Meade Telescopes...which model is the best?

Question

I want portability, but also want to do astrophotography and object tracking.

Answer 1

The best telescope for you depends on how serious you are about astrophotography, what you mean by portability, and how much you want to spend. For serious astrophotography, get the best mount you possibly can.

The 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain (SCT) is a very popular telescope. They are very compact for their aperture and the design is easily adaptable for photography.

Meade sells these in their LXD75 and LX90GPS ranges. Further upscale, they are selling what they call an "Advanced Ritchey-Chretien", which looks like an SCT but has better optics for photography (flatter field). In this design they offer an LX200R and a 10" RCX400. Choose an LX200 or RCX400 for serious astrophotography.

If you're looking for something smaller, check out the ETX scopes. they don't have the capabilities of the larger scopes, but a small telescope that you use all the time is much better than a big telescope that's too much trouble to set up.

For more information and opinions, visit the Yahoo Telescopes group or the Cloudy nights forums.

Answer 2

If it's portability you're after, then the ETX range is probably what you need to look at. To learn more about 'em, check out http://www.weasner.com/etx/

If you want something with a bit more grunt, then the LX200 range is probably what you want to be looking at.
http://www.telescopehouse.co.uk/page.aspx?pointerid=3FFB77C17DE54E299C40606E97F9B08D&thelang=001lngdef
Even if they do cost a small fortune

Answer 3

Discovery stores sell several of them. Check out their web site as well. You obviously know a lot more than me about them. I bought my wife on from Wal-Mart. It's OK if you know what you are looking for. We don't though. The moon looks cool though! That's all we have really seen yet.