Four Telescope Comparison in a Wish List Opinion of the Chicago Astronomers.

Chicago Astronomer Patrick and I were talking during our last duo observation session at Horner Park...in what telescope would we get if restrictions were eliminated and money no object. I of course went insane would get a trailer to hitch up to the car and carry the largest aperture scope they make.

But Patrick is more sensible and he came down to four that he likes and asked for my opinion. I like the razor sharp images of refractors, but dig the light gathering abilities of Newtonian Reflectors/SCTs. All of the selections presented are SCT's with decent apertures.

It would be great if others would chime in and provide their own preferences, experiences and reviews of the scopes presented here.

Patrick says:

"Let's assume that I could actually afford all of these scopes, which of the extra features are actually worth the expense? And which sacrifice portability with the least upside?

Aside from price and weight, what's the practical difference between these guys for a user like me? I guess price is a consideration in terms of value for performance as well. Been looking at this for over an hour and I don't think I'm any less confused than I was last night."

These are all fine telescopes and serve their purpose very well....




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Eight inch scopes are a all around good choice for the astronomer, not too big, yet with enough light gathering ability to provide good views. They are all pretty much close in specs, but one edges out the others.

First, I would eliminate the Single Fork mounted Nexstar 8 SE.

Not because it's an bad scope, but the single arm connection never sat well with me and I feel over time, will start to develop wobble. And...if the mount/drives/batteries ever fail...the whole telescope would be out of commission - can't manually move the scope around. It just seems frail to me. And, it just has a simple zero mag star pointer - which is not bad, but should not be the sole finder.

One of our members has one, and although likes it, there are some limitations he has encountered.

I would also eliminate the Dual Fork mounted CPC 800, due to it's bulk and if wanting to go into astrophotography, the tines act like a tuning fork - vibrating. I don't have much experience with fork mounted scopes, but astronomers have complained about the size for portability, (very wide) - and the tracking errors for solid imaging.

It would be between the two GEM mounted scopes.

But, I go with aperture....the C 9.25 SGT wins out for me.

The 9.25" has received good reviews and older C9's are in demand as both a portable and good light gathering telescope. It's on a good mount, nice go-to and the extra light gathering power will bring out details the others will miss...even with just a 1.25" more aperture than the C8 SGT. there's an exponential formula for this, but I don't know it.

You can always swap out the Mounts/Tripod for something else and still have the OTA ready for service.

I would take anyone of these telescopes as a back up....but the C 9.25 SGT is at the top of the heap for me.... #Thumbsup#