I think it's time now for me to dump my 900-130mm EQ and switch to a more powerful scope. And after long hours of ransacking the web I have found that Meade LX200 14" would make it the ideal scope I have at home as an amatuer which would give a far better close-up for planets, nevertheless, I'm still not convinced on it, as the sample shots taken by this scope were not 100% satisfactory! I thought this scope would make me able to see other moons and craters (closely). That's disappointing!

Is there a miniature Hubble I can buy?

Minature Hubble .

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

You made your decision based on JPEGS you found on the web????
The truth of the matter is that you are not going to find a better scope for the money. Anything "better" will cost more money, a lot more!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Astrophotographs and images rarely correspond to what is usually seen or can be seen through an eyepiece or were you thinking about buying the telescope for imaging?

Dave Mitsky

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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Note that a 14 inch SCT is really heavy. Do you have a home observatory to mount it in?

If you want a lot of aperture, and you do not have a home observatory, why not get a 16 or 18 inch truss Dob, which would be much easier to haul and set up than a 14 inch SCT?

If you are into imaging, and that is why you don't want a Dob, then I would argue that the 14 inch SCT is not the best scope to get anyway. What you want for that doesn't need to be that large since you will be doing timed exposures.

I have heard that Meade tends to have troubles with their largest scopes, people I know who have gotten them had to do a lot of major surgery to get them to work properly.

And no telescope is going to show you craters on Jupiter's moons. Sorry.
==

Edited to add, in rereading the original message, it sounds like you mostly want to look at planets. If that is the case, then a large refractor with expensive glass (Apo) is the way to go.

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"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

The 12" and the 14" both have two sets of handles and that's for a reason. You know what they say - the best scope is the one you'll use. I have a 10" (one set of handles) and as it is, it takes real motivation for me to set it up. It only takes 20 minutes to set it up and align but by that time I'm sweaty and hot and less than enthusiastic about the whole affair.

If you're sure you'll use that much scope then fine, the LX 200s are good scopes but having a monster scope sitting in a box 363 days of the year is not really a wise use of your cash IMHO.

mmm, sexy...



edit to update to new location of my pictures.

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You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

I have to agree with the last two posters. A 10" LX200 is a bit of a handful for one person to set up. A 14" definitely requires two people. I have a friend who is sorry he sold his 12" LX200 and "upgraded" to the 14". The 14" LX200 GPS that ASH bought last year is going to require some retrofitting (gear replacements, a software upgrade, and so on) to be truly useful for imaging.

http://forums.astronomydaily.com/viewtopic.php?t=3945

Dave Mitsky

__________________
Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

It must be durable; looks like it survived the soccer ball test run.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Lx200 is a good scope, some people have taken great pics with it and a webcam
http://members.sigecom.net/mborman/m33.htm
http://homepage.mac.com/joanlvh/Astronomy/MarsHR.html

http://www.heavenlyview.com/m27thirdlx200.htm
http://www.supernovae.be/images/plan...03_2051ut.html
if you have imaging experience, you should be able to get some nice images

I have a LX200 14" in an ash dome. The GPS is shielded by the dome. Is there a product I can purchase under $200 that will get the signal into the dome? Meade customer service has been less than helpful.

Hi - I am a big fan and owner of a number of Meade telescopes. My first scope was the 10" LX200GPS. I also purchased the superwedge as I wanted to do astrophotography with a camera mounted in prime focus configuration. However, the shear weight and effort required to hoist it onto the wedge made it less than 100% desirable. Image-wise, I have been told by numerous people and seen in print that the larger Meade scopes are not as "image-perfect" as their smaller counterparts. Nevermind the weight factor and transportability of these larger scopes.

Even though I have never purchased a Celestron 'scope, I have seen quite a few images people have taken with Celestron's 9.25" SCT, and have been told that is the way to go if you want to take photos. Also, the older 9.25" Celestron units I was informed have better optics than the newer versions.

FWIW, and IMHO, I use my smaller scopes quite frequently, even though they require setting up a Losmandy G-11 mount before the scope comes out of the box. Also, since I purchased a 5" refractor to mount on top of the G-11, I have only used my 10" LX200GPS one time in just over a year. And that was for a private party that a friend of mine and I put on for a kid's birthday party in Pacific Palisades, CA. I think the only reason I took the 10" to that was because basically I needed to carry only 2 big boxes/bags - one for the tripod, the other for the scope itself.

I don't know if I will keep the 10", even though I love the optics and the light-gathering power it has over a 5" refractor. I may decide to pull it off the fork mount and mount a Losmandy plate on the bottom for use on the G-11. My G-11 seems to be very stable and easy to use, and the older I get, the more the heavier weight of the LX200 becomes an issue.

Clear skies!

Paul

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Photons are free. Take some!

I must be missing something here.
I was under the impression that GPS was only necessary for portable scopes that get moved from place to place, to let the scope know where it is this time. If you're observing from a permanent observatory, your location isn't changing. There are any number of online maps that will give you your latitude, longitude and altitude above to the same accuracy as GPS.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Hi!

If you have a observatory or someone to help you move the scope, then go for it. Otherwise, think first. I bought my 14" for more than 3 years and I only used it for less then 10 times, because no one can help me to move my scope. I only can use it more after I have my observatory. It is big and heavy.

Aw Yong

http://www.awyong.net

If you can afford a 14" Meade SCT and have a permanent place to put it when you are not using it (like a garage)I might recommend looking into a transporter like a Scopebuggy (www.scopebuggy.com, I think JMI sells one as well). I'm not getting any younger, and hauling out my 10" LX200 and hoping I can get it on the setscrew has gotten a bit more problematical than in times past. I got a buggy and it has made it much more likely I will actually use the scope on any given evening (in the unlikely event the rain ever stops. Oh, well).

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Just a quick note for those that are adding information, that the OP was made in 2005 and the person last posted on this forum over a year ago.

The thread was resurrected by tmorin, who asked a question but has only made one post and never came back.

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"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

Thanks, aurora - I never even looked at the date of the post

Clear skies!

Paul

__________________
Photons are free. Take some!