What brand telescope do you own and are you happy with it?

Question

What would be a good telescope to buy for no more than $200.?

Answer 1

If you buy it used you can get a nice 4.5" celestron on a german equatorial mount and have some money left over for a clock drive. lenses, or other accessories. I have one of these and it's an excellent telescope optically but you may be disappointed because it just scratches the tip of the iceberg for live viewing. From your previous question you sound like you want something that collects a lot of light.

You might be able to find a 6" Dobsonian...Orion makes good ones and some of them come computerized so you can find objects easily, but you can't easily do astrophotography with them.

You can look at www.astromart.com in the classifieds for used telescopes, or even eBay but if you can save $200 more you can get a used 8" Schmidt Cassegrain by Meade or celestron...typically with a motor drive for astrophotography for around $400 used.

I think an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain on a motor drive is ideal for the serious beginner because it's big enough for some nice live viewing, affordable to many, and you can get great photos of things even if you can't see them with your eyes.

These are all good brands.

Affordable to you: Celestron, Meade, Orion.
Not affordable but excellent brands: Takahashi, Astro-Physics, Cave(not in business anymore)

Luxery Dobsonians: JMI, Obsession

Avoid Avoid Avoid!: Bushnell, Tasco, and anything else in a deparment store.

Answer 2

I have a ten inch meade, Meade is a great brand but that one cost more than 200$ (I inherited it luckily). I would go with a smaller Meade personally. See if you can find a store that specializes in things like binoculars and telescopes and go there first at least to ask questions about what to trade up on and what is worth spending a little extra for.

Answer 3

I have a Meade Lightbridge and I'm quite happy with it. However, I'm less impressed with Meade's lower priced offerings. Orion Telescopes and Binoculars (telescope.com) sells some good inexpensive telescopes. I like their Starblast reflector in your price range.

Telescopes.com (different from above) has a good selection of telescopes under $200, though there are some there that I wouldn't recommend.

Answer 4

I own a Meade 5 inch reflector with a computerized motorized equatorial mounted position control. I paid $199.99 for it 5 years ago.
I am very happy with it. It contains over a hundred preprogrammed items to observe.