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Meade 8" LX10 or Skywatcher 200 HEQ5

jaspa

By jaspa
in Discussions - Mounts

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jaspa

jaspa

Posted
Posted

What should i go for as my next scope, after wanting the skywatcher for the last six months i am now considering a Meade 8" LX10 secondhand.

So it's either a new s/w200 or used LX10.

Any opinions please before i go mad. :D

Thanks

Mark

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jaspa

jaspa

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Seems like a fairly even split of opinions.

My only concern with the skywatcher is the size of the thing, having seen one in the flesh for the first time a couple of weeks ago :D it was a little larger than i had expected.

Go MAD and get both. :p

Wish i could afford to. :lol:

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saturn5

saturn5

Posted
Posted

Jaspa,to give you a good idea of the size of the skywatcher heres a pic of me with the 250mmskywatcher

The 200 will be about 200mm shorter,i would go for the skywatcher,great value and a great scope,i'm delighted with it :D

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Trevor

Trevor

Posted
Posted

Mark

If you do mostly planetary and moon then the Meade with a longer focal length will probably be better, if you want to go DSO then the Skywatcher will be better with a shorter focal length especially for photography.

But then again you can always use a focal reducer with the Meade and a Barlow with the Skywatcher swings and roundabouts.

If you go the Skywatcher route get the HEQ5 Pro.

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Stardust

Stardust

Posted
Posted

Hi Mark

Well I'm probably a bit biased here as I have a LX10 for sale. I've been very happy with it for the past 5 years and I do like the compact design and quick set up of the SCT. A well collimated one does give decent images. Other than that, I'll let you make your own mind up.

cheers

Dave

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Trevor

Trevor

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To be honest I had a skywatcher 200 the only reason I sold it was because I wanted to do imaging of the planets and moon in higher resolution than the newt would allow for its size, I went the SCT route because of the longer focal length.

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saturn5

saturn5

Posted
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Regarding the heq5 pro,i did consider it but to me half the fun is finding objects yourself,i get a great deal of satisfaction from setting the scope up accurately and searching :D.Although i hav'nt tried it ,the goto wouldnt give me the same sence of satisfaction.

I can still remember years ago when i had just started the hobby i found the leo triplett on my orion europa,i must have had a grin a mile wide :lol:.But hey,,its different strokes for different folks and pro version is without doubt a serious bit of kit.

Good luck Jaspa with whichever scope you chose,its agonising trying to pick one,took me weeks before i chose a big light bucket as dso's is my main interest

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jaspa

jaspa

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Well I'm probably a bit biased here as I have a LX10 for sale.

I must admit it was seeing your scope for sale that gave me the idea of the LX10 after being set the S/W200 for quite a while. :D

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Stardust

Stardust

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It's been a good scope for me, I've upgraded to a 10" LX200.

The LX10 was made before Meade discovered plastic so everything has a nice solid metal feel about it.

I've fixed the two things I didn't like about the scope, Bobs knobs and a larger focus wheel.

It's a very easy scope to use and having the guide scope rings means you could add a short refractor to give you wide field if you so wished.

You are more than welcome to have a look at it, though I can't promiss a clear sky

Happy pondering

Dave

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ribuck

ribuck

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Jaspa,

Here's my take on it, based on experience.

I used to own a Meade 10" LN90-LNT and a 8" Dob. From using both of them, i had some of my best views on my dob. The meade just seemed to take forever to cool down in comparison to the 8" reflector.

I really didn't like the Focuser on the Meade either, just wasn't nice at all.

The gears on the meade's break real easy too, and becuase meade haven't really thought about cable management. In my case they got snagged whilst slweing and burt out the motors / circuit board in less that 10 seconds.

Other things to consider is that if you go for the fork mount, it's heavy and akward to carry, well my 10" was and if you want to do photography at a later date you will need to buy a decent EQ mount or a decent wedge which are about £300-£400.

One last thing, if you dont want to wake the neighbours you have to use the quiet slew mode as the motoros can be pretty noisy at normal speed, and the quiet slew is sooooo slow.

Dont think i would go for a large SCT again, well not on meade's for mount system anyway.

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