Looking for a multipurpose mount

[MrAstro (Andrew)]

Guys.... I'm embarrassed to ask this question but I need some advice.

Here goes...

My existing equipment:

I have a 16" F4.5 homemade truss dob which has been my main scope for the last dozen years and will be into the foreseeable future.

That said I also have a 10" F4.5 equatorial Newtonian in an aluminium tube with baffles and velvet and so-on... I haven't used it since I made the 16".

Originally it was a Meade in a cardboard tube but the only thing that is original now is the German equatorial mount which never worked properly since it was under engineered (well it is a Meade)...

Equipment recently acquired

I have just been very generously given a very nice Starwatcher ED80 Refractor Fitted with Coronado Filters and an Orion ShortTube 80 fitted with a glass/mylar style filter. The Shorttube 80 mounts onto the Starwatcher 80 on a dovetail plate.

The combined weight of the two OTA's with modest Plossl style eyepieces is 7.25kg.

The scopes do not come with a mount.

The question...

Because my 10" Newt doesn't have a very good mount and both of these refractors don't have a mount I wondered if any one style of mount would kill two birds with one stone ie. Can I buy an over engineered mount that will allow me to sometimes mount the newtonian and sometimes mount the small refractors.

I'm also thinking ahead into the future and perhaps I might later buy a larger aperture refractor and try some imaging - especially if I get older and don't want to lug the 16" Truss tube dob - I'm talking down the track I'm 'only' 45 y/o :-).

I could in theory splurge out on something like a G11 - but would it work at the height of the refractors and the lower height of a newtonian? I've never really taken an interest in equatorial mounts because I mainly do visual astronomy with the 16" truss tube dob.

Also would such a large mount like a G11 drive me mad - are they heavy and tedious to setup?

I'm also trying to avoid gear overload - I've got too much 'crap' in my garage as it is so I didn't want to buy a smaller mount only to need a larger mount later....

[glend (Glen)]

I had the same decision to make some months ago. Dob guy all my life with a 16" one sitting in the shed as my main scope. Acquired a 102mm refractor and started down the imaging path, mainly because my back suffered from trying to take the dob anywhere outside my yard. I elected to go with a NEQ6Pro mount, yes, equatorial but with lots of payload capacity for imaging gear, and lots of options in terms of computer control. Keep in mind the 2/3rds rule when looking for a mount for imaging; the idea being that you should not push a mount to its advertised capacity limit - which might work ok for visual use but become twitchy under imaging loads. You might get by with a HEQ5 or a ZEQ25 but it should be an equatorial as accurate tracking is necessary for imaging, unless your only interested in the moon or sun. If you go to long exposures then guiding will need to be looked at as well. Good luck, there is a fair amount to learn.