The Telescope
I spent over 5 years pondering and researching what kind of telescope I that I would like and most importantly best use. I had a lot of things I wanted to do with a telescope besides viewing. I wanted to do Astrophotography down the line.
That eliminated one very good scope: a Dobsonian. I also wanted a good computerized scope with GoTo capabilities. Most importantly, I wanted portability. This eliminated any reflectors. Anyway, it boiled down between a refractor and a Schmidt-Cassegrain. I decided that the SCT was somewhat cheaper per aperture and thus went with a 10"/254mm Meade LX-200.
This scope is portable yet very heavy. I am a big boy and it takes all my controlled power to lug this baby around! If you are considering a SCT, be aware of the weight between the 8" and the 10" of Meade's line.
I feel I should plug the dealer who helped me a great deal not only in obtaining the scope but helping me get acquainted with the assembly and computer controls.
They were the only dealer who could ship in under 3 months (less than 2 weeks). Their 2 sales members I talked to both had an LX200 of their own. One spent 15 minutes explaining an undocumented feature with me before a sale was even made. Check them out at http://www.optcorp.com/.
The Accessories
I've read and now fully agree that when setting up a budget for a scope, you need to put aside a good percentage of money for accessories. I'd suggest about 20% of your budget be set aside for them. I spent nearly $700 side items for the scope.
They Include:
| A must have: An Astro
Physics Maxbright 2" diagonal. It has a 99% reflectivity
performance and can be cleaned easily without scratching.
There is much debate over how much the reflectivity rate enhances seeing, but I was convinced instantly from a light polluted area. It seemed to me I could see much more (1/2 mg?) |
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| A 22mm Tele Vue
Panoptic that has a 68 degree Field Of View.
You can read a good review of it here. |
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| A 14mm Tele Vue Radian
that has a 68 degree Field Of View.
You can read a good review of it
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Oxygen III filters are line filters that isolate just the two oxygen III lines of the spectrum and block most of the remaining spectrum. The resulting filter yields the maximum contrast gain possible on planetary nebula and most emission nebula. The Oxygen III filter is a visual filter only, and is best suited to larger (6" or more) telescopes of shorter focal length (f/11 or faster). |
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| A 1-1/4" Lumicon
UHC nebula Filter. get this one before the O-III.
The Ultra High Contrast Filter is a narrow band pass filter that lets thru the two oxygen III lines and the hydrogen beta line while eliminating most of the remaining visual spectrum. The resulting filter yields high contrast views of all types of nebula. The UHC filter is not recommended for photography, and is best suited for telescopes of longer focal ratios (f/6 or longer). |
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| The Lumicon Deep-Sky Filter is a wide band-pass filter which has been optimized for astrophotography. The gain in photographic contrast is approximately 3-fold, which means you can use exposures of up to three times longer before reaching sky-fog limit when using the filter. Since transmission for the nebula emission lines is over 90%, emission nebulae gain 3-fold in contrast. Galaxies gain only modestly in contrast (1-1/2-fold). Since the Lumicon Deep-Sky Filter transmits in blue, green, and red bands, relatively good color balance is maintained. This filter yields great color astrophotos! |
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| A Thousand Oaks full aperture Type 2 plus Solar Filter. |
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| AND (drum roll please...)
the world famous JiffyTM focuser which can be purchased from Bill Arnett for under $300! OR... you can make your own from a Jiffy Peanut Butter lid, a rubber grommet and a little glue! |
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