ETX125???

Ok, I'm sure this has been asked a bazillion times and it's been awhile since I have been on.

Anyway, here is my situation. I just moved into a new house that is a somewhat-dark area. The milkyway is barely visible but it's much better than where I just moved from.

ANYWAY, I have an Orion 8" dob and a 6" Meade Starfinder. The problem I have with the dob is that I pretty much have to get on my knees to use it! I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the scope but anything lower than about 60 degrees has me all bent over..lol

The 6" starfinder is actually nicer to use but sometimes it is hard to "nudge" to exactly where I want.

So, I want a GoTo scope. I also don't have a ton of money like most people.

As far as objectives, I want to get into photography with the DSI.
I would like to both visually and photographically observe:

Planets
Nebula (the Ring is one of my favs)
Galaxies
Binaries,
etc.

LOL, yeah, that is pretty much everything. Can the ETX-125 handle it? Meade has a couple of pics taken with the ETX and the DSI but I am curious who has more.

I don't have an observatory but my home-office is literally 10 feet from my back yard so it is really easy to haul out a scope.

Sorry for the long email and thanks for your time!

cbmeeks

Cecil Meeks said:
So, I want a GoTo scope. I also don't have a ton of money like most people.

As far as objectives, I want to get into photography with the DSI.
I would like to both visually and photographically observe:

cbmeeks

I owned and sold an ETX125. IMHO, the mount has limitations as far as what weight it can handle and serious limitations regarding clearance under the mount.

I think a EQ-GOTO / 8"SCT would be a much better solution.

8"SCT will better handle 2" accessories
EQ-GOTO will better handle longer exposure photography and has no clearance issues.

You probably already know this, but imaging DSO's is not a cheap endeavor to do it right w/o significant frustration.

Regards,

Ron