Hi Mark--
Three things stand out from your post: a. you have an intes mak, so you're already spoiled by great optics, b. knee surgery, c. a love of deep sky. To me that says "lightweight truss dob with a fine mirror." My 10" truss dob weighs 35 pounds and is easily carried out the door whole--the orion 10" weighs 55 lbs. If you don't want to build your own, shop for the lightest 10" or 12" structure you can find--litebox http://www.litebox-telescopes.com/ and tscopes http://www.tscopes.com/ come to mind. If you go to 12", get some wheelbarrow handles if you can leave it set up in a shed or garage. There is a definite difference between 10 and 12 inches--for example the spiral arms of m51 are easy in a 12"-- but going up from 6" to 10" is already a very nice jump.
George
Three things stand out from your post: a. you have an intes mak, so you're already spoiled by great optics, b. knee surgery, c. a love of deep sky. To me that says "lightweight truss dob with a fine mirror." My 10" truss dob weighs 35 pounds and is easily carried out the door whole--the orion 10" weighs 55 lbs. If you don't want to build your own, shop for the lightest 10" or 12" structure you can find--litebox http://www.litebox-telescopes.com/ and tscopes http://www.tscopes.com/ come to mind. If you go to 12", get some wheelbarrow handles if you can leave it set up in a shed or garage. There is a definite difference between 10 and 12 inches--for example the spiral arms of m51 are easy in a 12"-- but going up from 6" to 10" is already a very nice jump.
George
George Golitzin
