Meade range or not?

ekon · #1 23-11-2010, 03:57 PM

I am looking to get back into the field after a long break. Looking around there are so many options these days. I plan on keeping my next scope for atleast 3 years and eventually do some astrophotography after a year. The one i hear about the most is the LX200 so i was going for a12". Or is the LX 90 12" just as good? At the moment meade has the bonus offer of the solar max scope. Is this worth jumping in right now for?

Are there any other brands or models which are good long term investments that are recommended?

I have till the end of the week to choose according to the missus :/ or shes going to end up deciding

cheers

jenchris (Jennifer) · #2 23-11-2010, 04:44 PM

lx200 doesn't need guiding as much as the lx90 - just the wedge and away you go - well almost - how strong are you - the 12" is a bit of a lump to set up unless you're used to bench pressing 4x your own weight

ekon · #3 23-11-2010, 04:47 PM

is this a good longterm scope? some of the secondhand scopes i have looked at on here are setup pretty good and they have been owned for 4 years or more. any idea how good this deal is (6700 for 12" lx200 and that solarmax)?

GrampianStars (Rob) · #4 23-11-2010, 06:47 PM

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...133#post658133
$6500

give TB a call heaps of extras!!
the LX 200 GPS 12'' is fantastic under the dark sky which you will have heaps of. swing by the grampians if you want to see one under dark sky

ekon · #5 23-11-2010, 06:59 PM

I dont want to come across like a know it all, just finding it hard to get a good idea. Because I live in a rural area we dont have any specialty scope stores nearby to just pop into. I got in touch with Bill about his scope and he was the first straight talking person out of many i had called in regards to secondhand scopes. But i had this convo with the missus and she keeps asking how a new scope costs just a few hundred more then a second hand one. I've managed to talk her into spending 6000-7000 so i want to make the most of it.
She believes that they got to have wear and tear (aaarrrgghhh) but im sure bill's is in very good condition. If only i had time to go check it out.

Blue Skies (Jacquie) · #6 23-11-2010, 09:54 PM

If you're going for a 12" LX200 I hope you're going to have it permanently mounted - they're probably much heavier than you expect! I can only just comfortably lift the 8" size in the LX200 range and I'm not that weak.

Sylvain (Jon) · #7 24-11-2010, 12:50 AM

Before getting anything this size, you should really get a chance of looking at it and more importantly "feeling" it meaning physically moving it around. 12" is huge, and meades are super heavy. If you don't know what you're running into I suggest you wait a bit more until you get to try one.
Also, I suggest you take time and don't rush a 6000-7000 bucks decision, but that's your call of course

And most second hand scopes would - of course - be great.

Alchemy (Clive) · #8 24-11-2010, 06:59 AM

Hi ekon

Getting back into the field after a long break ??
The question I'm wondering is your level of expertise in the imaging dept, if yove previously done some then ok for the big scope.... If not then you are jumping in at the deep end, and I personally would not recommend it.
The caveat here is deep sky imaging, I recommend beginners to start with an ed80 refractor, it has a shortish focal length and being a good quality refractor is simple to use, no collimation problems etc. Once a level of proficiency is acquired then move up the field, I have had a number of scopes from the 80 mm up to a12 inch, I have settled for a 5 inch apo refractor.
Meade are a high volume big advertising company, and I guess it's like the Holden or ford as far as scopes go, plenty have used them and are reasonable value for money.
Mildura would be a great place to be as far as clear skies go, so the potential for lots of use is there. The 12 inch would be good for planetary imaging to some degree and does not have such a high learning curve as deep sky
imaging,
It really depends on where you are at,
Well there you go another opinion for you anyway

Clive

Shano592 (Shane) · #9 24-11-2010, 09:35 AM

Hi ekon,

I just landed my 10-inch LX-200. It's plenty heavy ... I think the OTA and forks come in around 32kg. Bear in mind that you have to lift that onto the tripod. I find it just inside my comfort zone.

Meade advertise that the OTA alone on the 12-inch weighs in at a lazy 37kg, so you'll need to consider that too, after a long night at the eyepiece.

Speaking of which, the Meades come with a 26mm Plossl ... have you factored any eyepieces into your budget? The stuff below, in my signature, cost just over $8k, with miscellaneous bits & pieces in there, too.

IMO, if you can afford new, then get it. You have a warranty, and your new scope won't have any history behind it, and any secret issues that come with it.

Kal (Andrew) · #10 24-11-2010, 01:53 PM

What type of astrophotography? Planetary or Deep Sky?

If you want to do planetary then the field rotation from an alt-az mount isn't a major drama, but for deep sky you will need to either use a wedge or a field de-rotator. I had a 10" LX200 in the past, and it was too heavy for me to lift onto the wedge my myself.

