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Hi Eskimo,
when I was bewteen the NEQ6-Pro and the HEQ5-Pro the guys at Bintel told me to get the EQ6 and I think it was the right decission.
The weight isnīt really an issue. I am a normal guy, working in an office, donīt go to the gym and never had any issues moving the whole lot (tripod and mounthead without counterweights) out into the backyard and back after a tiring night.
The load capacity of around 17kg enables you to put more and heavier gear on as the HEQ5 would allow and with some improvement of the mount you can extend to even more (some guys load up to 25kg on it and still achieve decent accuracy).
The mount (same as with the HEQ5) is on the market for a pretty long time and sold under different brands. There are forums (EQmod-yahoo group) that focus entirely on the improvement of it. There is plenty of experience from other long time users and if you look around the profiles of some iceinspace members youīll notice that a lot of them have one.
The EQ6-Pro has been a workhorse for quite some time and it is probably the EQ mount with the highest payload capacity in its price range. It also is Ascom compatible and hence works with almost any planetarium software capable of controlling EQ mounts.
Iīve had mine for 2 years and it worked out of the box, never failed and I havenīt even yet explored all its capacities like PEC i.e.
The only issues I could see for you is the set up process (which is the same for all EQ mounts) as it becomes a drama if you have no free view to the south celestial pole. But there are ways around it.
As for your scope choice: the bigger the telescope (the more focal length I should say) the harder it becomes to avoid trailed stars in the final image. Visually Iīd say spend all your money on apperture and even borough from friends for another inch more. For AP and especially for the first AP experience ever it does not matter so much. With a DSLR and an ED80, you are likely to be pretty happy with a 2min unguided exposure provided you have pitch black skies. The ED80 is a good device. In my opinion, donīt even bother about the SW Black Diamond ED, take the SW ED80 instead. It safes you about $400 and is basically the same scope. Only differences are that you donīt get the aluminium case and that the focuser has no 10:1 facility. I image with an EOS 450D and usually focus with a Bhatinov mask - no dramas, always sharp. Heavier cameras may stress the focuser too much but that is something to consider when stepping up to the next level of AP, when the camera only will cost as much as all my current gear together.
Most important for astrophotography is a guide system consisting of an autoguider and some sort of a telescope which should be mounted in a way that it can be pointed at a star even though your imaging scope points at an area in the sky where there are no obvious stars. Without autoguider, the maximum exposure time is rather short and will be even shorter the longer the focal lenght of the telescope. Every mount produces errors and no polar alignment really is perfect. Long focal lenghts magnify this faster than short ones.
There is an interesting combo on the market that utilises an Orion autoguider and a finderscope-type guide scope.
I had a look at Bintels website and you schould be able to get a HEQ5-Pro, an ED80 plus the Miniautoguider package within your budget limits. However, you will need a camera too.
But perhaps you check out the classifieds here on iceinspace to save some bucks.
PS: I still image a lot through my 6" Newton and use the ED80 as a guide scope. But in case you look at a biggish Newton instead of the refractor: most of these Newtons need to be modified to achieve focus with a DSLR unless they are specific AP scopes and all Newtons technically require coma correctors (and perhaps field flatteners) to produce pleasing results off centre.
PPS: Be warned! Once you bought all your equipment and desperately want to try it all out: it will rain for weeks, not during the day but every night-at least it heavy clouds.
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