I really appreciate the advice and comments.
It looks like the CGEM is going to be my mount. As far as the OTA goes, it looks like the budget is going to be a little larger than I originally thought
. So I'm looking at either a regular Celestron 9.25" SCT or an 8" SCT Celestron HD Astropgraph.
Does anyone have an opinion on the trade off between the regular 9.25" SCT and the 8" Astrograph?
Is the difference in photography between the two worth the smaller size. I don't know very much about "astrographs".