SCHMIDT-CASSEGRAIN SHOOTOUT: MEADE LX85 v. CELESTRON NexStar SE
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2023
- In this video I am going to be comparing a Meade LX85 and a Celestron NexStar 8SE telescope. I currently own two Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes and I used to own another one in the 1990s but I have never owned a Celestron telescope. So, I decided to rent a Celestron for two weeks so that I could have a comparison between these two brands of Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes and see how they compared. This is a limited comparison to what I believe are the entry level Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes from each company. I think I used the closest match I could find in the Meade LX85 and the Celestron Nexstar 8SE. The major difference between the two is that the Meade comes with Meade's advanced coma free (ACF) technology (I believe all Meade's SCTs now come with ACF) and the Celestron does not come with Celestron's Edge HD technology that they use to eliminate coma. Other than that, it seemed like these two models were pretty closely matched in terms of the optics. In this video I compared them by testing them under dark skies with a star test, collimation test, by looking at deep sky objects, by observing some double stars, observing the planets, and just testing out how each telescope performed optically. At the end I'll give you my assessment.
Very informative history lesson on those two telescope manufacturers!
Great review. For a while I was torn between the Orion 6 inch Maksutov Starseeker (which you have reviewed) and the 6 inch Celestron SE but when I realized that I could move the Orion manually and I couldn't do that with the Celestron, I immediately went for the Orion and I'm pretty happy with it. I live in NYC, where the light pollution is overpowering but the Orion still does a decent job on the Moon and planets here. One of my favorite things to do is to set up my scope on the sidewalk on a nice night and invite passersby to take a look at the Moon. Most folks are super enthusiastic and gobsmacked by the views. Virtually everybody thanks me profusely and a few people have even hugged me.
Thank you. That is so neat that you do that with your telescope. So many people have never looked through a telescope and I'm sure seeing the moon for the first time through your 6" telescope is very memorable for them and maybe you are even providing the impetus for a budding new astronomer.
It's always a pleasure to learn from you. Thank you for taking the time to help us out on here.
Thank you and thanks for watching.
Great video as always! Enjoyed it very much tsula!
Thank you so much. Thanks for watching.
Thank you Tsula. A very practical, astronomers review of the two scopes. I've been thinking about an SCT for a while now so I found this really helpful. An interesting history of the two companies as well that I have not heard before.
Thank you!
Great review Tsula! I bought my Meade 8” LX 90 in 2006. At the time I was debating whether I should buy a Celestron. Fast forward 17 years later and I’m convinced I made the correct decision. I replaced the 1.25” diagonal with a 2” Televue and added a few Televue eyepieces. I love my Meade \ Televue combination so much that I’ve recently added a Televue 85 to my collection as my grab & go scope. Keep on making videos.
Thank you. I love my LX85 8". I did a lot of research before buying it, about the difference between the optics used on the LX85 and the LX90 and it seemed like they were identical. I also replaced my diagonal but with another 1.25" but I could not be happier with the performance of my Meade.
Great video! I have a Meade 8” LX200 SCT and I love it. I haven’t been able to use it recently because the Alt/Az Mount gave out but hopefully one day I’ll get a mount hefty enough to handle it. Thanks for the great content!
Thank so much. I hope you get a hefty mount soon to get that LX200 back to work for you. I love my Meade too.
Solid review Tsula! I like the Meade more too! 😊
Thank, Elray! I love my Meade telescope.
Enjoyed this video Tsula. Hope you do more like this.
Hi Bill. Thanks. People really like this kind of video but they are hard to make unless you have unlimited resources or a benefactor to supply the various brands of telescopes to you. I wish there were a place where you could rent telescopes to try them out. That would be neat.
@@tsulasbigadventures I wonder if you can get a couple of telescope companies to sponsor your channel?
@@bill-88 I wish they would but I think they go for channels with a lot more subscribers than I currently have.
Nice video comparo!
Well done. I also have a Celestron SE 8" and what you have said about yours is so true. You are very knowledgeable and add a bit of emotion to your presentations..which is refreshing. There are not many women amateur Astronomers. Too bad others haven't subscribed. Your efforts deserve more subscribers.
Thank you. I appreciate it. I wish there were more women astronomers. I hope in some small way to contribute to that by inspiring more women to become interested in the wonderful hobby of amateur astronomy.
I've been an amatuer astronmer for many decades. Many women have shown interest but that quickly fades away..just like with many men. You show a passion for the hobby and I dare say you are knowledgeable and have many nice telescopes and equipment.
I have a Nexstar11GPS as well as a N8i. The N8i has limitations, as you have pointed out, however if one delicately focuses with it , it is a very handy quickstep & use telescope. Granted it is not a good choice at higher magnifications. Under rural skies my N8i has proven to be a wonder instrument to have. I bought mine used for $500. I almost passed on it; I am sure glad that I didn't. The NS11 is a beast to handle. I doubt many would enjoy using one very often--but I do!
