[Mattwalker (Matt)]

Hi Everyone,

After travelling to the Aoraki / Mount Cook Dark Sky Park on a recent holiday and viewing the Jewel Box and the Galilean moons of Jupiter through 11" and 14" SCT's I am thoroughly hooked! So I am looking to purchase my first OTA and mount, both used if possible.

I am only looking to do visual astronomy at this stage.

I have seen Celestron 11" and 9.25" SCT's that I am considering. These weigh 12.4 kg and 9.07 kg respectively.

So my question is would either of these mounts be suitable for the above scopes or am I pushing it ? Any other mount suggestions would be welcome:

1. Celestron AVX Equatorial (Payload of 13.6 Kg).
2. Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro (Payload of 13.5 Kg).

Thanks.