i appreciate the advice everybody.

wally,

I called to order the LX90 at astronmics but the sales rep talked me out of it and suggested back ordering the lxd55 (10" SNT) which i did. i was surprised that a sales rep suggested that i order something else that was $800 cheaper and back ordered. either she does't work on comission or she was sincere(or maybe both).

I was hoping that the SNTs would perform nearly as well as the SCTs inch per inch of aperture, do they?

aurorae,

Never really considered dobs for imaging, im gonna look into that. Would it be a bad idea to get a 16" dob and just throw a tarp over it and leave it outside?


Jim B,

are you the JB on this web site?

http://www.telescopes-r-us.com/gallery/gallery.htm

very impressive, especially the nebulae. It's got me strongly considering SCTs, i thought (might've read it) you couldn't pull in nebulae that good with anything less than a 10" sct. Ultims 2000 is a little too expensive, though.. what other SCTs do Celestron make that has optics comparable to the ultima 2000?

thanks,
CzC