@@Starman2440 That's true and I myself went through periods in my life that I was just too busy with work to devote much time at all to astronomy but I never lost my passion for it. True, I have some nice telescopes but I'm always looking for that perfect road telescope to take to a dark sky site.
Woman?
@@_Rodrigo_Inacio_ Yes, woman.
Awesome review! Thank you
Thank you!
Loved the review allways was interested in the Meade and i will own one soon
Thank you! And congratulations on your coming telescope.
My first time watching one of your videos and I was very impressed. I own a Celestron 8se and I must say I ha e not experienced the problems you indcate with Celestron. I live in south Florida, and I havent had an issue. After watching your video, I am going to try out a Meade from one of my fellow Astronomer friends and see if I may change up. THANK YOU!!!
Hello and thank you! That's a good idea to try out your friend's Meade. Clear skies!
I bought a 10” Meade LX200 in 2001. A coworker had a 12” one and so I went with a Meade. I knew Celestron had the Star Sense to help in setting up the scope, so I just bought an 8” Nexstar SE last year. I also bought the GPS unit, WiFi, and the Star Sense for it. I just bought both 5 and 10 mega pixels Neximage cameras.
Hi Tsula, and thank you for all the time you put in to compare these two telescopes. I thought it was a very good review.
I own a "Meade 14 inch LX850 SCT with the LX850 Mount and the Giant Field Tripod". I purchased them, new, as a complete package.
I've had a few problems with my Meade system though.
First, I was never able to get the Starlock telescope to work, at all.
Then, I found that the battery in the new Handbox was almost dead and so I replaced it with a new battrery.
Also, my Handbox used to work very well but now I am having all kinds of problems with it. For instance, it locks up on me and I have to reboot the entire system.
Also, the Handbox will get very slugish, if it's not locked up, and it takes a while for the function I asked for to finally happen. It doesn't seem to make a difference on what I'm asking it to do. It's that way no matter what menu option I have selected.
Also, every once in a while the mount runs away, usually on the RA axis. Sometimes I can stop it by pressing one of the Arrow buttons at the bottom of the Handbox but most times I litterally have to shut it off and reboot, again. Although it seems to be happening more often now.
Also, it will not hold the "Home" position to where I set it or even the default position. The same is true with the "Park" position as well. I have to constantly reset them back to their default positions.
Other than that, lol, I love the telescope or maybe I should say I love the OTA.
I wish the mount was a little more modern. For example I wish it came with a USB connection that I'd be able to use to bypass the Handbox, because it is such a problem. I haven't tried hooking up my ASI Air Plus on it yet because I'm still researching on how to do that. I haven't found any information on it yet.
The Mount is not very accurate and, in fact, it sometimes goes in the opposite direction when I hit the GoTo button on the Handbox. I think that's a problem with the Handbox itself.
I'd really like to find a new Autostar ll Handbox that I can replace the original one with but I'm not so sure that's where the problem lies. It could be in the Console itself. It's loaded with electronics and I haven't seen any burnt up chips or other components but that doesn't mean they are all in working order.
I'd love to see ZWO make an AM7 or AM9 Mount that I can put my 14 inch OTA on. This OTA weighs about 65 lbs. I own a ZWO AM5 Mount and I love it. The tracking is the best I've ever seen for a mount and the guiding is even better.
I have 2 MaxVision ED 127mm x 950mm triplet refractors with FCD100 glass. In fact, it's the same exact telescope as the Explore Scientific ED 127 triplet but just rebranded as a MaxVision and about half the cost of the Explore Scientific. I use the AM5 Mount for them. The mount always spot on when I ask it to GoTo a target in the sky and it doesn't matter what kind of target. Planets, Sun, Stars and Star Clusters, Galaxies, Nebulae, it makes no difference. It always finds it's target. Polar aligning is the easiest I have ever seen. It takes about 5 minutes and you're perfectly Polar Aligned with the NCP.
I use a lot of ZWO's stuff, ASI Cameras x 5, Carbon Fiber Tripod, Pier Extension, AM5 Mount, ASI Air Plus x 2, EFW, EAF x 2, Filters, etc. I truely enjoy using the ZWO stuff so much, because all the components mesh so well with each other, that I hardly use my 14 inch Meade LX850 anymore, basically because of all the trouble I have with it, and the ZWO stuff is a no brainer.
Anyway, I'm sorry I wrote this comment to be so long. And all I wanted to do was to say "thank you" for your review of the two different SCT's. If you ahve any suggestions on how I might be able to resolve the issues, the many issues, that I'm having with my Meade setup please feel free to comment. I look forward to it if you decide to do so.
Thanks again for your video. By the way, I subbed to your channel and gave this video a big thumbs up!
Sincerely, Richard Williams
Astor, Florida 32102 USA!
