Well, now it's becoming clear thanks to some honest input
Yes, I was thinking of a mass produced mirror for a Newtonian but knew at the back of my mind that it would most likely be of average optical quality.
I'm familiar with refractors(only achromats) and know that they can at times, even though they are not perfectly colour corrected, blow away a newt with much, much larger aperature.
I would not however spend thousands on a 5 inch overpriced APO..........this is just a rip off despite the makers claims on how costly the glass is.
I have a 60mm old tasco(yes,........60mm........with an obviously and unusually good objective) that shows the moons of jupiter as small dots at high power(dare I say disks?!) compared to my 15 year old 8 inch U.K made Orion ( excelent optics) ...........which no matter how well collimated, does not cut the mustard on planets and refuses to show more detail as the aperature should ????
????.......the moons look like spiky stars
I would love to own a SCT, but will not bother with anything under 10 inches in the aperature department.
Looks like a lot of money will be needed to get there by the sounds of it.
I guess you get what you pay for
Rob.