Meade etx 90 or Celestron Nexstar 90 SLT Mak

[superstarspurs]

hi guys,

im relatively new a few months on here, ive waited this long to invest in a decent-ish scope, for the last few months ive narrowed the type of scope, ease of use, goto or not go to etc ....

i have been looking at the meade etx scope vigourously and seeing is i can pick a decent one up second hand (£500+) is bit too much for me at the moment, but Mak i want, good optics portable and easily storable/size and to manage, and hopefully get on to some astrophotography. as i said ive been looking at the meade etx 90 and seeing if there are any mini bargains i can pick up, however i recently came across the Celestron Nextar 90 SLT Mak, i woulndered which was better they look to be exactly the same in spec but i can pick up a new Celestron for almost £200 less than the meade brand new, can anyone shed any light if you have one of these or is it better to stick it out for the meade etx?

Thanks in advance!

[Psychobilly]

The Celestron manual is avaiable for a download and pre-purchase read here...

http://www.celestron.com/c3/images/files/downloads/1265965139_nexstarmaksltma.pdf

The fact that the celestron is on the SLT mount makes it a more flexible option... you could easily change the scope on the mount to something like a short tube refractor...

I had an ETX105 - it out on long term loan at the moment... nice optics but the mount left a lot to be desired.....

Peter...

[superstarspurs]

cheers for the link peter

[Plantins]

I agree with the above, will also leave you abit spare cash for some accessories etc.

[Psychobilly]

For the sake of "fairplay"...

And heres a link to the Meade ETX90-AT manual...

http://www.meade.com/etx_premier/ETX90_125AT%20InstructionManual.pdf

The meade if its used on an 884 tripod can be run in "eq" mode allowing for "longer" exposures if your "deep sky" imaging with it.. thats how i used to use mine.. although in reality these scopes are a bit slow for "deepsky"...

For lunar and planetary with a webcam then you will be fine with alt/az...

Peter...