8" edge HD CGEM or meade 8" LX90 ACF?

Ok, I'm looking at purchasing one of these two systems but I can't make up my mind. Both are aplanatic and have great optics to my understanding. The Celestron is $400 dollars more than the Meade for the same aperture. I know the celestron comes on an CGEM mount but is it really worth the $400 difference. Would the meade with an equatorial wedge give me the same results for astrophotography? I'd like to use one of these systems to get started in astrophotography with a hyperstar setup. I guess my dilemma is trying to determine if the extra $400 is worth it to get the CGEM. Will it make a difference with my astrophotography if I'm using a hyperstar setup? Any good advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

aaron vaillant said:

Ok, I'm looking at purchasing one of these two systems but I can't make up my mind. Both are aplanatic and have great optics to my understanding. The Celestron is $400 dollars more than the Meade for the same aperture. I know the celestron comes on an CGEM mount but is it really worth the $400 difference. Would the meade with an equatorial wedge give me the same results for astrophotography? I'd like to use one of these systems to get started in astrophotography with a hyperstar setup. I guess my dilemma is trying to determine if the extra $400 is worth it to get the CGEM. Will it make a difference with my astrophotography if I'm using a hyperstar setup? Any good advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Neither will help you with Fastar. The Celestron provides field flattening and coma reduction via a corrector lens in the baffle tube, which is obviously not used during Fastar/Hyperstar operation. The ACF provides field flattening by means of a strongly aspheric secondary, which, again, won't be used during Fastar operaton.

For my money, the more steady GEM mount and more user friendly HC of the Celestron puts it in the lead, but I have always liked the 90, too.

Fastar/Hyperstar means you will be attaching your CCD camera on the front of the scope, in place of the secondary, not on the rear end.