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I had a 12" LX200 permanently mounted on a wedge in an observatory. I never managed to get any photos through it that were worth showing. Yes it could be made to work but even as a permanent mount it was more of a hassle with photography than the method we now use.
It was impossible to manually put on the wedge due mainly to the angle it needed to be oriented at to slip onto the wedge (as well as the weight). I overcame this by building a special purpose crane.
It was a great scope for visual work and when set up correctly with the axes properly orthogonal the gotos were excellent and it held its alignment for years by just parking it after use.
For portable work I use a LX200 10" on an alt/azm mount. This is excellent for viewing nights at schools etc and find it much more versatile as I can assemble it and get it operational by myself in about 5 minutes.
When I got serious about AP about two years ago and looked at what the experts were using we decided that the telescope was only a minor requirement. The real need was a good mount so we bought a G11 with Gemini and put an $600 8" newtonian on it We will also be using an ED80 or similar.
Trevor can set the mount up in equatorial mode at Wiruna and be taking photos in as little as 10 minutes. Trip before last to Wiruna had about 20 minutes of clear sky after dusk before clouds spoiled the rest of the weekend but he manage to get two subs of M8 while no one else even managed to get their scopes aligned.
The cost of all this including the CCD guider and periferals was less than the cost of a new LX200 12".
Barry
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