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Originally Posted by MikeyB
When you talk about using a manual alt/az mount with a long focal length, narrow field of view Mak, aren't you overlooking how difficult it will be to keep a target in view, given the magnification these produce?
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A fair point. I was assuming that I'd at least need slow motion controls on the mount to make manual tracking at high magnifications feasible, but I don't have a good feel for how difficult it would still be. A computerised mount would of course made the whole thing easier, but my idea was to go with a manual mount to begin with on the basis that a computerised mount would inevitably be a least a little bit heavier (thus making the setup as a whole a bit less portable) and of course more expensive. I did have in my mind the idea that I could always upgrade the mount later.
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Personally, I'd pick a goto SCT like the Celestron Nexstar SE series - prices on the 8" are awfully tempting at Andrews and Bintel at present and the extra diameter will give you a much better view of the objects that it's tracking.
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Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into those in a bit more detail. There are certainly some very hefty discounts from the RRP, though the extra aperture and computerised mount of the 8SE still comes out about twice the total cost of the 6" Mak manual setup I talked about in my initial post. The 6" is pretty competitive though.