Richard: Thank you! I own a Meade 12" ACF that I love. I have never had a single problem with the audiostar and I hope I never do because I had to throw away those boxes because they were just too big and attracting mice in the garage, I'm sure. So, I don't know how I would ship the mount back for repairs if ever needed. Anyway, I wish I could help you but I really could only suggest contacting Orion who now owns Meade. I bought my Meade 12" directly from Orion and have found their customer service to be excellent. I would start there. Before I bought the Meade 12" I looked at the 14" but I knew it was too heavy for me. I was just going to get the LX90 because it's the lightest of the Meade line but I only use the Meade 12" for visual and some planetary imaging. I thought that the talking hand controller would drive me crazy but actually I like having them talk to me when I'm out there late at night by myself. I'm sorry you are having all those problems with your Meade. A long time ago I watched a video by a couple who bought that exact telescope you have and it sounded very complicated getting the starlock to work and getting it all set up. I like taking pictures of deep sky objects to see the colors you cannot see in a telescope but my true love is visual astronomy. Thank you again for watching and subscribing to my channel.
I think it ends up being whichever you drop on first!! I've only ever had the Celestron SCT but for no particular reason. The history behind the companies was interesting, no idea they'd been in such trouble. Cheers Tsula.
I have this horrible fear of dropping my telescope. I have never owned a Celestron telescope- just rented the one in this video and I own those terrible Celestron Skymaster binoculars but I can't remember why I bought my original Meade SCT in the 90s except I think going way back I always thought that Meade made the superior product. Then somehow without ever discussing it two of my brothers and I all ended up with a Meade 8" SCT currently. Cheers.
Excellent comparison! All of my Meade optics were made in the USA back in the 90’s including my ETX90ec. Back in the 90’s the competition between the two was fierce. I bought my 10” LX50 around 1996 and was told that Meade held the advantage in their optics. Of course I cannot confirm this and at this point trying to compare 30 year old scopes is impossible due to too many variables. I outfitted my LX50 with the Magellan 2 digital setting circles. Ive had either great success or total failure using them. My guess is I am the reason for this.
I can note that my LX50 has always been a great scope both optically and mechanically. Great views and a solid mount. However, my experiences with the ETX90’s is somewhat different. Optically I found the 90’s work great on the moon (my favorite target) and on the planets. They are light weight and set up in a matter of a few minutes. But, the plastic forks are fragile and although acceptable the tracking is no way even close to the LX50.
Back in the 90’s Meade held the edge on optics but Celestron held the edge on support. It was so sad to see these two giants get sold off to companies that had no real direction or motives to make great scopes. Even though they still make very good products their short customer support lifespan is disappointing. There aren’t too many third party companies that make upgrades and accessories like there were 20-30 years ago…. Thanks so much for bringing great information and enthusiasm to this marvelous hobby.
Clear skies!
Chris
I do also love the color blue so maybe I am biased a bit.
Hi Chris: Thank you. I think it's a good thing that Orion acquired Meade because Orion is known for their excellent customer service. So far, I am extremely happy with my two Meade telescopes and have had no problems with the electronics on the Meade 12". On the other hand, that Meade I owned in the 90s, I was not that impressed with. I couldn't afford the electronic mount and just bought it OTA. I don't think it was the same model as the one you have but I agree that mine, anyway, like yours worked best on planets and the moon. I don't think I bought it because it was blue but for some reason ever since I became interested in telescopes, 30 years ago, I always read or was told that Meade made the better instrument. So, I never wanted a Celestron.
One more thing, I agree with you that it is hard to find accessories for a Meade. I hope Orion will eventually change that. I'm very glad Orion moved production back to the Mexico factory. My Meade LX85 has a plaque on it that says, Irvine, California. I cannot find any other indication on the telescope anywhere about the country of manufacture. So, I believe that my Meade LX85 was made in California. Pretty neat.
Take care and clear skies!
Loved it esp the history
Thank you!
Thats interesting information about both companies. I have a classic celestron c8 orange tube with all original stuff I imported it from USA to uk about 8 years ago the scope is from 1973. I have now added the OTA to the celestron celestar deluxe mount and tripod the only problem is where I live in the north west of uk it’s been bad weather for ages. I always wanted the c8 in the 1970s .
That's an interesting story about your C8. Your telescope is from before Tom Johnson selling Celestron back when they were made in the US. My Meade LX85 was made in Torrance, CA. I think the weather is much better in CA than the UK. It seems like every time I watch a soccer game that it is raining over there.
The C9.25 goto mount addresses a lot of your concerns. It's a regular fork and it has a handle. I saw that one sided mount on the C8 and I thought they must be kidding. I had an 1980s C8 on a wedge a long time ago that was rock solid.
Other than the terrible mount, for the price it's a very decent telescope.
