Celestron 9.25 OTA or CPC? Or Takahashi Mewlon 210?

[charsiubau]

My husband and I currently own a 30 year old Celestron 5 inch fork mount SCT, a GSO 10 inch dob and a Televue 85 mm refractor (we have both a portable mount and a Celestron CG5-ASGT mount for the refractor). We would like to replace the old Celestron 5 inch with something larger and that has goto as well as tracking. After considering lots of scopes the Celestron 9.25 SCT looks the most likely - but I'm not sure whether to get the OTA and put it on the CG5 (we can't afford a better mount as well as the OTA at present) or get the CPC.

I'm leaning toward the CPC but am concerned about the weight. I'm small and the advantage of the OTA option is I could probably set it up on my own. I don't have any problem setting up the CG5 now and the C9.25 OTA weighs 9-10 kg which I should be able to manage. But I don't think I could lift the 26 kg CPC onto its tripod without assistance and I'm not even sure my husband could. I'm also concerned about the bulk. Could we fit both the 10 inch dob and the CPC in a Subaru Forester?

An 8 inch SCT is more portable but we're not really interested after owning a 10 inch scope. An exception is the Takahashi Mewlon 210 (OTA only of course) - because we've looked through our club's Takahashi 6 inch Newtonian which compares favourably with our 10 inch!! But I'm reluctant to pay more for a telescope sight unseen that I know not much about and deal with a dealer we don't know and I'd rather not mail order for large expensive items. And we've done the quality bit with the Televue.


BTW I'm not interested in astrophotography - too much time and effort and I'm happy to look at others' images without wanting to do it myself. Video perhaps.

Opinions please - especially from those with personal experience with one of these scopes?

[gbeal]

The C9.25" OTA is a stunner, as a fair chunk of those astrophoto folks out there will attest to.
The Mewlon is different, but to my mind better. Not hugely, but better is better. It doesn't suffer so much wioth the dew (no corrector), and overall the build and optical quality is or should be way better, BUT....... you will pay more for it.
At f13 or so it isn't really a photograpic instrument, but would be perfect for luna/planetary imaging.
Both will require a similar sized mount, so it really just comes down to cost and what you want.
P.S. I had the Mewlon 180, and regretted selling it, the 210 (or better still the 250) would be a dream scope.

[casstony]

Regarding the CPC, put 26kg in a container, carry it around the yard for a couple of minutes and put it in and out of your car - fork mount SCTs are easy to use but not so easy to carry.

Regarding a Takahashi purchase, the dealer is quirky but an honest buisnessman and is a one-eyed Takahashi supporter. Provided the shipment was insured against damage I'd have no qualms about ordering from Claude. Be aware that if you call to talk about telescopes you'll probably be handing over that credit card before you know it - he's quite a talker.

[RB]

:thumbsup:

Claude is a legend in my books, and I agree with all that you've said.

:)

[janoskiss]

I don't know much about either scope, but isn't asking whether to buy a Celestron or Takahashi something like asking Holden HSV or Porsche 911? :shrug:

[jase]

I'm with RB on this one. Claude is a great guy and an honest dealer.

Go the Tak Mewlon 210. Better resale value should you not like it.

[charsiubau]

Thanks for all your replies, they helped clarify my thinking. Ken (my other half) spoke to Claude last week and he did keep him on the phone for ages. We were very tempted but he said he preferred not to take credit cards, which may have lost him the sale as it gave me time to have second thoughts. The Tak is more expensive but not as much as you might think – Claude had an ex demo Mewlon 210 for $3300 plus $150 for freight and insurance; Andrews sells the C9.25 carbon fibre OTA for $2799. I wouldn’t have any qualms about dealing with Claude after what you’ve said. I guess for me it comes down to not wanting to pay more when I think I would be satisfied with the C9.25 plus some reservations about paying for transport and insurance initially and if the scope ever needed servicing. There is always a better scope to be had, so it does depend on how much you feel comfortable paying I think

[gbeal]

For the extra $500 or so it is a no brainer to me.

[Dennis]

Hmm, this thread is close to my heart right now. I already have a C9.25 XLT CF OTA and I am seriously considering buying a Mewlon 210 as the Yen / $ exchange rate has just made Claude drop his prices on the AEC website.

Both Gary and Robert_T had/have Mewlon 180's and from the images posted by Robert_T with the 180, the optics look superb.

Cheers

Dennis

[matt]

Anyone got a link to AEC's website?

