Celestron C8-N Newtonian VX GOTO

[HighHo]

I have my eyes set on the following Celestron C8-N Newtonian VX GOTO, I'm looking for mostly imaging setup (but £1000 is my limit for mount ad scope). I choose this after my research for the following, as mentioned for astrophotography, something that will fit in a car, and compliant my friends scopes as we often go out together with 8" Dob, and a  skywatcher 130p. Before spending the money (a few months off) I would of course love to hear if anyone has other suggestions, and of course from anyone running a similar setup (purely on the above ignoring EP's, and filters etc).

[jonathan]

Looks OK from the product page on FLO, I don't know much about imaging but the blurb would indicate that it has a few considerations for that area.  At £1,000 and an 8" scope it seems like a lot of scope and mount for the money, I just wonder if it is only going to be average at best, but this or a similar equivalent may be the best you can do for your budget (it would also make a fine visual instrument).

Of course, you could get better kit if you bought the mount or scope or both 2nd-hand from someone who was perhaps upgrading or just spent a huge amount on imaging kit and decided it wasn't for them.  Imagers often go for a high quality refractor, not particularly great for DSO visual but fast and great for astrophotography, then a big beefy mount with precision motor drive and probably goto as well, because a lot of imagers are not really interested in spending their time finding targets themselves.

You should also look into the computer side of imaging as this is where you might spend most of your time, stacking and polishing those hard-earned subs.  You will also need to learn the fine art of polar alignment with any equatorial mount if you intend to do imaging.  Expect a mount suitable for imaging to be heavy.

[HighHo]

Many thanks for post,  yeah I would probably ideally go for a Schmidt-Cassegrain or refractor based scope, but its just that little bit out of my price range. I did have a look 2nd hand but couldn't find anything locally that was looking for, I will certainly look again once I'm ready to spend. The mount seems to fit my requirement for something Im not going to hate moving around to much, anyone with a VX GOTO or HEQ5 how do you find moving it around (ideally packing into a car, and setting up at a dark site)?

I don't think I have ever had to think so hard on spending money, normally I go by "what's the cheapest thing that will just about do and not brake/fall apart" doesn't seem to really work with telescopes