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I looked at both of these scopes as a portable solution. I think that with the release of the new Celestron 5” SE both even out in price, around A$1500. The optional Meade LNT feature will probably add another A$300.
The Celestron is a Schmidt-Cassegrain with 1250mm focal length at F10. The Meade on the other hand is a Maksutov-Cassegrain of 1900mm focal length at F15. In photography terms that’s close to a full stop in the Celestrons favour – but the Meade will give a greater than 60% magnification benefit with a 10mm eyepiece.
Both scopes can use the popular focal reducers for Schmidt-Cassegrains but the Meade will need an adapter. These reducers reduce the effective focal length and accordingly the f stop. For that reason astrophotographers often use focal reducers to shorten exposure times and broaden the field of view when using Cassegrains. They can also flatten the field.
Both scopes appear to include a tripod that incorporates a simple wedge for equatorial tracking. I believe that Celestrons new upgradeable controller is included so they too offer periodic error correction in polar mode. It would worth checking this.
The Meade ETX125 has a built in flip mirror to change from eyepiece to camera. I don’t believe the Celestron Nextar 5 SE has.
The mount on the Celestron is a single arm while the Meade uses a mini dual arm fork mount. One would imagine the Meade to be more stable. That said the Meade design is pretty tight so mounting a DSLR to the back of the scope for steep angle astrophotography would be challenging. The Celestron single arm should afford better space for a DSLR. For piggy camera mounting both scopes would afford enough space, the Celestron however allows the optical tube to slide back and forward – allowing adjustable weight distribution.
This last Celestron feature also gives rise to the possibility of attaching other rail-mounted telescopes like an ed80 to the mount. The Meade does not.
As far as the difference in the controllers is concerned it’s a matter of taste.
I like both scopes.
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