newbie looking for gear advice

[MooEy]

I would lean towards one of those 4" ED refractors with a Vixen Porta/GSO Skyview mount. Should be well within your budget and give more pleasing views.

~MooEy~

[lin00b]

are there any difference between meade LX90, LX200 and celestron c8? (all 8 inches of aperture)

[Gary]

are there any difference between meade LX90, LX200 and celestron c8? (all 8 inches of aperture)

I assume you refer the the OTAs of LX90 and LX200 excluding the tracking mounts. Basic OTA design wise, more or less similar.

Some say Celestron's coating/optics/quality control is better than Meade, others say Meade over Celestron. I have only some experience with a Meade LX90 8" SCT (UHTC coating) and a Celestron C8 (Starbright non XLT). Base on memory alone and not scientific side-by-side comparison, when well collimated, performance is about the same. Maybe psychologically, the Meade may looked very slightly brighter because it is a newer unit with apparently better coating (UHTC vs Starbright). The LX90 is also heavier, have a handle bar and a metallic cover.

Looked through a couple of Celestron C8 EdgeHD before, the improvement in coma reduction and having a flatter field can be perceived. But whether those improvement justify the difference in price between a non EdgeHD version is subjective.

IIRC, LX200 is the ACF version which is suppose to give a flatter field and less coma. The Celestron version should be their EdgeHD series. Do take note to compare between roughly the same generation of Celestron vs Meade and not different generations and conclude model/brand is better than the other. Of course, take note of the differences in price and weight too.

You mentioned earlier about "the scope + mount needs to be relatively light weight and small size." I believe a 8" SCT system may not be that light weight and small size compared to say a C6 or Mak127. You may want to keep that in mind. Best is to attend a few public stargazing sessions and have a look and feel of of how big/small a 6"/8" SCT is.

[Mariner]

If you're talking about lightweight, the Nexstar6SE is already at the border limit. You have to factor in the batteries and your other accessories that you might be bringing along too. My ZSII80ED on a miniporta mount is my Grab and Go scope nowadays.

[lin00b]

i have a feeling 6" might be the practical limit as well, and 8" pushing it (weight wise as well as pocketbook wise). will know when i drop by the shop in a week or 2 to see it physically. maybe even 6" is too much and i end up getting a 5 or a 4"

getting quoted a c6 XLT starbright with finder, diagonal and 26mm eyepiece with cg4 mount for around sgd1900

a c8 with cg4 for sgd2800

is a cg4 (rated to 20lbs) sturdy enough for a c6 (10lbs weight) or c8 (12.5lbs weight), or should i up the mount a bit more?

[Gary]

i have a feeling 6" might be the practical limit as well, and 8" pushing it (weight wise as well as pocketbook wise). will know when i drop by the shop in a week or 2 to see it physically. maybe even 6" is too much and i end up getting a 5 or a 4"

getting quoted a c6 XLT starbright with finder, diagonal and 26mm eyepiece with cg4 mount for around sgd1900

a c8 with cg4 for sgd2800

is a cg4 (rated to 20lbs) sturdy enough for a c6 (10lbs weight) or c8 (12.5lbs weight), or should i up the mount a bit more?

Think about whether do you really need an EQ mount over an AZ mount since you are concern about weight and portability. An az porta mount can handle a C8 and of course a C6. Case in point, Dave was using a C6 + Cg4 combination for a while. After getting his first AZ mount, I don't see his cg4 that frequently except for special events.

Before you drop by any shop to make a purchase, a few more things you may want to consider:

(1) Are you open to buying used telescopes? If yes, you may want to search for classified sections such as in singastro's buy and sell section, cloudynights classifieds and astromart classifieds:

- viewforum.php?f=12
- http://www.cloudynights.com/classifieds/
- http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/

Even if you prefer to buy brand new, having an awareness of a telescope used pricing may be useful to help you judge if the difference in price is worth it in return for advantages of buying brand new - e.g. warranty period, support, service ...etc.

(2) Are you open to buying directly from online retailers? Similarly, do your homework to see if the price savings (if any) is worth the risk of buying online directly.

(3) How urgent do you need get a telescope and do you mind? If not very urgent, you may want to wait for others to sell theirs here or in overseas classifieds. In our Toa Payoh / Bishan Park public stargazing sessions, you can a have a good hands-on on a Mak127 and a C6 XLT. You may "play" around with it without any obligations to buy anything on the spot (since we are not selling ours anyway! LOL) Haz and myself have a mak127 on porta mount, Dave a C6 XLT with a cg4 and also an az mount.

(4) If you are buying brand new from local retailers, you may want to insist on opening up the unit on the spot and taking your time to inspect it, especially the primary lens/mirror. Shine a bright torchlight on it. Dust particles are normal and fine, any other unusual patches/spots is not.

