which telescope???

[sami]

want to buy gift for a friend. with a months resewarch considering a hundred factors have narrowed selection to meade lt6 or celestron nexstar 6se. would love an 8 inch but blown budget already. am absolutely confused the more i research on them. PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!!!! is the acf worth it? is the audiostar worth it?? is meade a better one than celestron??? personally understand that a 12" dob would be a dream for someone but major space issues. hence much pricier option taken unfortunately. PLEASE SOMEONE DIRECT ME SOMEWHAT!!!!

[barx1963]

Hi Sami! and welcome :welcome:
First off, sounds like you are a little stressed, but you have come to the right place.
IMHO buying a scope for someone else is fraught with potential difficulties, as even the cheapest scopes are still quite a lot of money and good scopes can be a lot of money.
Do you have any idea what your friend is interested in using the scope for? It is always best to discuss it first before laying out the foldings!

Both the scopes you have mentioned are on the expensive side for their aperture, the Celestron is about $1500 and the Meade is about $1700 at Bintel ATM. To answer some of your queries, ACF in the Meade scopes probably isn't worth worrying about if you are purely using it for visual observing. Yes it produces a flat field but only the keenest most experienced observer could tell the difference by eye. If they are imaging it may be of some value. As far as Meade vs. Celestron, probably much of a muchness as far as optics go, really more price and features.

As far as space goes, the scopes you mention still take up a fair bit of space unless they tripods are fully disassembled each time. If space in an option consider a 6" or 8" dob. Much easier on the wallet, easy to use and store and the Skywatcher collapsible GOTO 8" is around $1100 ATM, so you get more aperture, a compact scope and Go To for less $$$!

Hope all this helps

Malcolm

[torana68]

first up you havent said where you are so I cant recommend anyone but maybe a gift certificate and let them decide? (you would have to contact a store and see if they do that) the wrong 'scope is easy to buy.

[sami]

thanks soooo much for your reply. yes, i am extremely stressed. after a month of reading and discussing have a lot of information and not much better off. buying it in a few days and still confused. this person will just use it for astronomy and really may just have time on the odd weekend. wanted computerised obne that does all the finding for you and has limited space. they don't know i'm getting it for them so want to get all bases covered. will look into the skywater one that you have recommended. also if anyone else has any suggestions.........

[dannat]

There is a 8" sct in the classifieds here for 500, bbit of a bargain
Asvfor a computerized mount depends on person, I like tech have iphone/iPad/MacBook air but just dont like the toto mounts. In the city theyvare an Adv though cause it is harder to see your way around the sky

[casstony]

Hi Sami, of the two scopes you're asking about I'd pick the Celestron. The Celestron hand control is simpler to use and the optical tube is easily removed from or attached to the mount.

[dannat]

Sami there is a celestrom cpc 800 (8") on eBay now for 1200, no tripod but a good buy

[sami]

WOW!. thanks for the advice everyone. i was just getting so confused. have a bit more of a direction now.

[Logieberra]

Grab a used 8" dobsonian on this forum, and a nice star atlas / book. Not electonic, but perfect for the occassional observer as you described them.

Or tell them to run a free planetarium software program on their laptop when they use the scope (will help them find the faint fuzzies). Quasi-electronic, and more bang for your buck with a larger mirror.