nexstar 4gt vs. 114gt vs meade ds2114at

kingkong · Post by **kingkong** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:21 pm

hi all astro gurus, newbie here needs help with choosing first scope.
I'm looking at some thing like the following, with goto system if possible.

meade DS2114AT (4.5")
see http://www.stargazer.com.my/product/Pro ... ubDTID=130
and http://www.optik-roesener.de/shop/pdf/1 ... pe_web.pdf

celestron Nexstar 4GT (4")
http://www.trifid-optics.com/telescope_2.htm#4GT

celestron Nexstar 114GT (4.5")
http://www.trifid-optics.com/telescope_2.htm#114GT

all have goto. 4GT no tripod. 114 has bigger aperture? 4GT smaller.
what else is different? which one has better quality? which one has better optics/eyepiece/tripod/drive/etc.?
which one would you recommend? if none of the above, what then?
thank you for your kind guidance.
:?:

Post by **acc** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:41 pm

Hi King Kong (wow!

)
Based purely on these 3 scopes, I would rank them as follows in decreasing order of preference
1) N4GT
2) N114GT
3) DS2114

N4 shld have the best mount and drive but optics is only fair. Not sure how N114 optics compare with the N4. Try to stay away from the Meade unless u are mechanically inclined as Meade's mounts can have VERY bad quality control.

Hopefully u are not buying from Trifid as they are charging an arm and two legs for the scopes?

If u can live w/o goto, get a Skywatcher 127mm Mak from one of the local dealers and mount it on a camera tripod for the best bang-for-the-buck for visual use.

cheers
cc

blurblock · Post by **blurblock** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:02 pm

hehehe .... or you can get it from Weixing who is selling his Skywatcher 127 MCT

.... pretty good scope ;)

kingkong · Post by **kingkong** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 12:02 am

sorry. neglected to put in my profile that i live in borneo. :oops:
shops in kl told me have to pay import tax for scopes. hence more expensive. otherwise i'll happily buy from sg. or get a 2nd hand off singastro.

it seems many people in sg bought their stuffs from overseas as well. is it because it's still expensive to buy in sg?
what would be fair prices to pay for the n4 and n114?
what about etx90 & etx105?

blurblock · Post by **blurblock** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 3:29 am

We bought it overseas as the distributer here for Meade Scope is in KL. We will have to pay double transport charges (1 from USA to KL, then from KL to singapore) and double import taxes (1 from USA to KL, then from KL to Singapore). Thus it is more expensive to buy Meade from Singapore.

For Celestron, the company that sell Celestron followed the Retailer Recommended Price to the dot as he is the only distributor here in Singapore, thus having the monopoly. He is therefore having the ability to sell it at that price. But for USA or other countries, the competition is there and thus they are selling it street price, which is heavily discounted, sometime up to 3 times. Thus even when we include import tax and freight, it is still cheaper when we purchase overseas.

kingkong · Post by **kingkong** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 8:18 am

blurblock wrote:hehehe .... or you can get it from Weixing who is selling his Skywatcher 127 MCT .... pretty good scope ;)

i like the sky-watcher 127 but the price quoted to me from kl is much higher than sgd1200...
i very much like to get a 2nd hand to start with - if the seller(s) is willing to help pack &/or ship, since it's hard for me to pick up.

blurblock · Post by **blurblock** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:35 am

Well, I guess you will have to check with Weixing for that, but chances are you will have to pay for the shipping and packing. Moreover, there will not be a mount to go with it.

ariefm71 · Post by **ariefm71** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 12:15 pm

hi kingkong, which part of borneo are you from? i guess you're one of the luckiest singastro members as light pollution shouldn't be a problem there (me grew up in indonesia where almost every night can see milky way). btw, i left you a pm, you may want to read it.
cheers,

kingkong · Post by **kingkong** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 1:25 pm

ariefm71 wrote:hi kingkong, which part of borneo are you from? i guess you're one of the luckiest singastro members as light pollution shouldn't be a problem there (me grew up in indonesia where almost every night can see milky way).

light polution is not as bad as sg obviously but still not good in town area.
definitely no milky way. can't have broadband and milky way at the same time, yet, right? you may be surprised but some areas i lived in had worse light polution sometime due to big flares from oil & gas plants nearby.
but we can see most of the major constellations, if your eye sight is good may be even some clusters (i used to see cotton wools of star here & there when i was much younger, not any more

).

harlequin2902 · Post by **harlequin2902** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 2:39 pm

what would be fair prices to pay for the n4 and n114?

I bought my Nexstar 4 from one of the US dealers. Inclusive of shipping by express service and telegraphic transfer charges, I paid close to S$1300.00 for it. The Nexstar 4 was really fun to use. If you don't like tinkering around with stuff, do avoid those 114mm GOTOs as they are of the Newtonian design and require collimation from time to time. Also, the open tube design in those scopes mean that the optics will be exposed to the elements...

i very much like to get a 2nd hand to start with - if the seller(s) is willing to help pack &/or ship, since it's hard for me to pick up.

If Weixing wants to sell to you, I should be able to help in the shipping part since I do go to the post office to drop off parcels a few times per week, and I am also able to get people like *UPS or *FEDEX to collect the parcel from my place and ship it for me.

*(for shipping to places in Borneo, UPS and FEDEX is highly recommended as their insurance covers both loss and damage. Standard post office insurance cover only loss, and for some destinations in the region, there is no insurance coverage at all)