RS wrote in message . ..

Is the Apogee 80 or 90 mm, or the Orion Short Tube 80
well suited for this? Any other suggestions?

I recently bought an Orion 80ED for use as a guide scope with my 10"
SCT. I haven't done much imaging yet because I'm waiting to get the
SCT permanently mounted first (installing pier and observatory later
this summer).

So, although I can't directly comment on the 80ED as an imaging scope
(yet), I can certainly recommend it as a fantastic scope for wide
field AND planetary use. Comnined with a 6mm-3mm Nagler zoom, it is
brilliant for planets (100x @ 30arcmin FOV to 200x @ 15arcmin) while a
31mm Nagler gives an amazing 4 degree FOV at ~20x (albeit with heavy
field curvature). Even a simple 26mm Super Plossl gives you a good 2
degrees FOV.

In summary - I think you'll find the Orion 80ED a good complement to
your main scope. I'm extremely pleased with mine and have used it as a
main observing scope FAR more than I anticipated (I expected to use it
for guiding only).

Cheers
Beats