Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
Unless you're in good physical condition and rather strong, I would suggest to stay with the 9.25 or 8" Celestron, or the 8-10" Meade. Even they can be heavy to lug around and if you have any physical impairments like arthritis and such. They can be difficult to handle although they're relatively small. You won't get the same degree of resolution or image brightness out of them as you will with the 12" dob, because they aren't as large plus you have the larger secondary mirror cell in the corrector plate. But, you have to look at some trade offs for getting other conveniences.
I can tell you now, to handle an 11" or larger Celestron or a 12" and larger Meade, safely, it's a two person job. Unless you're Big Arnie, of course   |
I reckon the LX200 12" OTA and Fork at 34 Kilo's would get old pretty quick. The cpc1100 comes in at a middle weight 29 Kilo's. But the LX90 12" comes in at a feather weight 28 kilo's.
LX90 12" should be easy enough to handle for a strapping young lad like myself who goes to the gym 4 times a week. Can hammer curl 27.5 kilos. How much heavier can .5 kilos feel anyway?
But all mentioned telescopes are very expensive. Have you considered the new Skywatcher collapsable dobs with the goto and tracking? 8" - 14" of mirror to keep you satisified and on target. Actually Im considering the 14" model myself. Might be a bit of a squeeze in the back of the corolla with chairs and tables and the picknic basket