I'm looking at some used LX200s but I don't know anything about Meade. The only comparison I found was a few years old and said an 11" Celestron had better optics and contrast than a 12" LX200. Is that true? Is one brand really superior?

I also noticed that lots of big used Meades are for sale and no big Celestrons. Is that a sign? One guy bought a 12" LX200 GPS and supposedly never used it once. WTF? Wish I had that kind of money to throw around on hobbies I wasn't even into.

It depends on what you plan to do with the scope. For general viewing I'd go with the 9.25" Celestron. It has enough light grasp for most DSO's and consistently the best optics of the bunch. It is light enough it is easy for nearly anyone to transport and set up.

If you want it for long exposure deep sky photography then I'd go with a 8" or 10" GPS if the setup is to be used portable. The 10" is a lot heavier than the 9.25" Celestron but GPS scopes have a much better mount for long term tracking mainly due to this mass. The 10" is about as large as one person can easily set up in the field. Most prefer the lighter weight of the 8" however. It's about the same as the 9.25" Celestron.

The likely reason you see large GPS scopes on the market is many think deep sky photography is much easier than it is and don't expect the scope to be too heavy for them. Put the two together and you see them on the market a lot. I've seen several members of our club do this very thing. There was nothing wrong with the scope, they just didn't have the back for it. I certainly don't and even 40 year younger I'd have had trouble with a 12". That said I have a 14" LX200R but on a Paramount not the GPS mount. It takes two of us to demount or remount and the other guy is a young ox of a guy. But since it is a permanent setup this is only an annual chore when I regrease the gears. It's optics are excellent, far better than the early model C14 at Hyde Memorial Observatory but equal to today's C14 scopes. Putting a 12" GPS atop a wedge in the dark is a very difficult task. One I'd never want to try at any age without help.

Of the SCTs in our club I'd rate the modern version of both scopes about equal for optical quality except for the 9.25". It stands out from the rest. As a result it is getting to be the dominant new SCT being bought by our members. Keep in mind comparing one sample of each doesn't tell you much as both companies are known to put out the occasional unusually good or bad scope. Both sell scopes with and without enhanced coatings and both have increased optical quality in recent years so if comparing one of 3 years old to one of 12 would likely show the older to be inferior.

Everyone seems to have a different opinion about telescopes, this is just mine. It may not apply to your situation at all.

Rick

Thank you very much for the help, that gives me a few more things to think about. I hadn't even considered weight, so I found the online manual and looked into it. Based on that it looks like I should stick to 10" or less, but then the classifieds have to go and tempt me with 12" LX200GPSs for much less than half retail... I'm healthy... And then there are the ads for a scope I don't really want with $800 in eyepieces I do want for $1000. Why must they all conspire against me?

I think I'm definitely going to buy used, so that eliminates the 200R/200ACF or whatever it's called, unless the recession forces people to part with newer scopes. I most definitely want GOTO because finding things is a pain in the butt given how much light pollution there is where I live... which means I should aim for something portable to take out into hill country... Decisions decisions.

like i said earlier in the other thread:-

some people like Holden, some people like Ford
some people like Intel, some people like AMD
some people like celestron cats, some people like mead cats.
my astro club have both mead and celestron.......meah

I like the Mead range, but I may get a celestron as my dealer has some killer deals on them and the differnce is small enough to sway me.

Food for thought:- I purchased a skywatcher 102 mak and put it on an ioptron cube goto mount with which i'm using the skywatchers base and legs (ioptron base and legs are a bit flimsy) and found it was the perfect combination. This has turned out to be one fantastic up and go goto system with gps, 80,000 object tracking (probably will never use, but the dealer gave it to me for the same price as the 40,000- version) The maksutov ota has excellent optics and does the job for the most part. definatly a great alternative to lugging around my 10".