First Scope

I'm 41 years old and was a physics major 20 some years ago. That's the last time I touched a scope. Currently have some spare time in my life (normally late a night) and want to get back into astronomy. In the last 20 years the only thing that hasn’t changed is the sky. All this GOTO, GPS, CCD, bla, bla, bla is blowing my mind. Looking for a good starter scope that isn’t a toy. I’m looking for suggestions from someone who has nothing to sale. Would the Meade ETX-125AT with UHTC be a good place to start or do I need to go up to the LX200 series to get something that I’ll be satisfied with? I would like to be able see some details in the planets and most of the messier objects. I may try some astrophotography in the future, so something stable enough for this would be nice. Please help.

There are a variety of upscale starter scopes. GOTO means the scope has an internal computer that, once aligned, will point at whatever object you select. The GPS scopes offer GPS positioning automatically, meaning the scope will figure out where it's located, otherwise, you would have to tell it; while it's not actually a gimmick, it's not a necessity to have GPS. CCDs are used for digital photography. There are CCD cameras designed for astrophotography; few are cheap.

A "starter scope" with astrophotography capabilities is almost an oxymoron, as few of them have tracking ability accurate enough for primo images. Nevertheless, many folks use modified webcams or digital cameras with reasonably-priced equipment and get fine photos. Film is far less sensitive, so the exposures must be longer, and the inexpensive rigs rarely can cope with the requirements. In any event, a Schmidt-Cassegrain or Maksutov-Cassegrain, are likely your best choice for starters.

Much depends on your budget. In the 4-5" range are the Celestron NexStar 5i and the Meade you mentioned. At $1,200+ is the Celestron C8 S-GT, which has an equatorial GOTO mount, which would be better for getting started in photography.

Kip,

Like you, until recently I haven't used a scope for about twenty years myself. I would suggest before buying anything, read Phil Harrington's "Star Ware", Dickinson and Dyer's, "The Backyard Astronomer's Guide".

I started back with an excellent pair of binoculars first, then to a small apeture refractor that would be easy to 'grab and go' with no cool down issues. Perhaps the Meade 125 would be a perfect starter. Celestron's C5, Nexstar5i would be comparable. I second the motion to check some websites.
Check out Ed Ting's website, Cloudy Nights, Todd Gross for some scope reviews. Join a club, check out other folks scopes before you buy.

Good Luck!

Kip,
In general, an 8" dob without any technology attached is hard to beat as a 'First scope" they are quite managable in size, and don't require any cables or power of any kind and give you a lifetime worth of views for less money than a similar sized mirror with electronics attached. This price point is not compatible with (good) astrophotography, but you can dabble in it with any scope (or just a camera). If you later decide to get into it, you'll know more about what platform is best suited to you, but in general, just so you know, good astrophotography requires a good mount, great astrophotography requires a great mount. If you could get that out of the equation, an 8" dob is a good choice.

All the best.
Tom.

You can also get past posts by searching the fourms with your post title "First scope". I did and it returned a bunch of info.

Good luck.

Tim