Mike Schriber's Telescope Equipment

Mike Schriber's
Telescope Equipment

Here's information on the telescope related equipment I own and use. There's also my opinions and impressions of all this equipment.

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Meade LX-200 10" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope. This is the centerpiece of my observing equipment. The linked picture shows the LX-200 mounted on the Milburn Wedge with the Celestron FirstScope 80WA attached. This is my standard configuration. The LX-200 is a fully computerized telescope with very accurate goto capability built in. The telescope will automaticly point to any target in it's 65,000 object onboard database or any input coordinates. From my experience, if properly aligned, the LX-200 will put any selected object in the field of view using the supplied Meade Series 4000 Super Plossl 26mm eyepiece. After years of hunting around the sky I find this capability amazing. My particular LX-200 seems to have excellent optics and star test results are very good.

Meade ETX 90mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope. This is a great little telescope! I picked this up ON SALE (that's right) at LearningSmith for only $480. An amazing deal. I plan on using it for casual observing and travel. I also plan on getting a piggyback mount from JMI so I don't have to drag out the LX-200 when I want to do wide field astrophotography. It's neat!

Meade 2045D 4" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope. This is a really amazing telescope. I purchased this one without a mount and it should make a great guidescope. It has almost no mirror shift, plent of focal length and low mass. I like using an SCT for a guidescope over a refractor because there is no focuser draw tube. The autoguider is rigidly mounted to the guidescope. This should work great!

Celestron FirstScope 80WA acromatic rich field refractor. This is a great low cost portable refractor with dozens of uses. It's the same OTA as the Orion Short Tube Refractor but in stylish Celestron black. I purchased this second hand (Astromart of course) to be a guidescope for the LX-200. The 80WA is probably not the best choice for a guidescope due to it's short focal length. Once I get the hang of using an autoguider I'll most likely purchase a C5 or long focal length refractor to use as a guidescope. I'll still keep the 80WA however because it's got dozens of other uses. It's great for extended deep space objects and just pointing around the sky. For a $250 telescope the optics are great. There is noticable distortion near the edge of the field of view and some chromatic aberation on bright objects. It's also a great terestrial spotting scope. I used to have an Edmund Scientific AstroScan 2001 as my portable telescope but the 80WA blows it away. It's got great contrast and is ultra portable. All in all, an excellent value.

Milburn Standard Equatorial Wedge. Rather than purchase the Meade SuperWedge I decided to get a Milburn Standard Wedge. I had seen this wedge on a friends telescope and was very impressed. It's made from 3/4" aluminum plate and is VERY strong. It has terrific, smooth adjusters and a great solid keypad holder. I can imagine any flex in this design. It might as well be one solid piece of metal.

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	Meade LX-200 10" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope. This is the centerpiece of my observing equipment. The linked picture shows the LX-200 mounted on the Milburn Wedge with the Celestron FirstScope 80WA attached. This is my standard configuration. The LX-200 is a fully computerized telescope with very accurate goto capability built in. The telescope will automaticly point to any target in it's 65,000 object onboard database or any input coordinates. From my experience, if properly aligned, the LX-200 will put any selected object in the field of view using the supplied Meade Series 4000 Super Plossl 26mm eyepiece. After years of hunting around the sky I find this capability amazing. My particular LX-200 seems to have excellent optics and star test results are very good.
	Meade ETX 90mm f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope. This is a great little telescope! I picked this up ON SALE (that's right) at LearningSmith for only $480. An amazing deal. I plan on using it for casual observing and travel. I also plan on getting a piggyback mount from JMI so I don't have to drag out the LX-200 when I want to do wide field astrophotography. It's neat!
	Meade 2045D 4" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope. This is a really amazing telescope. I purchased this one without a mount and it should make a great guidescope. It has almost no mirror shift, plent of focal length and low mass. I like using an SCT for a guidescope over a refractor because there is no focuser draw tube. The autoguider is rigidly mounted to the guidescope. This should work great!
	Celestron FirstScope 80WA acromatic rich field refractor. This is a great low cost portable refractor with dozens of uses. It's the same OTA as the Orion Short Tube Refractor but in stylish Celestron black. I purchased this second hand (Astromart of course) to be a guidescope for the LX-200. The 80WA is probably not the best choice for a guidescope due to it's short focal length. Once I get the hang of using an autoguider I'll most likely purchase a C5 or long focal length refractor to use as a guidescope. I'll still keep the 80WA however because it's got dozens of other uses. It's great for extended deep space objects and just pointing around the sky. For a $250 telescope the optics are great. There is noticable distortion near the edge of the field of view and some chromatic aberation on bright objects. It's also a great terestrial spotting scope. I used to have an Edmund Scientific AstroScan 2001 as my portable telescope but the 80WA blows it away. It's got great contrast and is ultra portable. All in all, an excellent value.
	Milburn Standard Equatorial Wedge. Rather than purchase the Meade SuperWedge I decided to get a Milburn Standard Wedge. I had seen this wedge on a friends telescope and was very impressed. It's made from 3/4" aluminum plate and is VERY strong. It has terrific, smooth adjusters and a great solid keypad holder. I can imagine any flex in this design. It might as well be one solid piece of metal.