|
LX90 08 or CPC800
Sometimes next year I will be looking for new scope. After considering my options decision come down to two scopes. Meade LX90 08” or Celestron CPC800. Thought my first choice would be good 5” or so refractor, it is not financially feasible. I’m turning 60 and I had bad work accident and those two scopes are about maximum weight I can move around and also maximum price I can afford. I do not want another GE mount/ scope combination. At present I’m using 150mm GSO Newtonian on Autostar modified GSO SV1 mount on pier and 102 wideview Celestron refractor on early Celestron NexStar mount. The NexStar mount had to be modified and it is now bypassing hand controller altogether, running NexRemote on the computer. Before modification it would not even track stars in sidereal mode. That says something about the quality of early Celestron software. I also got Meade ETX 105, but I use it very seldom. And I’m building very widefield 136mm f 3.6 refractor.
I do not use scopes for visual observing, as my eyesight is getting bad. I mostly take images in FITs format (mostly gay scale) and occasionally I do observations on computer screen. I’m mostly using GStar EX camera which allows me to see stars about three magnitude fainter then I would see if I was using an eyepiece. I’m slowly working towards to have my telescopes completely remote controlled (wireless), so I can power the scope and go to my room and do all the imagining or observing from there. It is most likely that whichever scope I will get it will be eventually put on pier and it will be used with focal reducer most of the times.
I invite anyone who got experience with above telescopes to comment on – optic quality, tracking, auto-guiding, electronics focusing and cost of it, cost and ease of attaching guide scope and anything else you like or dislike about those scopes.
At present I’m leaning towards Meade LX90 because it integrate electronics focusing on same RS232 connection as Autostar, it can use DSI for auto- guiding without additional cables or software and can do the Drizzle with DSI.
All comments and suggestions welcome
|