[Davegn]

Hi lin00b,

What Gary has said about the CG4 is true. I rarely use my CG4 and it’s hiding at the corner of my room. Even though I have modded my CG4 to be lighter and usage without a pier. Both my CG4 and my AZ mount are stable enough to mount my C6 and my 4” F10 refractor and you might want to think if there a need to use a CG4 as a AZ mount is way lighter.

If you intent to use the CG4 for AP reasons, IMO, I would suggest going for other mounts. CG4 when using such high Focal length will not be able to accurate tracking after doing polar alignment.

If you intent to use purely for visual, using an AZ mount would be great. It would be lighter for transportation and easier on your wallet too.

This are just my suggestion and do take a lookout on the 2nd hand market.

Thanks,
Dave Ng

[MooEy]

The cg-4 can't carry a c8. Don't waste your money on that mount anyway. Pick up a proper vixen gp2/gpd2 if you want an equatorial mount.

Stick to an alt-az mount if possible, they are lighter and easier to bring out.

~MooEy~

[zabeer1961]

Hi Lin00b,
Try looking at Barska Magnus (65mm or80mm)
suppose to be a triplet, about 6kg ,comes with travel case and zoom EP.
Being a refractor good for DSOs and wide view, for planets you can always use the zoom EP.
http://www.amazon.com/BARSKA-Magnus-560 ... B0018CZ52W

as for the mount :
1) Vixen Porta 2
2) any Manfrotto tripod and Garrett series 5000 fluid type head ( I am using one).click on the link.
https://www.garrettoptical.com/product- ... 0-head.htm

Zabeer

[lin00b]

thanks gary,

having some bad experience, i m not keen to buy sensitive optical instrument online, and expensive optical instrument at that.

locally, i think only sg has a vibrant enough astronomy community that there are various used equipment coming in, i'm keeping an eye out at buy and sell, but not holding my breath.

not keen on buying online cause i m not that sure what i want also, best option is to drop inside a shop to get a feel of things first

thanks for the advise on how to inspect scopes!

an alt-az mount would be fine i guess, i'll just buy a new mount if i decide to go into AP.

just checking my knowledge,
for an eq mount, you need an equal amount of counterwight as your scope? i.e 10lbs of weight for 10lbs of scope?

can stacking of lots of fast photo using alt-az be equal to long exposure using eq?

is it important/recommended to oversize a mount? i.e 20lbs rate mount for 10lbs scope. or as long as scope is less than rated it's fine?

how much extra weight does accessories add to the scope? (lens, filters, camera, etc)

i have a feeling 6" might be the practical limit as well, and 8" pushing it (weight wise as well as pocketbook wise). will know when i drop by the shop in a week or 2 to see it physically. maybe even 6" is too much and i end up getting a 5 or a 4"

getting quoted a c6 XLT starbright with finder, diagonal and 26mm eyepiece with cg4 mount for around sgd1900

a c8 with cg4 for sgd2800

is a cg4 (rated to 20lbs) sturdy enough for a c6 (10lbs weight) or c8 (12.5lbs weight), or should i up the mount a bit more?

Think about whether do you really need an EQ mount over an AZ mount since you are concern about weight and portability. An az porta mount can handle a C8 and of course a C6. Case in point, Dave was using a C6 + Cg4 combination for a while. After getting his first AZ mount, I don't see his cg4 that frequently except for special events.

Before you drop by any shop to make a purchase, a few more things you may want to consider:

(1) Are you open to buying used telescopes? If yes, you may want to search for classified sections such as in singastro's buy and sell section, cloudynights classifieds and astromart classifieds:

- viewforum.php?f=12
- http://www.cloudynights.com/classifieds/
- http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/

Even if you prefer to buy brand new, having an awareness of a telescope used pricing may be useful to help you judge if the difference in price is worth it in return for advantages of buying brand new - e.g. warranty period, support, service ...etc.

(2) Are you open to buying directly from online retailers? Similarly, do your homework to see if the price savings (if any) is worth the risk of buying online directly.

(3) How urgent do you need get a telescope and do you mind? If not very urgent, you may want to wait for others to sell theirs here or in overseas classifieds. In our Toa Payoh / Bishan Park public stargazing sessions, you can a have a good hands-on on a Mak127 and a C6 XLT. You may "play" around with it without any obligations to buy anything on the spot (since we are not selling ours anyway! LOL) Haz and myself have a mak127 on porta mount, Dave a C6 XLT with a cg4 and also an az mount.

(4) If you are buying brand new from local retailers, you may want to insist on opening up the unit on the spot and taking your time to inspect it, especially the primary lens/mirror. Shine a bright torchlight on it. Dust particles are normal and fine, any other unusual patches/spots is not.