Meade Telescopes....

Borats Baby

Borats Baby

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Rikki
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I'm looking at buying a used telescope for about a hundred quid.

I've seen a few "Meade" ones on a well known auction site that I like the look of.

Are these any good, they certainly look that part.

The other I've seen is Celestron, but I've heard these are more "beginner" than actual decent gear.

I dont know the first thing really, and am only goin on what I've seen, can anyone offer any advise on a used scope for about £100.

Thanks,

ps: I'd like to add an adapter for my Canon 400D to allow me to take piccies :)
 
Both Meade and Celestron are high-end amateur scopes.
They both cost quite a bit more than some other more amateur makes.
I have a Meade 105 ETX, very nice 4 1/2 inch ish apature. The image is extremely sharp with very good contrast.
I have a camera adaptor with mine, it comes in 2 parts, one that fits the scope and one for the canon mount.
Here is a moon shot taken with that setup
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1010/3170611005_9b4fd02c7f_o.jpg

Depending on condition, I'd definitely reccommend it.
 
I got a Meade ETX-70AT a couple of weeks ago. They have been discontinued but still sell online for around 2-350 quid. Anyhow I got mine in Lidl brand new for £99 and it's a great little telescope for a beginner.

Paul
 
Worth bearing in mind that small reflectors (Newtonian) often have the problem of not enough travel on the focusser to achieve focus.
(Think that can be got round with an extension?)
Some do cater for direct SLR connection,such as some Skywatcher models.
(I was in same position-bought first scope (Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ),wanted to throw DSLR straight on it...not that simple though!..)
Have a look at http://firstlightoptics.com/.
They often have some good deals on there,and service is highly rated by many..

(Im no expert or even amateur-But was reliably informed that the 5" Newt i bought was basically-a waste of cash :D)
 
Hi,

I too would recommend getting in touch with Steve at First Light Optics - it is an excellent company and highly recommended by lots of us amateur astronomers.

Also, you could ask your question on the Stargazers Lounge Forum - there are lots of people there who will happily give you great advice - and help you spend you money!

By the way, I have a Celestron Nexstar 102 slt which I use with a Max DSLR Camera Adaptor - I love it!

Liz :D
 
It really depends what model you are looking at? Both meade and Celestron make cheap and nasty and both make superb high end stuff! It really does matter which particular scope you are considering?
 
Hmm, Thanks for the advice, keep it comming.

Spolg, I didnt have a particular model in mind, just wanted something decent for around the hundred quid mark......

Mischief, you say the one you bought was a waste of money, is there anything specific to avoid then ?

Thanks again ....
 
Borats Baby said:
Hmm, Thanks for the advice, keep it comming.

Spolg, I didnt have a particular model in mind, just wanted something decent for around the hundred quid mark......

Mischief, you say the one you bought was a waste of money, is there anything specific to avoid then ?

Thanks again ....
Click to expand...

Yeah-Avoid dashing out and buying a scope that "looks" like it will do the job. :D
On a serious note-Astrophotography can be a very expensive business,and much depends on what you want to achieve with it.
The tools for Deep Space Object,Planetary imaging,and widefield imaging are very different beasts.

Perhaps would be a good idea to ask on the aforementioned Stargazers Lounge forum for suggestions in your price range..
Im also a total beginner with such things,and only found out after buying the scope that it wasnt really what i was after. (The focusser is cr*p,the mount about as stable as an italian taxi driver on speed,and any illusions i had about imaging rapidly went down the pan :D)

A good starting point i believe would be a decent refractor,with well coated optics,and a rock solid mount. (a GOOD mount will set you back considerably more than you'd think too..)

Find a fairly dark spot...Stick your DSLR on a tripod,and start taking some exposures...In fact-Take a whole bunch of them..
Return home,stack the images together and you will be amazed at what jumps out that just isnt visible with the naked eye. (You'l soon be playing "Count the fuzzies")
(Even here near Heathrow,with only a handful of stars visible to the naked eye,image stacking yields hundreds of stars and at times,DSO's)
Its a GREAT way to start imaging the night sky,and better yet-Its free :)

And if you do buy a scope,first thing i recommend doing with it...Is pointing it at Jupiter,then make that "Wow" face when you see 4 of the moons,and may be able to resolve the colored bands across Jupiters surface...

