telescope and mount options

Ok, I'm looking to spend about $2500 on a scope and equatorial mount setup. I've basically narrowed it down to 3 different setups but other setup recommendations are certainly welcome. My goal is to start with something thats fairly portable, imaging ready, and great optical performance.

Here they are:

1) Losmandy GM8 with Orion 80 apo. triplet.

2) Losmandy GM8 with Orion 110mm ed doublet

3) Celestron CGEM 8" edge hd scope and mount


My questions

1) will I really be able to see that much more planetary and lunar detail in the 110mm refractor over the 80mm refractor?

2) would i get better imaging results (picture quality wise) with the refractor over the schmidt cassegrain?

3) How difficult is it to collimate a schimdt cassegrain?

As stated before any other scope setups that you can recommend are welcome too.

I am only replying because no one else has (imaging is too expensive and all-night for me). You can get results with each of those systems, and each will have its strengths and weaknesses. The difference in portability and set up between the 80 mm triplet and the SCT its pretty substantial depending on how many feet you actually have to carry the thing. For imaging, you want to know what each will do better and why. The mount is the hard part for this (especially the tripod, pier, or permanent pier).

I would recommend finding a local club and working with, or visiting with folks who do this. The experience will save you a lot of money, frustration, and probably time. It's good way to find out what the issues really are, and how far in you want to get. It's all a set of compromises.

I do own an 80 mm triplet and a Vixen GP mount with a massive surveyor's tripod. I got the scope for a quick look, spotting, and in case I got the imaging bug, and stuck to the 80 because I already had the mount. It's a superb 3 inch, but for visual, my 8 inch dob just kills it, more than twice the resolving power (planetary) and 7 times the light gathering power (deep sky).

#3
The 8" will give you so much more light gathering
power thats its really not fair to compare it to the other two.
Also keep in mind that for visual, the image scale on the 80 and 110 will be much smaller then the 8, so although plants will be sharp, clear and have great contrast with the refractors, the image will be small.