New Scope

I.m still new to the hobby I got a meade ext90 tbe auto star broke the first night my luck I would like to up grade to the meade LX200 12" GPS next year. My question is two fold 1 How much more will I see with the LX200 I see very little with the 90? 2 Will it be worth the 3G I spend? thanks J

Hi J,

You would definitely see much more, but at the expense of having to haul around a heavy scope. As a sidenote, the best scope is one you use most often, which means a good consideration would also be ease of use and portability. Hope this helps. Clear Skies!

Derrick

You are a star party candidate. No scope may match your expectations. I suggest a local club, or a starparty event, so you can look through many scopes. You may get tired of hauling a 12" LX200 around really fast.

Good Luck,
Richard

A lot of good posts and advice. I think that you would be surprised at how much you can see through your ETX if you can get it to a dark site. I logged around 60 Messier objects on my first night out at our local club's site (with my ETX-90). I upgraded to a 10" GPS scope, but limited myself to something I could easilly move, which is something you should definitely consider. In any case, go to a star party somewhere and take a look through a variety of scopes. You may find that you don't see enough difference between an 8" and a 10" or a 10" and a 12" to justify the extra expense and weight.

Best of luck

Peter.

8) I was thinking of a 12" also but I had the sense to look at the weight before I bought. If you can mount that scope permanently in your backyard and keep it out of the weather and secure by all means buy it. If not, you had better settle for a 10".

I'll tell you lugging that 65# up on the tripod and then screwing in the baseplate without dropping it is about all I can do. I don't think I could make it with the 12".