Help with selecting next telescope

GSO RC6 or 8 are solid choices. You'll even have some money left over to either put into a premium focuser or towards a mono cam setup. Personally I'd never buy an edgehd. They provide nothing to justify their cost over a newt or an RC.

with all due respect to Matt, I have a different opinion. I've shot with both. Both have their issues but I kept the Edge HD and returned the GSO 8" RC. I'm not one to cast dispersions on someone's equipment, but the design of the rear cell of the GSO 8" RC is poor and causes excessive flexture. If you want an RC I would go for the larger ones. In those they have a better rear cell design.

I currently own an Edge HD 8. It's a fine scope but if I had to do it over I would buy the 9.25". The back focus on the 8" is pretty tight, especially if you're using the focal reducer, limiting your camera possibilities. But properly collimated the Edge scopes are hard to beat for the money.

If you go with the Edge, consider the Moonlite Focuser. It allows the use of the mirror locks in an automated focusing setup.

Happy to help if I can.

CS.
Tim

Ross Salinger:
What's the point of the 9.25 as opposed to the 8".  Doesn't sound like much of a difference. Comment?

It may seem like it, but 9.25" aperture gathers almost 30% more light than 8".

Thomas, I would suggest you to go with 8" EdgeHD and 0.7x reducer. Galaxy season will start soon and you need a longer focal length system.

I've been suffering this exact dilemma. I haven't been at this very long, but one of the earliest things I realized was how little difference there was in the FOV between most of the popular refractors. I used the Scope Display tool in Sky Safari and entered a few different equipment combinations to visually see the 'spread' between them.

In the end, I decided that I wanted to run 3 rigs. The lightest one can run anything from an ultra-wide angle lens to my Canon 70-200 or even a SpaceCat to get up to 250mm. The medium rig runs an 80mm APO triplet at the moment. And, for the final setup I really wanted to get up close to 1500-2000mm so I'm going to try an EdgeHD with a 0.7x reducer for a bit more speed. Like @Tim Hutchison stated, I'm going with the 9.25 for the improved back focus and a bit more reach.  I didn't want to risk going any bigger, but it definitely puts many of those smaller targets within reach.

However, @andrea tasselli brings up a great point about oversampling. With many current CCD options, 2x2 binning (at minimum) would have to be employed. In this hobby, it seems you just have to decide what you're willing to compromise on.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

EdgeHD 8 or 9.25 is excellent for galaxy using a x0.6 reducer or planets at f10.
The RASA 8 is very good for nebulae. I have both and alls well.
i encourage you to look at your future equipment FOV using scope and ccd or cmos.

good luck with your choice of equipment. I do not work in the are of astronomy... i speak from my experience, which is not much

do your research so you get good equipment that will help you image in your area of interest.
Keep looking up!

Orion with Rasa

M101 galaxy with 9.25 sct

Saturn with sct 9.25

M13 cluster with sct 9.25 f6.3

Greatly appreciate all the advice! A RASA is definitely on my list… somewhere, at some point.

It looks like with the current global production/shipping dilemmas going on I'll have plenty of time to contemplate the choice before I can actually click the 'order' button.