Meade lx65 8" (ACF) vs Celestron 8se

[popeyespappy]

Sorry to make this a book. There are a lot of variable and beginners make a lot of mistakes. If you can (and I know COVID may not allow this), find a star party and look through some scopes. That is the best way to find out what is possible and what you want to see.

Thank you for taking the time to write the book. I really do appreciate it.

I already understood some of what you wrote like how to calculate magnification. Even the part about to much magnification being a bad thing. What I don't understand is how that applies to real world viewing. For example what is too much for one of these scopes for different objects the moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Andromeda?

As far as photography goes I have a decent FX format Nikon, but I was also looking at one of the Celestron 5MP imagers. I think they are limited to like a 30 second exposure though so I'm not sure which way I want to go yet.

I was also looking at one of the Celestron Eyepiece and filter kits. They run about $170 retail and come with:

32mm Plossl Eyepiece - 1.25”
17mm Plossl Eyepiece - 1.25”
13mm Plossl Eyepiece - 1.25”
8mm Plossl Eyepiece - 1.25”
6mm Plossl Eyepiece - 1.25”
2X Barlow Lens - 1.25”
#80A Blue Filter - 1.25”
#58 Green Filter - 1.25”
#56 Light Green Filter - 1.25”
#25 Red Filter - 1.25”
#21 Orange Filter - 1.25”
#12 Yellow Filter - 1.25”
Moon Filter - 1.25”

on top of the eyepieces that come with the telescopes. From what you said I'll probably want to upgrade later, but I'm hoping that will be enough to get us started.