|
Joel
I would not go a collapsible if going 8" in your case for 2 reasons. Firstly the space saving is quite minimal. The largest item is the base and it is not collapsible so you are only saving about 1/3 of the tube length, hardly worth it for the extra cost unless you have very serious space saving issue. Secondly with regard to future use of the scope for imaging, you will almost certainly need a solid tube for a couple of reasons. 1, it is quite difficult to attach a collapsible tube to an EQ mount, can be done but will require a bit of handywork, 2, collimation is far more critical for imaging and solid tubes will hold collimation better.
That brings me to another point, a dob can be retrofitted to make it goto, but that does not make it suitable for imaging. Imaging (mostly) requires a good EQ mount, unless you want to restrict yourself to the moon and brighter planets.
You will find that observing and imaging have very different requirements as far as gear is concerned and it is very difficult, actually make that impossible, to find a set of gear that works well to do both.
On a further note, I can heartily recommend Bintel, great service, they look after the amatuer community and great range.
Malcolm
|