meade lz70 refracter

[brandygus]

the meade lx70 refracter, would this be agood beginner scope?

[rwilkey]

Hi there, the 'lx 70' is a series, it would all depend on the aperture of the scope, for example, decent light-gathering scopes begin at 90mm, so if the scope has this type of objective or above, it should produce satisfactory results.  Good luck!

[Ricochet]

Judging by the pictures the Meade LX70 refractor looks like a rebranded version of the 120mm Skywatcher Evostar. You will be able to find more reviews and personal opinions of the Skywatcher branded version on this forum. A long focal length refractor will be slightly biased in favour of high magnification/narrow field of view so it depends on what sort of objects you want to observe whether it is the right scope for you, but it is a good scope none the less.

[ronin]

A 70mm will be fine as long as the expectations are sensible. My one concern is that it will deliver around 100x maximum sensible magnification and that may be just a little too low for Saturn. I prefer to go low on magnification and say expect 1.5x diameter, safer and you will realistically achieve it more often, so less frustration/disappointment.

Assuming this then could you stretch the budget to a 90mm, they are usually f/10 so 900mm focal length an 8mm or 7mm eyepiece in one would show Saturn fairly well. Check out the cost of any Meade offering, and Skywatcher offering and the Bresser offerings. One may have a better price.

But a 70 is OK for getting the idea of it all, and if a convenient size for use keep it. Big scopes sound nice but you have to get thenm out to use them and a convenient 70mm is a lot easier.

Whatever you get you are likely to want/need 2 additional eyepieces, so take that into consideration for the future.

[Ricochet]

24 minutes ago, ronin said:

A 70mm will be fine as long as the expectations are sensible

LX70 is just the name. It has an aperture of 120mm.

https://www.meade.com/meade-lx70-refractor-5.html

[brandygus]

this is a 5 inch and f/8.3 refractor.

[rwilkey]

30 minutes ago, brandygus said:

this is a 5 inch and f/8.3 refractor.

Hi there, that's a good size and will offer you some great views of the night sky!

[cloudsweeper]

It would be very good.  I started with a much smaller Meade frac and it really got me interested!  Just one thing however - an alt-az mount might be far more manageable and intuitive to use.

Doug.