I'd suggest buying just the OTA and mounting it onto a regular equatorial mount like an EQ6 or losmandy G11.This will give you a setup that breaks down into lighter more managable pieces. Secondly it means you can use any OTA in the future, and if you want to start imaging you can buy a small refractor as suggested and start from there (short focal lengths are much more forgiving).

ekon · #11 24-11-2010, 02:20 PM

Yeah i plan on eventually doing deep space stuff after a year of owning it. For now i have around 6500 to play with, the camera and other necessary equipment for photography will come after the first year. My plan was to purchase a good enough scope to last a few years for this final purpose as i know i wont be able to buy another for atleast 3 years.

So my idea (which convinced the missus) was purchase scope, use for a year then start building an observatory to permanently house it in and start some photography.

Would you guys recommend a different setup for how i have it planned?

How is the 10"? Did you get that solarmax scope to?

Shano592 (Shane) · #12 24-11-2010, 06:00 PM

The 10-inch is very noice. Crisp images from all around. Because I'm not familiar with a lot of the constellations, calibrating it has been a little difficult. Hopefully I can remedy that soon. Having said that, I get awesome views of Jupiter and 4 moons, I saw Uranus for the first time, as well as Neptune. Pretty special stuff. The moon is incredibly bright, without a moon filter fitted.

The Solarmax is coming. Usually takes a couple of weeks after the scope arrives. The guys at Bintel reckon that they are almost arriving at the same time as the scopes (mine was shipped directly from Meade in California, due to the backlog because of this promotion).

Another way to look at it ... if you don't need the Solarmax, you can always sell it, to recoup some of the cost of your main scope. I reckon a new one would disappear pretty quickly in the IIS classifieds.

I basically have the same plans as you do, except for the permanent housing. All I am short of is the ultrawedge, the filters, and the filter wheel. In the next 6 months though. I figure that I will work out how to use the scope first, then bolt on the Canon.

ekon · #13 24-11-2010, 10:58 PM

Going to make a choice on friday so any help would be fantastic guys.

marki · #14 24-11-2010, 11:49 PM

The LX 200 10" is a nice scope (I have one) but if you intend to do AP there are better choices out there. When mounted on a wedge (you will need to do that) the fork arms are quite flexible and this will cause all sorts of problems even in a light breeze. They are very heavy and getting them on the wedge is no small task (the 12" will be worse). F10 and 2500 - 3000mm focal length is not a good place to start either. If you are serious about AP with one of these scopes buy a seperate tube and mount it on a decent equatorial mount. Forget the forks unless you like pain.

Mark

Sylvain (Jon) · #15 25-11-2010, 10:04 AM

If you wanna go the Deep Sky AP way, the 12" SC you're thinking about is not the best way to go. Way too much focal length for beginning, not to mention massive mount issues.
You could be looking at getting a big eq mount on which you could mount a big tube when doing observations and a pair of small EDs when imaging.
Another way to go is: 1. Getting a big dob (GSO, bintel or similar) and getting a good mount + a 80mm ed for imaging.

But starting deep space imaging with 3000mm of focal length is suicidal

Barrykgerdes · #16 25-11-2010, 11:43 AM

I had a 12" LX200 permanently mounted on a wedge in an observatory. I never managed to get any photos through it that were worth showing. Yes it could be made to work but even as a permanent mount it was more of a hassle with photography than the method we now use.

It was impossible to manually put on the wedge due mainly to the angle it needed to be oriented at to slip onto the wedge (as well as the weight). I overcame this by building a special purpose crane.

It was a great scope for visual work and when set up correctly with the axes properly orthogonal the gotos were excellent and it held its alignment for years by just parking it after use.

For portable work I use a LX200 10" on an alt/azm mount. This is excellent for viewing nights at schools etc and find it much more versatile as I can assemble it and get it operational by myself in about 5 minutes.

When I got serious about AP about two years ago and looked at what the experts were using we decided that the telescope was only a minor requirement. The real need was a good mount so we bought a G11 with Gemini and put an $600 8" newtonian on it We will also be using an ED80 or similar.

Trevor can set the mount up in equatorial mode at Wiruna and be taking photos in as little as 10 minutes. Trip before last to Wiruna had about 20 minutes of clear sky after dusk before clouds spoiled the rest of the weekend but he manage to get two subs of M8 while no one else even managed to get their scopes aligned.

The cost of all this including the CCD guider and periferals was less than the cost of a new LX200 12".

Barry

DavidTrap (David) · #17 25-11-2010, 11:46 AM

I tried some piggyback imaging on a fork mounted SCT - my advice is if you want to do some imaging, then steer clear of the fork mounted SCT. Look at a german equatorial mount and separate OTA. You can get a package with an EQ6 and 10inch OTA from Bintel. The 10inch OTA is not a starting point for imaging, but you could add a second hand ED80 refractor to get you started.

Regards
DT