Thanks

[Dennis]

http://www.astronomy-electronics-centre.com.au/

Cheers

Dennis

PS - Don't buy it all Matt, leave some stuff for me!

[casstony]

http://www.astronomy-electronics-centre.com.au/

If you get the Tak, you'll never be wondering if it's a good one or a bad one.

Looks like Claude will need some help on the phones :-)

[Dennis]

I've just spent an hour or so looking at accessories for Takahashi telescopes and noted three concerns straight away.

It seems there are not many accessories available compared to the ubiquitous SCT accessories?
Finding out detailed product specs and photos for accessories appears quite difficult.
Takahashi accessories and 3rd party Tak stuff from the US seem expensive.

Therefore, it is important to factor these issues into the purchasing equation as SCT accessories are more readily available, cheaper and usually better described and documented to help in the selection process.

Cheers

Dennis

[ving]

theres a c9.25 on sale in the for sale section right now :)

[sejanus]

if you are looking around $3300 maybe for an extra $200 you can get the 11" celestron for $3500 for the ota, and it's not much heavier than a 9.25

[Robert_T]

Hi there, it's been a while since you posted this so might be a dead issue now, but I wanted to add a few things, having direct experience with the C9.25 and the Mewlon 210.

The CG5 should be fine for either OTA for all your visual and any planetary imaging needs (long exposure deep sky imaging prob not so well suited). I use the same (EQ5) and so does Asimov for his C9.25 and they are more than adequate for most purposes.

I've had both the Mewlon 210 and presently the Mewlon 180 and use this alternately with my C9.25 almost exclusively for imaging planets. The Tak has great optics no doubt, but the C9.25 is also very good. Under good to excellent seeing conditions the C9.25 will always outperform the smaller Tak... aperture is a good deal of the end-result in planetary imaging. Under average to poor conditions the Tak is at least as good as the C9.25 and a lot lighter and with the major advantage of an open tube meaning no dew and quicker cool down times (this can mean a lot depending on your situation). It really come down to how important this is to you and what you want to do with the scope which is best for you.

Both are great scopes. One thing I do like about the C9.25 is the sheer range of reasonably priced accessories that can be added... and you don't feel so bad about adding less than premium accessories as you would to the Tak.

ANyway, best of luck with your decision, even if you've already made it;)

[Dennis]

Hi Robert

Can you share with us the reason why you stepped down from the Mewlon 210 to the Mewlon 180? On the surface, it appears a backwards step in terms of light gathering capability and resolution?

Thanks!

Dennis

[Robert_T]

Hi Dennis, it's a loong story... it went something like this, I had the 210 first for about 6-9 months and it was very nice. An issue "developed" with the seating of the primary mirror (I think) and I had to send it back to AEC for despatch back to Japan to get it fixed. This was going to take many months and I don't like waiting! I asked Claude if he'd swap it for a new Mewlon 180 with some tak accessories thrown in to make the difference and I took delivery of these straight away... I has seriously thought at this point of swapping up to the Mewlon 250 cause I desperately wanted the extra aperture. Once I'd just about settled to do that I realised for around 1/2th the price I could get the Mewlon 180 AND get a C9.25 for that extra bit of oomph! SOmehow I managed to end up with two new OTA's and still feel like I'd saved $5K.... isn't self delusion a wonderful thing:D

cheers,

[Dennis]

Thanks Robert - Hopefully still relevant to the spirit of the original question, I almost convinced myself to get the Mewlon 210 and ditch the C9.25, but upon browsing the web for photos taken with a Mewlon 210, decided to stick with the C9.25. Some images I had taken with the C9.25 seemed every bit as good as the very few Mewlon 210 images, which were as rare as hen's teeth by the way.

In the hands of an imaging expert, on those nights where the seeing allowed it, the Mewlon 210 would probably deliver a “better” image than the C9.25, but that slight edge or improvement wasn’t worth the additional cost, disruption and effort in changing my OTA, considering that upgrading various SCT accessories to Tak equivalents would have cost me an arm and a leg.

Cheers

Dennis

[Robert_T]

Dennis, similar thoughts and yes I absolutely agree:)

cheers,

[charsiubau]

I have been away on a 5-day bushwalk so have only just seen that this thread was revived. These extra thoughts have reassured me that my decision to buy the C9.25 OTA is the right one for me. I am intending to buy it quite soon. Thanks for all your help and hope to meet some of you at IISAC 2007.