straight up that poor dude would have had a nightmare with his collimation for one. no center spot on the mirror........
2 if your doing astrophotography the light will kill you 100% so open truss designs are not that good unless you wrap them up with a light proof medium.
3. for visual you can go a open truss, but i have used open truss designs and if you have any light around it detracts from the image.
a combination of CF truss's and then cover it in with a thick black material will help alot.
The only reason why i was suggesting the Gem was to do with the fact that you will have field rotation unless you have a polar wedge further to that Newts are quite long compared to the catadioptic bretheren eg RC SCTs, but if you like the fork mounts
run with it because a well built one is good just not portable.
Brendan