Celestron vs Meade 8"

[joeyttk]

Advances invariably lead to better performance. However, while the new bells and whistles from the ACF is great, the optics do fine as it is.
And if you need it for visual and an occasional planet photo, it should prove a good machine for the price.
I loved my Nexstar8 but selling it because I thought the new features were cool too. That's the thing about the N8SE. You end up with a core set of fearures in a more portable configuration and a good price. If you need more, you can upgrade.
But I agree the Meade with dual forkmount is much more stable but for this class, you should really be comparing with the dual fork mount Celestron CPC series instead. Meade does not really have a product in the same class as the N8SE.

thanks for the advise.
the class closes to nexstar se 8i will be the maede etx-ls, but it is only a 6" instead of a 8.


I hear what you say about upgrade. the questions then left with whether I should buy a better mount, and ota seprately. at this moment, I think I am leaning more towards the maede.

[Airconvent]

Advances invariably lead to better performance. However, while the new bells and whistles from the ACF is great, the optics do fine as it is.
And if you need it for visual and an occasional planet photo, it should prove a good machine for the price.
I loved my Nexstar8 but selling it because I thought the new features were cool too. That's the thing about the N8SE. You end up with a core set of fearures in a more portable configuration and a good price. If you need more, you can upgrade.
But I agree the Meade with dual forkmount is much more stable but for this class, you should really be comparing with the dual fork mount Celestron CPC series instead. Meade does not really have a product in the same class as the N8SE.

thanks for the advise.
the class closes to nexstar se 8i will be the maede etx-ls, but it is only a 6" instead of a 8.


I hear what you say about upgrade. the questions then left with whether I should buy a better mount, and ota seprately. at this moment, I think I am leaning more towards the maede.

If you need to do serious long exposure astrophotography, you will need a good equatorial mount. If not there is no reason to buy the mount and OTA separately because the dual fork mounts for both Celestron and Meade or both very sturdy. Even the single forkmount nexstar SE is good enough for general visual obs. i did not have any problems with it.

[yybmage]

There are wedges avaible for both mounts. Which kind of converts the mount to EQ.

[perseid]

There is a used C8 available at very good price. Get the OTA and pair up with mount such as HEQ5 PRO. Cheaper, more flexible, easy to transport and maybe longer lasting.