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My advice would be to pick up a second hand C8 if you are looking at these types of telescopes. You can get one for under a grand really easily.
A 4" SCT is really small and the difference in light gathering between a 4" and an 8" scope is pretty huge.
Any scope on a fork mount is hard to use for photography, you have to use a wedge which makes it all a bit wobbly and unwieldy.
You won't get half an hour on any new telescope for $1500, for exposures that long you would need to guide.
If photography is your main goal, what do you wish to photograph?
If planets and the moon, then an SCT is not a bad choice, if deep sky objects then on your budget it would probably be better to get an ED80 refractor and a decent tracking mount 2nd hand, like a HEQ5Pro and you could get away at about $1500.
Last edited by Poita; 11-01-2012 at 09:15 AM.
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