Great review and very interesting background to the battle of the SCT companies Tsula. I have a Meade 10" ACF LX200 I bought in 2019 and i like it very much. it's a heavy beast so it sits permanently in the ROR observatory dual scoping with the Skywatcher Esprit 120 so i don't have to swap them around - certainly saves on back pain. Clear skies
Thank you so much. My Meade LX90 12" stays permanently on my JMI Wheeley Bar. I wish I could sit in a chair and observe through it but I do NOT want to lift that thing and try to get it on that little post. I'm very happy with it and happy I can wheel it out to the driveway. Clear skies to you as well.
Interesting review, thank you. My first Celestron was the early 1970s dual tine C5 that was inherited from my Grandad. It is uncoated, however many say those first American optics were among the finest Celestron ever produced, especially compared to the later reintroduced C5. My C5 gets used much more than my Classic C8 which I bought in the late 1980s-the C5 is so stable on the wedge and much easier to lug about. The C5 has viewed most popular objects and almost every significant astronomical event from Halley’s Comet to planetary transits, major sunspot events, the breakup and collision of Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 with Jupiter (spectacular views and event)… I like your TeleVue oculars-I use vintage Naglers, Panoptics, a Wide Field and some long Plossls, funny really cause my eyes are fairly optically aberrant and are the optically weak point overall. Optics and viewing the night sky are certainly a superb, wondrous hobby :-)
Wow. You and your C5 have seen a lot. Wondrous hobby indeed.
Brilliant review and well researched. I never knew there were so many lawsuits in the telescope world LOL! I never owned a Meade but have owned a both 8 inch and 11 inch Celestron SCT.
I currently have a SkyMax 180 Maksutov and I have to say it’s superb! (It’s only useful for Moon, planets and a small amount of DSO’s/double stars though). Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much. Yes, it seems both companies are very litigious. I was shocked that Ningbo Sunny refused to settle with Orion. You should always listen to your lawyer!
I was wondering about how well that Skymax performed. Since Orion discontinued the Star Seeker IV (150mm), which I reviewed in an eariler episode, I get a lot of questions about other Maks and I just really don't know. Maks in general are known for excelling on planets and the moon. So, it makes sense it works best on those objects.
Take care.
I did some decent deep sky viewing with my old orion Skyview Pro127 mak. It helped that I added a 2" diagonal so I could use 50mm axiom, 40mm meade SWA4000, and 30mm widescan III max field eyepieces (all three have the same TFOV, at different AFOV, magnification and exit pupil)
Despite what the naysayers say about the small rear baffle, the light cone is not obstructed in anyway and the eyepieces are fully lit to the edge with no visibly detectable vignetting so it is highly recommended for 5 and 6 and surely 7" maks.
I can't speak for the 102s since I didn't try on one, but on the 90mm, there was some vignetting on the widest eyepieces, but it was still a much larger useful field than 1.25 could have provided.
Don't knock maks for dsos
❤ thank you for this review!!!! I am ready to buy my second telescope and was starting to look at Celestron. Not anymore! Ill stick with Meade! You are so cute! Love your personality! Thanks again.
Aw. Thank you!
Thanks Tsula.
Both two large for me as I do most of my stargazing on my hiking trips.Last week in fact i just used my naked eye as it had rained before the sky cleared and I had my binoculars and monoculars wrapped in a plastic bags and I couldn't be bothered to unwrap them but it was still very enjoyable.
Kevan: Sometimes I just want to lie on my back and enjoy the dome of the sky above me on a clear dark night in a dark sky site. There is nothing like it.
Well done Tsula. The comments on the one armed Nexstar mount was very valuable to me since I'm considering gettting a lighter telescope now.
I have a Celestron Super C8 and a Meade LX90 8". Most of the time my choice is determined by what is closest to the door. The Celestron is all manual and much faster to set up. The Meade is great when I have to find something like dim comets by coordinates. There is very little in the way of dark skies within 60 miles of where I live so a little help finding dim objects is needed.I have an early edition of Dickenson's and Dyer's book. At the time Celestron used a double ball bearing focus bearing and Meade used a bushing and thick grease focus bearing . Dyer lived fairly close to Calgary, so we could both appretiate the Celestron focuser in the winter.
Thank you. I didn't know that about the Meade focuser. I could not understand what he was talking about. Now I understand. Thanks.
Celestron always had better focusers with less image shift than meade. Which is why meade added a mirror lock knob to the lx200. I had an 8" lx200R ota with the lock, and a standard c11 tube, which had less shift than the meade. I used a meade microfocuser to bypass that issue when fine focusing. And towards the end I bought a jmi microfocuser with celestron 3.25" rear cell adapter from one of my bosses at OPT, but I never really used it much. It was one of the few things that the tweakers who broke into my storage didn't get, and the 3.25" celestron threads fit the old meade lx premiere 10" that I got to try to replace my cg11 (meade threads won't work on celestron since the pitch is different). The focuser also plugs right into the meade base and is nicely controlled by the meade handbox.
