meade or celestron?

[paul35]

Hi,

I was into telescopes when younger and now have a young boy who had re-started my interest. I am looking at a Meade or Celestron and am not sure which model would be best. Ideally, I want to be able to attach my dslr to it.

I don't want anything that is at a beginner level but don't want to go to the other end of the spectrum where i'm trying to locate alien activity!

Can anyone help and suggest what telescope would be best suited for us.

Thanks, Paul

[Ben Ritchie]

Hello Paul, welcome to SGL!

That's quite a broad question without knowing budget and what models you're considering, but the general advice would be that if you want to start out with long-exposure imaging then the best place to start is a short focal-length refractor on a german equatorial mount (aka GEM). That's a setup that will take you an awfully long way.

The SkyWatcher 80ED on a SkyWatcher HEQ5 pro would be my pick for a "reasonably priced" setup (bearing in mind that imaging's an expensive game, and reasonably priced is still not very cheap). I know that's neither Meade or Celestron, but SkyWatcher have come to really dominate the entry-level marketplace in recent years.

[brianb]

How much money? What do you want to look at? Do you need to go to a dark site or will you be able to observe from your back yard?

Brand is irrelevant, both Meade and Celestron make some very nice scopes and some that are not so good. Same applies to many other brands.

[Chris H]

Skywatcher Skyliner 200p

[E621Keith]

Meade or Celestron? They are close competitors in which the quality variations between individual copies has more effect on image quality than the brand.

Also, with the exception of their SCT range, all their scope and mount are made by Synta, who also make the Skywatcher and much of the Orion (US) range.

What is your observing experience, the objects of your interest, requirement for portability, and your budget? It seems like on SGL, beginner scope (1st scope) can range from the £150 130p+EQ2 to £1400 CPC 800 SCT, depending how those preceding questions were answered.

Almost any SLR can be connected to a telescope with T-mount adapters, so don't worry too much about it.

[paul35]

Thanks for your help,I have picked up a meade 102 star navigator/ focal length 800 f/7.8 reduced from £200 to £150. (I can return this to the store as i was unsure at the time)

I have since scene & like the look of the The clestron eq130.

These are at the bottom end of my budget, i would like change out of £500. Would the extra be well spent.

My observing experience is little to none.

[brantuk]

The 130P is a nice little starter scope but with your budget of £500 you could go to a 150P on EQ mount and still have enough for a battery pack and RA motor and a couple of half decent ep's. You'd also want a collimating tool of some sort:

Reflectors - Skywatcher Explorer 150P EQ3-2

I started with the same thing only an older model

[ollypenrice]

If imaging with a DSLR is a priority the Ben Ritchie is dead right on all counts. You can attach a camera to all kinds of scopes but you won't get a pivture out of all that many of them!

If visual astronomy is the real priority then it all gets a lot easier and the 8 inch Newt will take you far.

Olly

[rwilkey]

Hi Paul35, how do you find the Meade Star Navigator 102, I have a friend who is looking at this one, it looks like the 2000 series, my wife has the DS2090 and is well pleased with it, I thought it was good value at £197 incl. delivery: Meade Star Navigator 102 Interactive Autostar Telescope | eBay UK your quick thoughts would be most appreciated, I have told my friend that it looks good value for the money. The 2000 series are good in my view.