(January 1, 2021 at 11:17 pm)popeyespappy Wrote: I found a used Celestron AVX and went ahead and bought it. It won't work as well for astrophotography, but it should be a lot easier to move around for viewing. One big plus is it is already in a pelican case.
Yes, they do make a field flattener for the ED102. I plan on slowly working into the photography and had hoped to not have to buy a second mount but may have just fucked that plan up. The AVX should work for viewing and to start the photography on though, and it cost about a fourth what I was looking at for a new CGX.
Unfortunately, it looks like all the Explore Scientific telescopes went up in price recently (by 30%), so you aren't getting a good a deal as you would've a month or two ago (unless you ordered before the price increase). That might make other scopes competitive.
The AVX is a cute little mount. You will likely find it acceptable for visual. It probably isn't good enough for the best photography results, but you can at least try something out.
There is something to be said for portability! I have a heavy mount (tripod and mount each over 20 lbs) for my refractor, but I really like a perfectly steady view. However, I might get an alternate lighter mount for grabbing the scope for backyard views.