I also have an old powerstar c8 to replace my meade 8R (which I used on a manual CG5, and stellarvue m3 alt az, and originally on a gm8 before I sold it since I had a g11 and was in a financial crisis and had to sell off semi redundant stuff)
The old c8 has an electronic focuser that physically turns the focus shaft, and the mirror shift is much less than meade.
You can buy a celestron OTA only in black.
Sounds like you have a cherry meade OTA, and rented a below average specimen of a C8.
But even vintage c8s had variation in optics even before the halley lemon period meade and celestron both experienced due to high demand wearing down tooling.
Jupiter is the ideal target to compare since the low contrast surface detail is better revealed in a superior set of optics. But that being said, even when you have to settle for not the best tube because your buddy selling them wants to keep the best one, once you have it home and don't have the other to compare it to, the views are excellent.
It really is splitting hairs, but I never owned one of the Chinese or Mexican tubes, only USA meades and celestrons. My meade 8R tube was like a refractor, and my c11 was just as sharp, aside from not being aplanatic like the meade. USA c11s are consistently awesome, and the extra aperture helps. My meade 10 does not cure my missing my stolen c11, but it came close, despite having to lift the fork mounted scope up on the super heavy wedge and tripod being way more difficult than a 27lb c11 onto the g11 mount, which of course itself only weighs about 40 lbs as a mount head and the tripod breaks into 4 pieces as well. Bigger, more stable mount, but lighter individual components.
Ironically, since tweakers don't know what a disassembled G11 tripod (old style) is, they left it, and trading that tripod, the counterweights and some other accessories is what got me the 10" meade (it helped that it was someone I knew).
@@k.h.1587 You have been around these a long time, it is great to get the update from you.
Also, since all meades are now ACF, comparing to the lowest end C8 is not a fair comparison
Thanks for the comparo. I have to say my SE mount (6"OTA) is very accurate on the GoTo. I do agree it would be nice if it had clutches to move it manually. Not nice enough to upgrade it to an Evolution. That's why I have manual Dobs!
A manual Dob is a great compliment to a 6" SE. I have one too.
Excellent review! Im using a 10 inch dob, and 102mm refractor, but was thinking about a more compact telescope, like one of these SCs. Thank you for showing the good, the bad and the ugly about these scopes! Clear skies yall!
Thank you! I have a 10" Dob also but I wheel it around on a dolly whereas the SCT is much more manageable. Clear skies to you also!
10" Dob actually takes less space, if you consider the size of an appropriate mount for these SCTs.
@@A0111. Thank you! I go RVing with the Mrs and 3 dogs, and was thinking an SC telescope would take less room! But I realize now the mount has to be considered also!
@@A0111. I have a 10" Dobsonian but I wheel it around on a hand truck. If I ever did take it apart it would take less space than a mount big enough and adequate to hold a very large SCT, for sure.
Nice video, even for a dilettante like me and even though I couldn't help noticing the misspelling of Taiwan. 🙂 I'm always amazed when a company makes a product which an obviously incompatible part, or a single foreseeable failure, will render useless - my latest experience in that way was with a brand of space heater which I bought cheaply but which stopped working as soon as the tip-over safeguard mechanism, a button on the bottom of the housing, failed after ordinary wear and tear. (I've since purchased, and am happy with, a more expensive brand which encloses the mechanism entirely in the housing.) And the image of the cover on the filing brought back word-processing memories - most notably ones of frantically correcting vertical borders and line-numbering formatting after someone not very knowledgeable about Word - a lawyer, usually - had monkeyed with them at the eleventh hour. 🙂
Hi Walter: Thanks. Do you mean I misspelled Taiwan or it was misspelled in one of the filings I showed? These days the courts are very particular about the font you use and the formatting of papers filed with the court. It's best to let the pros -- the staff-- handle those matters. I have one of those heaters with a tip-over safeguard and it turns off if you touch it. Way too sensitive. It'll probably fail like yours did.
@@tsulasbigadventures California's formatting requirements are the nation's most burdensome - all of us document workers curse them.
You misspell Taiwan at 5:34, but that's understandable given the amount of other data you needed to get right. Again, nice video! 🙂
@@waltergold3457 Shoot. Well, thanks for letting me know.
Dont know much about telescope. But want to do astrophotography in future if possible. Your video gives good knowledge about telescope specifications.
Thank you.
Great review Tsula! Thanks for sharing your valuable knowledge! I've found a Meade 8" LX90 come up for sale in my area it looks rather cheap (about 750 american) but its the older version not the ACF. Don't know how good the LX90 mount is though, if it's anything like the Celestron mount I'll pass.
Thank you! Probably the optics are equal to the newer model but may have a little bit of coma but you're probably right about a mount that old. $750 is a great price though.
I too am a fan of both yet I do prefer Meade.
