Witch Telescope Should I Buy From These 2

Hi Joe,

It sounds like you've devoted a lot of time and thought to this, and are prepared to spend some serious money on a large telescope. I have used telescopes similar to the two you are considering. The Celestron is a large reflector on a heavy GoTo equatorial mount. The telescope itself is fine and the mount is fine, but they are not well matched. The telescope is way to heavy for a CG-5 mount, and will not be stable enough for photography; it may not even be stable enough for visual observation. I'd recommend instead either a smaller telescope on this mount, or this telescope on a considerably heavier mount, a CGEM or CGEM-DX.

The Orion is on a Dobsonian mount, which is much more solid than the CG-5, but totally unsuited for photography. Even the motorized version will not work, because of field rotation. I am strictly a visual observer and have no interest in photography, so this would be an excellent choice FOR ME, but maybe not for you. I had a 12-inch Dob in fact, but found that I preferred the 10-inch size because I like to sit down while observing, and the tall and bulky 12-inch tube didn't allow that. Rather than Orion, I would suggest SkyWatcher instead. These are imported directly from China rather than via California, so are considerably less expensive for basically the exact same telescope:
http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomi…
That's the 250mm (10-inch) version which, as I said, is my personal preference, but it's also available in 300mm, 350mm, and 400mm versions. The only drawback is that this is _limited_ for astrophotography because of field rotation. This _can_ be compensated for by taking multiple short exposures.