I have a 4" TV Genesis and an 8" Meade LX90. Should I sell both to purchase a 5" Meade ED refractor? I would have to sell my Genesis, starbeam, camera setup, Televue equatorial mount, Pentax K1000, TV 26mm plossl, TV polar alignment finder thing with aluminated recepticle, and LX90 and it's stuff. Would the Meade refractor be that much more impressive than either of these scopes that makes it worthwhile? I do want to hold out for the 5" Tak FS128 and use with my TV mount/tripod. Would it support and and are there adaptable plates? I ask a lot of questions, but who better to ask? I appreciate all of your experience and knowledge. What to do?
4" refractor to 5" refractor
Started by thoth11, 02/02/2003 09:46AM
Posted 02/02/2003 09:46AM
Opening Post
Posted 02/02/2003 01:21PM
#1
Don,
If I were to consider the liquidation of the equipment which you have to move up to a 5", I would not get a Meade.(I have a tendency to over analyze things...I guess that's why I'm in the hobby). Consider the highest price that you are willing to spend and go from there. I would look, from low to high, at the Vixen ED, Borg ED, Tak, TMB, and the AP. For the price of a Tak, TMB or AP, I would seriously consider spending the difference on a TEC 140 instead. But in any event, I think you will have to get a more substantial mount than your TV mount so will may have to factor that in as well (Unless you consider the Borg 125, which is pretty light).
By way of example, I have a TMB 100/800, looked thru an AP 130 F8.35 and got on the list for the 130 F6. But soon reality creeped in and I realized that I liked my TMB too much so I looked at other options. A Mewlon 210 came up for sale, so I surfed the learning curve and took the plunge. The Mewlon's light grasp on DSOs is superior to the 5" AP while the contrast is like a refractor. On nights of steady seeing lunar/planetary, if correctly collimated, is as good as I remember in the AP. And most important, the money I spent on the Mewlon would have been the same as if spent that and sold my TMB to come up for the difference needed for an AP 130..., but now I have both.
Good luck in you quest,
Owen
If I were to consider the liquidation of the equipment which you have to move up to a 5", I would not get a Meade.(I have a tendency to over analyze things...I guess that's why I'm in the hobby). Consider the highest price that you are willing to spend and go from there. I would look, from low to high, at the Vixen ED, Borg ED, Tak, TMB, and the AP. For the price of a Tak, TMB or AP, I would seriously consider spending the difference on a TEC 140 instead. But in any event, I think you will have to get a more substantial mount than your TV mount so will may have to factor that in as well (Unless you consider the Borg 125, which is pretty light).
By way of example, I have a TMB 100/800, looked thru an AP 130 F8.35 and got on the list for the 130 F6. But soon reality creeped in and I realized that I liked my TMB too much so I looked at other options. A Mewlon 210 came up for sale, so I surfed the learning curve and took the plunge. The Mewlon's light grasp on DSOs is superior to the 5" AP while the contrast is like a refractor. On nights of steady seeing lunar/planetary, if correctly collimated, is as good as I remember in the AP. And most important, the money I spent on the Mewlon would have been the same as if spent that and sold my TMB to come up for the difference needed for an AP 130..., but now I have both.
Good luck in you quest,
Owen
Posted 02/02/2003 01:34PM
#2
Hi Don,
I owned a Meade 5" APO and a C8 at the same time and had a chance to compare them on a number of nights. I also has a 4" Showa flourite with an excellent (documented via optical testing) objective lens. The Meade was an excellent performer and showed more planetary detail than the Showa. It seemed to me that the extra inch of an excellent 5" beats a superb 4" even though the 4" lens was better optically. The 8" had a brighter image on all planetary objects and showed a wealth of detail. The 5" was clearly sharper in rendering the planets (and the 8" was dead on in collimation) but provided less information and a dimmer image.
I own a TAk FC76 which is an amazing little scope. If the FS 128 performs as well, it would be interesting to pit the 5" Meade APO against it. The Tak would have better build quality for sure but performance would likely be quite close. A friend of mine with a ton of experience and a expert "refractor man" told me over the years he owned several 5" Meade APOs and they matched every high 5" APO quite nicely- at a substantially reduced price.
Having said all that, I personally would not give up the two nice scopes you own for one 5" of any manufacturer until I had a chance to look through the 5" and see what it would do. My 5" did not "blow away" the C8 though it was sharper. You have a lot of versatility in the setup you now have.
Take a look at Cloudy nioghts article on the 5" APO shootout (Meade v Tak v AP). If you can not find it, e-mail me and I will send a copy.
Larry
[email protected]
I owned a Meade 5" APO and a C8 at the same time and had a chance to compare them on a number of nights. I also has a 4" Showa flourite with an excellent (documented via optical testing) objective lens. The Meade was an excellent performer and showed more planetary detail than the Showa. It seemed to me that the extra inch of an excellent 5" beats a superb 4" even though the 4" lens was better optically. The 8" had a brighter image on all planetary objects and showed a wealth of detail. The 5" was clearly sharper in rendering the planets (and the 8" was dead on in collimation) but provided less information and a dimmer image.
I own a TAk FC76 which is an amazing little scope. If the FS 128 performs as well, it would be interesting to pit the 5" Meade APO against it. The Tak would have better build quality for sure but performance would likely be quite close. A friend of mine with a ton of experience and a expert "refractor man" told me over the years he owned several 5" Meade APOs and they matched every high 5" APO quite nicely- at a substantially reduced price.
Having said all that, I personally would not give up the two nice scopes you own for one 5" of any manufacturer until I had a chance to look through the 5" and see what it would do. My 5" did not "blow away" the C8 though it was sharper. You have a lot of versatility in the setup you now have.
Take a look at Cloudy nioghts article on the 5" APO shootout (Meade v Tak v AP). If you can not find it, e-mail me and I will send a copy.
Larry
[email protected]
Posted 02/03/2003 01:15AM
#3
I was considering the same thing after observing with a 6" Celestron refractor. I have a truly excellent 4" f8 TMB in the Vixen tube. This scope performs superbly but it's still a 4 incher so I contacted Thomas Back and was put on the waiting list for his 5" f8 achromat refractor. It should be excellent too. I picked his achromat simply because the APO's are way out of my price league and Thomas said the achromat will really perform too.
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