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Regarding the 5 or 6 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain option for a very portable telescope:
I note on the Celestron website that a 6 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain tube assembly weighs only 4.5 kilograms.
According to the Celestron website, these tubes are only 406mm in length and not much wider than the 6 inch aperture of the telescope.
These are about $600 in the USA; not sure what local dealers are charging for them.
Celestron sells these tubes with various mounts, with a discount on the price of the tube assembly.
The views through these tube assemblies are about as bright as those through a 6 inch Newt, because the coatings are optimized to enhance light transmission.
Planetary detail, however, usually suffers , compared to a high quality newtonian of the same aperture.
I have not bought a Schmidt-Cassegrain optic for some time, but traditionally the optics of these instruments used to be of 'commercial' standard, which means - in real terms - a very considerable variation in quality between various examples of the same telescope model. Always best to find somebody at a good dealer who can sell you one that has decent optics.
The good thing is, that these compact telescopes give decent deep sky views.
I am not familiar with Meade's lineup of Schmidt-Cassegrains, but they have them in various sizes.
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