Trashing the old Tasco 4.5 Reflector, Looking for Orion Atlas 10 EQ Reflector Opinions and Criticisms

the time has come to give up on the old 1984 tasco battle horse,
looking for a new scope, thinking on this one or something similar

http://www.oriontel.com/shopping/pro...yword=atlas+10

Anyone have any direct or second hand experience with this
telescope/mount combination? The 1000-1200 price range is kind of
what im looking at right now. Have also heard good things about the
cg-5 mount. Im not opposed to buying mount from manuf A and scope
from manuf B, go to isnt really necessary, and the set up should have
the ability to do some unguided astrophotography with my future canon
digital rebel. Meade equipment looks nice, and there is the option
with meade for tons and tons of add ons, but their bigger aperture
scopes are quite expensive and the orion 10 scope looked like a decent
deal for the money and options served, in addition to the fact that im
leaning towards wanting an EQ style mount over a fork style mount.
Plus, i'd like to be able to lug the scope around.

If you dont really like the atlas 10, please list mount and scopes for
around $1000-$1500 total that are guided newts with 8-10 primaries
with decent ability to do some rudimentary amateuar astrophotography
with a digital rebel type digital camera.