Quote:
Originally Posted by M_Lewis
Obviously one's budget is the overall limiting factor, but limiting one choice to a lower mount is the worst thing anyone could do.
The foundation of good astronomy starts with a good telescope mount.
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That is the best advice given so far in this thread and the primary reason a very large number of people choose dobsonian mounts for visual astronomy.
STABILITY.
You can get them without any form of electronics. You can get them with push to DSC's or you can get them with full GOTO and tracking capabilities. Importantly with a small dob the eyepiece is usually always in a convenient position. With an 8" or larger equatorially mounted newtonian you quite often need to be a contortionist to get to the eyepiece. Conversely, quite often with an equatorially mounted refractor you spend 1/2 the night rolling around in the long grass with the black snakes.
If you have your heart set on a newtonian scope for visual use I would seriously consider going to some form of dob mount, with or without DSC's and tracking.
Another alternative if you must have a GOTO mount, is to go with an 8" SCT on a GOTO mount. Being a lot shorter in length it has a much smaller moment arm and doesn't need quite as strong a mount as an equivalent aperture newtonian for the same level of stability. That having been said, IMO an 8" SCT is not quite as good a scope optically as an 8" newtonian, for a plethora of reasons. It is however easier to mount and a lot more storable, portable and transportable. In addition, with a SCT Equatorially mounted, you don't end up with your head all over the place like you do with a newt on an EQ mount. A SCT would also be well suited to imaging, if you decided to head down that path in the future.
Cheers,
John B