12" Meade SCT on G11

[Timps (Andrew)]

I'm looking at mounting a Meade 12" SCT on a Losmandy G11 and eventually imaging gear also. Is this advisable or should I move up to the new EQ8?

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

http://www.losmandy.com/g-11.html

The Lx200 12" OTA (bare) weighs in at 17.1Kg....
add the cameras, minirails etc etc and you'll be up close to 20Kg+
The G11 is rated for 60 lbs (27Kg) - so it should handle it well.

( I looked at de-forking my Lx 12" for spectroscopy but couldn't find a mounting I could afford to replace the functionality (and GOTO) of the original fork..well outside the comfort zone of a NEQ6pro. Ended up selling it and replaced with a C11 on an NEQ6pro -majic!)

[fornax (Phil)]

for visual observing, it would be ok imo. but you would struggle imaging with it. my advice would be go to a bigger mount. not even sure the EQ8 would cut it, sight unseen as it is ...

[Octane (Humayun)]

It is fine for imaging, too.

Frank (spearo) has a 14" Celestron mounted on his G-11, imaging at 4 metres in focal length, he consistently gets perfect round stars on his STL-11000M.

Go for it!

H

[PeterM]

Ditto Octane's comments,
Greg Bock uses a Meade 14inch on his G11 and he takes superb astro images. SBIG ST8 etc, etc mounted.
Peter

[icytailmark (Mark)]

You must have a Perm pier if you want to do serious imaging on a g11 especially with the weight of a 12" sct. I use a C14 on the G11 but i do planetary imaging. Its so much easier with a pier.