Astroscan or Meade etx-90ec for 13 year old beginner?

[itzme]

My daughter loves astronomy and I want to give her a good scope for her birthday. I was lucky to buy a nearly new Meade etx-90ec for 40 dollars. I see I can sell it on ebay for enough money to buy a new astroscan. Should I trade? I am worried about the electronics dying on the meade and from past experience as a teen I know the astroscan is easy to use. I can see however the meade gets good reviews and is a nice scope too. Thanks.

[garethmob]

welcome to the forum!

the meade scopes are really good optically and mechanically they can be hit or miss only because of one major problem, power

if you can get somthing like a 12v car jump starter (or a skywatcher powerpack) that should be perfect to run the scope, the meade gotos were pretty good as long as they were set up properly, (level, at 0 on base scale, pointing north ect)

do you know which handset it came with as there were 2, as one can be updated and so make it all better)

that is a really good bargin btw i would of bitten their arm off if that was near me

[Capricorn]

OK, slight bias, I have 3 Meades.

The ease of setting them up means I would go with them.

One bit of advice is get a eyepiece of 32mm or 40mm to help with the alignment. Doesn't have to be good just have a wide view as possible.

Spend a little more time getting it all level and North before aligning. It pays dividends.

A reasonable mains supply/adaptor is very useful.

[garethmob]

iv got one meade and if you notice my sig the post above does seem like calling the kettle black but i do like the portableness of it but iv never got it working on 12v power (only because i havent really bothered)

let us know which handset you have it might help

[itzme]

It came with an adaptor and it takes the 8 AA batteries as well.

The handset it requires 497, but it did not come with it, will have to get one on ebay if we decide to stick with it. It does have the handheld directional controller. It came with one eyepiece and some sort of 90 degree lens thing (don't know what it is).

How robust are these old Meade telescopes? I am worried the gears are fragile since it is older, though it seems to be working now quite well.

The astroscan I guess I am nostalgic for as it was the one I used growing up. It is durable and easy to use.

[itzme]

Thank you for the help btw, it has been so long since I was a 13 year old who wanted to be an astronomer that I can't remember a thing. I have four children so durable is nice.

The meade is so small I forgot to add the portable factor is very nice.

[garethmob]

that was a main problem unfortunatly they shipped with the battery box, and in the cold batterys actually lose voltage so the meade then becomes a unuseable lump hence why the 12v adapter, im going to assume youlive in the US (with the mention of 40$ scope)

i see about the handset, that could be a problem because with out it it is manual only but the hand held directional controler (i can assume allows it to track) i have hered they are really good

you should notice on the side of the scope theres a set of numbers in a ring (as well as on the base) these are the altitude and alizemouth (appoligies for spelling) if you set it up correctly (arrows both pointing at 0 and the base arrow pointing at north, you can use the numbers and planetarium software (stellerarium is a free one on a pc) or on a mobile (android ios ect) to accuratly find a object

the 90 degree allows you to see through the scope (its called a diagonal), on mine its built in, but on other ones its designed for confortable viewing.

old meade scopes are ok there was a problem with some gears made of plastic (i know my etx 70 is) but im not sure about yours as the 90 was afar better scope

the meade is a MAK i believe which means that its such a small scope but its focal length is the equivalent of a really long scope, which is very advanturarus with viewing the moon, planets and bright DSO's im not sure about the astroscan as i havent come across it

EDIT: dont be fooled into thinking rechargeable AA batterys will work, they actually dont supply enough voltage what so ever

[itzme]

I decided to order the Astroscan and keep the Meade as well (at 40$ how could I go wrong). I found an autostar this morning for 35$ on ebay, so she can have fun with both.