There are a few tricks to getting acceptable GOTO performance from that Celestron Nexstar mount. Avoid using solar system objects for alignment, use the auto two star protocol, and do the final approach to alignment stars using the same motion as the scope itself uses at the end of a slew. Try to minimize gear slop using the backlash compensation routine in the software. After all of this, it's still pretty marginal with the 8" OTA, especially for tracking and photographing the planets at high magnification.
Thanks for that. The owner's manual says you can use planets or anything bright to align. I tried multiple times to get it to align and it never did. After this video I returned the telescope and mount to Julio the guy I rented it from. I wouldn't want that mount. The telescope itself had pretty good optics but it needs a sturdier more reliable mount.
Funny. You can buy the C8 OTA by itself. But the MSRP seems to be $1299. So with the SE it is like they are throwing the mount in. Great review. I am not and SCT guy but like most people in the hobby I have own a few. BTW: Not apples to apples, but I had the 6SE and it is much better suited to the tripod.
Yes, it seems like a 6" telescope is better suited to that mount.
😎👍
Nice video again Tsula! Fortunately you can purchase the same OTA at the C8, so it is nice to know that it's just not worth buying as an 8SE since the mount is wobbly. That's quite disappointing but I suppose isn't surprising given the price. I personally find it hard to even achieve good focus with a wobbly mount. I've been thinking on getting one of Celestron's 5" SCTs for use as a grab n go scope, have you ever had experience with a smaller SCT like that?
Thank you. I used to own a small Meade SCT years ago. I remember thinking it wasn't very good but that could be because I never upgraded the low end eyepieces it came with and that I used it on a camera tripod because that was all I could afford. I think given all the advances in SCTs since the 90s that a smaller SCT would be fine but currently I only have experience with my Meade 8" and my big Meade 12". So, I cannot speak to it personally. Stay away from any models from the 90s.
UHTC was available prior to 2002.
Current Meade ACF mirrors are made in USA. The ACF OTAs come in F/8 and F/10 versions.
The F/8 version has no mirror flop and no focus shift. It has an internal 9:1 geared crayford type focuser.
Which tube did you buy?
The HD
You're right and I didn't mention that in this limited review but I did research about the internal focuser and found some models of Meade OTAs now come as f/8 and with a Crayford focuser. I wish I had bought that one but my Meade LX85 has a standard focuser. I frequently find myself looking at that f/8 Model with the Crayford focuser but it's a very heavy telescope and I just can't justify buying another telescope, although it's very tempting. I'm OK with the image shift. It's not that bad. My Meade LX85 was made in the US.
Like! A refractor vs reflector video would be very interesting.
Thank you. I made one a long time ago when I was just starting out and it's not very good. I have been wanting to make another better video on this very topic but I need two telescopes of the same aperture. I am going to try to make this soon.
@@tsulasbigadventures that would be very very interesting:)
@@BurningFlame1999 Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to try to put it together soon.
Hi have you ever reviewed the Celestron 800 cpc GPS? I owned one once and it was great minus the weight.
No, and actually, I have never owned a Celestron telescope. I own one pair of Celestron binoculars and I rented the NexStar 8SE for this video. That's it.
Great Video! Was comparing Meade with the Edge HD OTA and bought the Meade after watching your video. I have an ASI AM5 mount that can do both equatorial and Alt/Az and have ASI cameras for astrophoto. Was anting to know what you are using for your gyuudescope. I am starting with Meades but also have s skywatcher evoguide 50ED and a laser scope. What do you recommend?
Thank you. I have an Orion 50mm Guidescope that works great. I like that you can focus it with a helical focuser. I bought a little SVBony 30mm but I have to dangle the guide camera out the end in order to get it to focus which is not good because then it moves.
Hello Tsula, am still trying to find a combined guide/finder scope with 90 degree eyepiece and there are several but I've been told by Astronmics that I'm limited to one that fits the Meade finder scope base. Is that your understanding? Thanks Phil@@tsulasbigadventures
@@PhilDelVecchio I removed the base that came with the telescope because of the odd shape. Instead I bought a different base from William Optics and screwed it into the telescope. With that base I can use any finder/guidescope. It took me a while to find the correctly spaced screws but the William Optics works.
Can you put a computerized star tracker on the Meade? Colored HD camera?
Do you mean can you put the Meade on a star tracker? Well, it would be right at the weight limit of the Star Adventurer of 11 pounds. The Meade weighs 10 pounds with a star diagonal and red dot finder. I have not weighed it with a camera and guidescope but it is probably going to be right at the limit of the star tracker. You could try but you will really be pushing the capacity of the star tracker.
The c8 ota of celestron would be more comparable to the meade as the se is a little lower in quality. Great review though👍👍
Thanks. I didn't know that.
Was that a Televue Delos 10mm you were using? I think some eyepiece reviews from Tsula would be good.
It was a Televue Ethos 10mm. I made an eyepiece video a long time ago that in retrospect was not very good. These black flies kept attacking me during the video and I have some better eyepieces now. So, thank you for the suggestion. I think I will take you up on it.
