORTABILITY: Never even thought about it, but the only place to keep a scope in our house is an empty upstairs bedroom. Narrow stairs, with a tight landing. And there is no convenient route from the bottom of the stairs to the back door, so it is out the front, through a narrow gate and down a rough path.
BACK YARD: there is nowhere - and I mean nowhere - in our yard that approximates 'flat'. We live on a steepish slope. I could certainly level an area, but the damned trees that surround the place dictate that the scope will have to be moved to at least three different locations depending on which direction I want to look. Three or four decent-sized level areas isn't going to work.
SO: a decent sized Newtonian reflector on a Dob mount is not looking like a choice which will see a lot of use.
I have used cameras for years and am familiar with setting up tripods on bad ground. I don't think a EQ mount scares me too much. And the more I think about it the more likely it seems that I will want to hang a camera off the thing sooner rather than later.
Current thinking is now headed more to something like an ED80, or maybe a SCT of some sort on a decent sized GEQ base. I am not too fussed about GoTo (I suspect the challenge of finding will simply add zest to the seeing), but something that tracks once I find it seems sensible.
Comments? Suggestions? Alternatives?
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