With Astonomy its not how good the picture is-its WHAT you are seeing thats important... Light that may well have travelled for hundreds,thousands,or literally millions of years hits your eye,and you are looking back in time....
Gets rather addictive :)

anyway-i've rambled on enough...I wish you the best with whatever you decide to buy,and no doubt someone with much more knowledge than i can help out :)
 
I have a Meade scope - and its great - however its about as far removed from a starter scope as you can get.

For astrophotography - you can get some half decent pics using just your camera and lenses. Both of the images below were taken using my 5D and a 70-200L lens (granted it was piggybacked on my 10" LX90 tracking in Alt-Az mode at the time :D).

If you want to do astrophotography using your DSLR - for anything other than the moon or planets - you'll need to have a telescope that can track (motor driven) - although TBH for the planets you would be better off using a webcam anyway (check out a nice piece of software called registax).

If you are looking to do some casual observing - a smallish (4-6 inch) newtonian reflector would be plenty to get you started. My first telescope was a Celestron 4.5" Newtonian and will easily show you both objects pictured below.

Andromeda_small.jpg


horse_small.jpg
 
Borats Baby said:
Hmm, Thanks for the advice, keep it comming.

Spolg, I didnt have a particular model in mind, just wanted something decent for around the hundred quid mark......

Thanks again ....
Click to expand...

TBH! ... for a hundred quid I'm afraid you really are not going to get anything good for serious Astrophotography :thinking: unless it's used and a serious bargain!
If that is your best budget i would suggest getting one of these and using camera lenses ... (they are actually pretty good, ish) Sorry, really not trying to sound defeatist but seriously a £100 or even £1000 is clutching at straws! Try some shots with the camera stuff as mentioned You really don't need a scope to start with (unless it's planets, moon craters etc)

HTH ... Steve
 
Sorry I've not been here for a while, hence no reply !

Thanks Splog, Moonhawk and Mischief !

I'll not be rushing out to spend my £100 now, I think I'll try and get a bit more cash before I start spending !

Be in touch !
 
Listen to Steve (Splog). Fact is, short of selling significant body parts, you will likely not be able to afford a telescope that will illuminate your camera's sensor area and give you a flat field as well. Yes, there are ways around that but the advice to get a small tracking mount like the driven EQ1 is about the best yet. Use the lenses you have already... I have stuck my ZS70ED on my DX1 and reckon on about 400mm or equivalent. When I used that scope for deep sky imaging I put a 0.5x reducer on it... OK, my camera chip then was smaller but the point is that you, as a photographer, will not want pics of distant galaxies but rather will be looking for skyscapes. For those, (along with the EQ1 referred to above), you are already suitably equipped.

As for the Moon... it's big enough that anything 300mm or so will do just fine.


Arthur
 
Save your money, If you want a small Newtonian i wouldn't go much smaller than a 6". Also note that with reflectors if you live near the coast you will have to re aluminize your mirrors more often. A good starter would be a nice 2nd hand 3" refractor as opposed to some of the cheap 4" models. For casual observing a good pair of bins is sometimes better than a very cheap scope but remember you will not see much nebulosity and galaxies will appear as faint fuzzy patches, Not like the previous photo posted above.
 
if you do go for a Meade, I can recommend their 'Autostar' Goto Mount - great build quality and makes finding the stars etc very easy
 
OK, Thanks to everyone with your suggestions and advice !

I've gone for a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ !

£120 from Amazon !

Being a numpty though, and in my rush, I ordered the one without the motor drive. It is available seperately so I'll get one next pay day !

Thanks again !!

31045_astromaster130e_mid.gif
 
Are you sure you told the dealer you wanted this for astrophotography with a dslr?

Arthur
 
I've no experience of using this for astrophotography but that looks like a fantastic piece of kit for £120! Well done and enjoy the star/planet/moongazing! :thumbs:
 
Ambermile said:
Are you sure you told the dealer you wanted this for astrophotography with a dslr?

Arthur
Click to expand...

What dealer ? I bought it from Amazon..

But yes, There is a "T" adapter which you can use to mount the camera body to the scope.

I havn't bought an adapter yet, I'll get used the night sky and the scope before I start taking pics. !!
 
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