@@tsulasbigadventures Great. A good topic worth discussing would be whether it's worth buying a premium eye-piece that often costs more than a decent telescope, as does the Ethos.
@@mrh9635 OK. Thank you for the suggestion.
nice
Thanks.
I enjoyed your review, Tsula! The history of Meade and Celestron was enlightening and very interesting. Having only used my Celestron EdgeHD 8, I'm very interested to compare it to a Meade! Maybe there's a Julio in my neighborhood with a mysterious (and a rather unnerving) 'receptionist' who will rent me a Meade 8". 😅 Seriously, though, I am enjoying the EdgeHD although I've mostly been imaging with it. I really have to take it out for more visual observing sessions. You probably said this in one of your videos, but which Losmandy mount do you have? Sounds like it's your favorite.
Greg: I would be happy to rent you my Meade 8" for a very small price. The price is that you come out to Dark Skies Forever, MT and train my Observatory so that it rotates in tandem with the telescope! It seems like you have very good computer skills and enjoy using them! This manual that came with the Home Dome is written for a PhD in Computer Science. I don't know if I will ever get that darn thing trained. It's a daunting task. My Losmandy is the base model, GM811G, (I think). Even though it is their base model it still can handle 50 pounds of payload. It's a nice mount but is pretty heavy and right now she is on probation for crushing me and marring my face. Seriously though that is a fantastic mount.
@@tsulasbigadventures Wow, now that would be a fun trip!! 😅 So, it sounds like you have the physical structure of the observatory set and the cabling problem solved! I wonder if there's a forum (Cloudy Nights?) or somewhere else you can go to ask some advice about getting everything synced. Sometimes there are people that post very complete step-by-step instructions to follow for many things. I'm sure there are other people who have the same brand of observatory and had similar problems setting it up. Yes, I was going to ask if that was the mount that attacked you, but I didn't want to open up any old 'wounds'.
@@gregerianne3880 Greg: Yes, the cables are re-attached and so far staying on. There is one small leak I need to address when it dries out. I searched on TH-cam for a video and the only one that came up was this really weird guy in Michigan who kept straying annoyingly off topic on weird tangents and I couldn't take it. There has to be something better than that terrible video. The opening scene was, I swear, a 10 minute static shot of the Michigan flag. I have nothing against Michigan but honestly a 10 minute static shot of the state flag is excessive. I'll keep searching for something better. By the way, I did find that Dark Matters Notebook sold individually instead of 10 pack for $300; it was only $20 or something sold at Blick's. Also I think my Losmandy Mount is a GM8G not 11.
@@tsulasbigadventures Hi Tsula. I was also going to suggest looking at the links at the bottom of Home Dome's Web page for people who have that type of observatory. There's a guy in AZ apparently that has a remote observatory and also one in Chile. I'd bet he'd be willing to give you whatever information you need to get up and running -- or maybe even invite you to AZ to see how to do it first hand! He seems like a complete astro nut (in a very GOOD way) so he might welcome your questions. Never know, right? Glad you found the Dark Matters Notebook! I think it's pretty neat. Not sure how it will work for you, but maybe it will save you a bit of work. Are you traveling somewhere for the upcoming eclipse, or staying in MT? Hope you have some nice, clear skies over the weekend!
@@gregerianne3880 Thanks, Greg. I'll check that out. I am going to Lava Beds National Monument in California to watch the annular eclipse. It's finally sunny today. So maybe I can get some star gazing in here in MT before I leave for the annular eclipse. I've only seen one star in a week. Hope you have clear skies too.
How coma-free did you find the ACF ("advanced COMA FREE")?
I looked and looked in the corners and never saw any coma on my telescope.
The Celestron works much better with 2 named star alignment. I had to fit an electric focuser on my 8SE as the wobbly mount was terrible. I ended up putting it on an EQ mount.
I had no idea about this bad star alignment problem with that Celestron Nexstar. After I made this video, I was reading Steve Waldee's excellent website about astronomy and was surprised that he had a whole article dedicated to this problem that the NexStar has with star alignment and he even provides a link to another article that says to only choose certain stars. I was skeptical that aligning with stars or planets that you didn't even have to name would work and I was right to be skeptical. Well, I will have to let Julio know about this problem because I'm back to my Meade now. You made a good choice putting your Celestron on an EQ Mount.
