First scope advise...

Hi all, I'm considering buying my fist scope and would like to know what you might recommend.

My desire is to buy a Celestron CGE, but I don't want to be discouraged by the setup time of a GEM, yet I want to slowly... a step at a time get into astrophotography. And the area of my property I'll be viewing from has Polaris blocked by my house. So I feel I'll wait on the CGE until I can permanently mount it in the future. For now I have my eye on a Celestron CPC or a Meade LXR series. Which unit will provide me with the simplest and most actuate alignment? I'll likely start by piggy backing my Canon XTI and go from there as I learn more about the hobby. I assume with the proper setup I can get good photos with an exposure of several minutes with either one of the scopes.

I'm not wanting to start a Celestron-Mead forum dispute, thanx for you feedback...

Kelly

The Sky and Telescope website has a great premier on your first scope. In regards astrophotography some people call it a hobby, some call it an "affliction". I concur with the latter (don't call me Sarah Silverman).

Regards, Allen

If you're interested in imaging, and time exposures, you really do need a tracking eq mount. The mount is more than half the battle. If it's in your budget, the Orion Atlas with goto seems like a contender for "bang for the buck" champ. If you buy the mount first, you could mount your camera on it with a telephoto lens to start imaging before you buy the scope itself.

It's easier to learn imaging if you start out with a relatively short scope. If you're not interested in an apo refractor, you might look at a Mak/newt. A friend got an 8" Meade MN a couple months ago, and it's pretty nice.

Kelly,
I think your thread is going to get buried by a couple of the other monster threads. 8O
You might want to check out every dealer you can find that sells the Meade ETX telescopes. I noticed that many are offering free DSI Pro Imagers with some select models. You might have a problem there not being able to see Polaris. But Meade has a three star alignment, and you might can get it to work by leveling your tripod, pointing it to magnetic north, and setting the proper latitude for Polaris. That might get you in the "ballpark" enough for the three star alignment to work. I'm not familiar with Celestron's GOTO software, but they probably have something similar. A Celestron owner might can give you help there.

David E