I've recently acquired my first refractor telescope and now I'm faced with the challenge of finding something to mount it on. I've come here to ask for some guidance from you all.
First off, my primary use case is wide field night vision astronomy with my PVS-14 style image intensifier tube. My secondary use case is as a portable scope for when I can't fit my 10" solid tube dob on a trip.
My heaviest loadout is as follows:
Telescope (4.8lb): Astro-Tech AT72EDII Refractor 72mm f/6 doublet
Accessories (4.7lb): Tele-Vue 55mm Plossl with 67mm adapter, GSO Al+SiO2 Mirror Diagonal, .8x reducer field flattener, PVS-14 Image Intensifier Tube, light red dot finder
Total weight: 9.5lb, sometimes a brief 11.5lb with a phone attached for a quick photo
I'd quite like it to track. Portable is important to me, but I'm also young and regularly carry my 10" dob around.
Budget - $200-$1000 Ideally keeping it below $500, but if the value is good I could go above. This is the budget for mount and tripod combined.
The first thing I'm considering is getting a new Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi mount and tripod. They are currently on sale for $400 and seem to match my portability and tracking concerns quite well! I'm wondering how people feel about its performance when occasionally loaded up with the full 9.5 lbs, especially with half of that weight hanging off the focuser.
The other thing I'm considering is watching the classifieds and local used marketplaces waiting for a 20-30lb weight capacity mount to show up at a decent price (something that seems to keep popping up as AP folks move to the strain wave mounts). Something like a Celestron AVX or maybe a lighter Skywatcher EQM-35. I'm confident these will do fine with tracking and the load but am wondering how portable they really are.
Lastly, there's the bigger strain wave option. This seriously exceeds my listed $1000 budget but solves all my other problems with loadout, portability, and tracking concerns (plus it lets me upgrade in the future) but of course this comes at a rather steep price! Do you think I should consider just buying once now?
Thanks in advance for your guidance (see the pun) here!