The most widely used research telescope on earth now comes with the most advanced optical system in space. Meade’s all new LX200R brings Advanced Ritchey-Chrétien optics within reach of aspiring astronomers everywhere. Nearly every observatory reflector in the world is a Ritchey-Chrétien, including NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Now you can own what the professionals own. The LX200R includes all the field-proven features of the LX200 including GPS, Primary Mirror Lock, Zero Image-Shift Microfocuser, Oversized Primary Mirror, SmartDrive™, Smart Mount™, AutoStar® II and more. Plus, the LX200R comes with observatory-class optics crafted in Irvine, California, and a Series 5000 26mm 5-Element Plössl eyepiece. The new LX200R. It’s the biggest news in astronomy since, well, the LX200.
traditional Ritchey-Chrétien (RC) is a type of reflector that delivers a coma-free, flat field of view via hyperbolic primary and secondary mirrors. RC telescopes (from a variety of manufacturers) are found in most of the world’s top observatories and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Because the mirrors in these telescopes have always been very expensive to make, few amateur astronomers could enjoy them. Fortunately, Meade engineers developed a radical new Advanced Ritchey-Chretien design by combining a hyperbolic secondary mirror with a corrector-lens-and-spherical-primary-mirror combination that performs as one hyperbolic element. This Advanced version of the traditional RC design produces a coma-free, flat field of view that rivals traditional RC telescopes at a fraction of the cost. The design even eliminates diffraction spikes and improves astigmatism, both of which are inherent in the traditional RC design.
Specifications:
Power Source: Battery
Battery: 8 X C cell
Brand: Meade
Usage: For the Enthusiast
Weight Complete: 90 lbs.
Finderscope: 8×50
Lens Coating: UHTC
GPS: Yes
GoTo: Yes
Good for Astrophotography: Yes
Telescopes Series: LX200R GPS Advanced Ritchey-Chretien Telescopes
Optical Design: Advanced Ritchey-Chretien
Aperture: 10 Inches
Focal Length: 2500mm
Focal Ratio: f/10
Mount Design: Alt-Azimuth Fork
Battery Included: No
Eyepiece 1: SP26mm
Highest Useful Magnification: 500X
Limiting Magnitude: 14.5
Resolution: 0.46 Arc Seconds
Resolving Power: 0.46 Arc Seconds
Star Diagonal: 1.25 Inch
Celestron’s new 8-inch CPC Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope offers new alignment technology, advanced engineering, and a bold new design at a low price! In fact, Celestron’s Professional Computerized (CPC) Series scopes with revolutionary SkyAlign Alignment Technology redefine everything that amateur astronomers are looking for. They offer quick and simple alignment, GPS, unsurpassed optical quality, ease of setup and use, advanced ergonomics, enhanced computerization and, most important, affordability. The 8-inch CPC truly has it all!
The CPC Series internal GPS receiver automatically downloads the date and time from orbiting satellites and pinpoints its exact location on Earth. This eliminates the need for you to enter the date, time, longitude, and latitude manually.
Once the CPC’s internal GPS has established the telescope’s position, alignment is as easy as 1-2-3! Simply locate and manually point the telescope to three bright celestial objects. You do not need to know the names of the stars; you can even pick the moon or bright planets! Celestron’s NexStar software technology will then model the night sky to determine the position of every star, planet and celestial object above the horizon. Once aligned, the remote hand control allows direct access to each of the celestial catalogs in its user-friendly database.
The new CPC Series telescopes, like the acclaimed Advanced Series and premium CGE Series telescopes, feature meticulously matched and hand-figured optical systems manufacturered in Celestron’s facilities in Torrance, California. In addition, the CPC is available with optional StarBright XLT high-performance optical coatings. With the introduction of the CPC series, Celestron has produced a telescope family that provides superior quality to go with unsurpassed ease of use and high value.
The CPC 800 comes with premium XLT coatings. These use state-of-the-art, thin-film, vacuum-deposition technology. To ensure consistent optical coatings of the highest quality the process is tightly monitored and controlled by highly trained technicians. The result is image clarity so stunning it must be seen to be believed.
The CPC series telescopes include the NexRemote software so the telescope can be set up and operated remotely from a PC or laptop! NexRemote duplicates all of the functions and features of the NexStar software on the standard NexStar Hand Control plus much more!
Specifications:
Brand: Celestron
Usage: For the Professional
Finderscope: 50mm w/quick release bracket
Lens Coating: StarBright XLT
GPS: Yes
GoTo: Yes
Good for Astrophotography: Yes
Telescopes Series: CPS GPS Telescopes
Optical Design: Schmidt-Cassegrain
Aperture: 203mm
Focal Length: 2032mm
Focal Ratio: f/10
Mount Design: Dual Fork Arm
Eyepiece 1: 40mm Plossl (51x)
Highest Useful Magnification: 480x
Limiting Magnitude: 14
Resolution: .68 Arc Seconds
Resolving Power: .57 Arc Seconds
Star Diagonal: 1.25 inch
Weight Optical Tube: 48 lbs.
Weight Tripod/Mount: 29 lbs.
Bushnell Northstar 127MM Telescope
The Bushnell Northstar 127mm is a good first telescope for an individual or family. Many scopes at the low end of the price range, known as first time scopes, are poorly designed, cheaply manufactured and have poor optics. The Northstar 127 doesn’t suffer from any of these pitfalls.
The Maksutov-Cassegrain design uses a folded light path that reflects off two mirrors before being passed to the eyepiece. This reduces the length of the tube that’s needed, resulting in an easily portable scope. The mounting system that Bushnell uses, referred to as Kinematic, is actually a one-arm version of an alt/azimuth mount that is motor controlled to allow full star tracking and computerized go-to capabilities. One-arm mounts are known for having some shake, especially when the mount is being moved by motors for star tracking, but we didn’t notice any shaking with this scope, and its tracking was quite good.
One of the big attractions of this type of scope is its computerized control, which allows you to select an object from an included catalog and have the telescope automatically swing around to put the object in view and then track its movement. The Northstar 127 has a large catalog of stellar items, including planetary objects, stars, deep space objects, nebulas and galaxies. In order for the go-to functions to work, the telescope must be aligned each time it is taken out for use. The Northstar’s alignment procedure requires centering two stars within the scope’s eyepiece. Once the stars are centered, the computer system will rate the alignment, with five stars as the target rating. If your alignment racked up fewer than five stars, you can choose two different stars to align.
The optics are quite good for this price range, although we found that the 4mm eyepiece produces too much magnification, resulting in muddied views. The 25mm eyepiece is good for general use, but you may want to add a wider-view eyepiece later.
The Bushnell Northstar 127 Maksutov-Cassegrain offers a number of attractive features, as well as a budget-friendly price, making it a good choice for a first telescope.
Specifications:
4mm and 20mm eyepieces
Erect image diagonal mirror for land viewing
“Go To” computerized tracking technology
Red Dot LED finderscope
Remote Hand-held control module
Camera adaptable
Quick release tripod
Kinematic mount