Planning to upgrade

[BS269]

So whilst I’m saving money to upgrade, I’m using my 4” reflector to learn my way around the night sky. But I’m trying to plan ahead with what to get next..

Though I have a bit of stargazing experience I’m still very much a beginner, and don’t want to throw myself into the deep end of Deep space AP just yet, however I want to prepare for it. I love visual too and particularly planetary objects. So here’s my thought process- 

Once I have the money I’d buy a EQ6-R pro and a 9.25” (or near size) SCT. This scope weighs about 9kg so it would be used for visual and I believe it would also be okay for planetary/lunar AP. I’m hoping this is a big enough aperture for some decent planetary detail and also some DSO (I know to only expect grey fuzzies but i’m okay with that) and I’d be looking for 2nd hand so hopefully I could get both for around £1600-1700? I’d also get a piggyback camera mount so I can do some milky way AP too. Will use these 2 types of AP with my already owned Olympus mirrorless micro four-thirds camera to learn the ropes of post processing and photoshop. It has 30 min bulb mode and a USB port for an intervalometer/laptop connection. I’m not sure how good the results will be with this camera but I’m expecting the tracking to vastly improve it from my current 30 second exposures, which aren’t very good for this sized sensor. 

Eventually when I decide to go for deep space AP I was looking at the ES ED80 apo triplet. I’ve read for galaxies a longer focal length scope would be required but as I’m more interested in nebulae anyway this should be fine (if anyone has any pictures using this scope pls share!). I picked the EQ6-R as everyone says to not skimp on the mount, it should be able to support the payload and also I think support a bit heavier if I decide to get a larger refractor in the future? When I’m more experienced I could maybe try the SCT for galaxy AP but I’m not sure that’s pushing the mount’s capacity too much..

The alternative Route instead of an SCT would be to get a 10” GOTO dobsonian for around the same price I think (used) - more aperture, I’ve read they give better contrast and would have a separate mount for it. Portability isn’t a problem for me as I’m 22 and quite fit, and I don’t think I would be taking it places in my car much as I have quite good views in my garden (bortle 5 skies but hardly any artificial light sources nearby). My main worries with the dob is wouldn’t it be harder for planetary AP with an alt-az mount? I also recently bought the baader Hyperion zoom which I want to keep, but read that they work much better for slower scopes, which isn’t a 10” Newtonian. My price limit for my visual scope is probably about £850.

If you’ve read all the way to this point then thanks very much for making the effort to get here 😂 does anyone have any advice on my plan? Anything you’d do differently or any other scopes to consider? I’ve barely even started stargazing but I already have aperture fever... 

Cheers!