@@msroper5287 Steve and Regina: Good to hear from you. The last two nights when it was too cloudy to star gaze, I found that hours had passed after starting to look at y'all's web site. I find it fascinating. I remember well searching and searching the Bay Area when I got my first Dobsonian, looking for the perfect dark sky site and never finding it except hundreds of miles away in the Sierras. I was so jealous to hear about your private site on Loma Prieta. Also, I love classical music and remember listening to KDFC religiously when I first moved to the Bay Area. I'm so sorry I disappointed you on the Horsehead Nebula. I do love faint fuzzies and I'm determined to get a better look this winter and make a follow up video on the Horsehead when I accomplish a WOW look at it. Anyway, I have no idea what went wrong with the NexStar because it said you could use Planets as well as stars. So, the first time I chose two planets and it said "align failed." I tried again and it said my stars were not far enough apart. Ridiculous! They were very far apart! Third time it said, "align successful" but then it was way way off and terribly inaccurate. I was glad to return that darn thing to Julio. Let him figure it out. Take care both of you. I hope you are enjoying Ivins. I have been to Utah many many times over the years and love the dark skies and solitude you can still find there.
@@msroper5287 I only knew it was you on KDFC from Regina's bio. If I had known about you I would have begged you to take me to Loma Prieta with you. My special places to star gaze in the Bay Area, were and are ones you already know about and they are not nearly as good as you describe your mountain top. I believe you Steve about people seeing the Horsehead with small equipment. I read just today that someone saw the Horsehead with a 300mm Tokina camera lens with a special adapter that allows the lens to accept an eyepiece. So, it's shameful I have not seen the Horsehead with my 10" Dob but I'm determined to see it with the 10" Dob and see it better with the 12" SCT. Thanks for taking the time for your nice reply. Nice chatting with you across the miles.
@@msroper5287 Interesting read - thank you! But next time, you might want to compose in Notepad or a similar program, saving frequently, rather than trusting yourself from the get-go to a browser's vagaries. Also, Cassandra wasn't a false prophetess - in fact, she was always a true one.
I think you are a Meade girl. Always have been. 😊
I love my Meade LX90 8inch although I still really enjoyed the review on both.
Thanks, Leon. I think my whole family is a Meade family!
Can't in all fairness compare a standard C8 to a meade ACF. You would need to get an edge HD.
I had one of the original pre lawsuit USA versions of the meade LX200R optical tubes, and yeah it beat most c8s.
But the older standard 8" meade SCTs didnt perform as well as the R/ACF scopes, while the nexstar C8s are chinese made versions of the classic c8 design, which tended to be a little sharper than the meades, cherries aside.
Thưa bà! Bà có thể giải thích cho tôi về hãng kính thiên văn skywatcher và chất lượng của họ được không?, vì tôi đang quan tâm đến mẫu ống kính sky mak 127 cho người mới bắt đầu 😊
I don't own a Skywatcher Mak. I own an Orion Mak but they were both made at the same factory in China and I'm pretty sure that the Skywatcher would be just as good as the Orion Mak-Cass that I own. My Orion Mak is very impressive. I think you'll be happy with the Skywatcher Mak.
@@tsulasbigadventures cảm ơn bà rất nhiều 😊😊
Wrong on those dates, 1980 was starbright, not starbright xlt. Edge hd came out in 2009 not 2000. Synta is based in china not taiwan. Meade mexico started in the mid late 2000s not 1999
I've owned a Celestron 9 1/4" and a Meade 10" LX200 GPS. The Meade had better sharpness. I have moved on to Mak Cass for lunar and planetary viewing. The Mak has better sharpness and contrast.
I just have one 6" Mak but I agree it has unbelievable sharpness on the planets. I am so impressed with it. But for deep sky nothing compares to my Meade 12". Thanks for watching.
To tell you the truth i think both Meade & sct's are about the same as far price and quality. each company had their share of issues with them but overall i still like bioth name brands. I have heard some that will only like 1 of them over the other but its only a fact that if we didnt have both companies there would be no reason to always strive to make a better and better SCT . cheers
I have only owned Meade telescopes and no Celestrons. I just grew up hearing that Meade was better and two of my brothers also own Meade SCTs. So, that's what I got too but after trying this Celestron out for this video I thought it performed really well especially for the price. The Celestron mount was no good but the optics on the telescope were fine. So, you're probably right; they are pretty comparable.
@@tsulasbigadventures yeah I like both companies the Celestron OTA’s are a tad lighter but the needs are oversize mirrors so a tad more heavier
so that each of their pros and cons
I actually owned the 8se for a very long time and I never did a video on it. I got one coming out and maybe about two months as I figure I got more important ones coming out prior.
Anyway, keep up the good work. Cheers.
Is that a Rolex?
Hi loved your video on the comparison between the telescopes. I have a 6SE Celestron and totally agree with your conclusion on the mount is problematic to say the least. I am hoping that the mount can be modified to eliminate so of it’s stability as it’s all I can afford presently. I also have upgraded to better lenses and the wedge which possibly not helping. Looking forward to seeing more of your content. All the best from Australia
Thank you! Maybe the mount could be made more stable by hanging sand bags from the center until you can afford a better mount but I'm not sure because I returned the telescope and mount to the original owner after the video.
Thanks, I will try that. I realized it's a little more to this than pointing a telescope skywards! ignorance is bliss learning the hard way lol, thanks for the advice.