|
Welcome to Ice in Space agivney!
The CGEM DX is a beast of a mount - probably borderline portable for a lot of people - so I'd recommend you get to see one before you buy. Personally, I like the Celestron handset software, the star alignment is easy and the all-star polar alignment is effective. But it's quite an expensive mount in Australia, so if you're certain you want that size of mount it might be worth considering the Skywatcher EQ8 or Losmandy G11 also.
Regarding the scope...the C11 has a long focal length and the Hyperstar itself is reasonably pricey. At around 560mm focal length in f/2 configuration, you could easily reproduce this with other scopes that are less of a handful, like 80-100mm apo refractors. Sure, you might lose resolution but it might be a less frustrating place to start, and the mount you could get away with could be smaller and lighter. The secondary obstruction is about 95mm across, so your camera will extend a little past this but not a huge amount.
I use a C11 Edge HD for visual and I've been experimenting with capturing planetary sequences and like it a lot...it's quite compact for its aperture, it's just the mount to carry it - I use an EQ6 - is big and heavy, but a lightweight compared a CGEM DX and the alternatives! I haven't tried DSO photography with it, although I have experimented with a C8 on the same mount for this.
|