Upgrading to a Larger Scope

[skywalker]

Howdy everyone, I am going to upgrade to a larger scope this week and was hoping for some advice from those of you who may own one of the two scopes I am looking at.

I currently own a Orion XT-6 Intelliscope Dob which gets used almost every weekend for night observing and every other day for solar observing.

I look at deep sky objects the most so larger aperture is my main consideration. I first started looking at the lightbridge dobs but quickly dismissed that idea because I want a goto mount that will be capable of astrophotography sometime in the future.

That brought me to the 10" relfectors on go-to mounts. The logic there is that I can use the 10" reflector tube for deep sky observing and eventually get an 8" SCT tube to put on the nice mount. I am also sick of trying to rotate a dob to track an object and want the mount to track items for me. This allows me to awe my friends with astounding views of andromeda without having to get it in view and then play musical chairs hoping that the scope doesnt get nudged or the object rotate out of view before they get situated.

So as far as these two scopes go I am pretty sure the optics are similar. They are both 10" relfectors although the Meade does offer their UHTC coating on the LXD75. My main concern is the mount. Which is more stable Which will allow for better astrophotography later on What are the features of your scope that you prefer over the other Thanks for your help. At this point I am leaning towards the Celestron because it is a bit cheaper and it seems that the celestron mount is more stable. Reviews of the LXD75 are much more common though, I can only find three reviews of the celestron.

Also, it should be noted that I do not intend to use the 10" for solar observations, my 6" dob with the glass solar filter works just fine so that is not a consideration.

[admin]

true the celestron mount is more stableand IMO more dependablebut i honestly think a 10" newt on either mount is overloadedspecially for Apwhy not just look at a 9.25 if your considering a future 8"SCTthats one great OTA

[skywalker]

The problem with the 9.25 or the 8" SCT's is that they are just too expensive for me at this point. I can get the 10" Celestron, which is definitely the way I am leaning now for $1200. If I get the 8" SCT-GT I am looking at $1359 ($1514 with the coatings, which I would want for AP) and the 9.25" SCT without coatings is an astounding $1700 on the GT mount. I just cannot afford an tube with the larger aperture.

That is why I am wanting the 10" even though I know it pushes the limits of the mount. I can use it for visual observations and use the mount with a nice APO sometime during grad school when I am on a stipend and have more money( I am a poor undergrad right now, $1200 is a LOT of money for me and it took me ages to save it up). The 8" SCT is an option, but I really want to maximize the deep sky sessions. Will the 8" give me nice nebula and galaxy views I am pretty sure from what I have read is that the 10" will outperform the 8" as far as deep sky visual observations go everytime.
Is the 10" stable enough for good visual observations I really want a 10" scope, and this is the only go to option I can afford. I do appreciate the time and advice.

[skywalker]

Also, AP is something I definitely want to dabble in in the future, but not anytime soon. I was hoping to be able to use the same mount later so as to maximize my investment but my main goal is to have a go-to mount that can track deep sky objects while I look at them. AP will likely always take a back seat to visual observing for me. That is why I chose the 10". It is the largest go to setup I can get for under $1500. If you have other suggestions besides these two scopes I am definitely open minded.

Thanks again,