Can anyone tell me about this telescope. Is it any good?

im not up to date on meade products or which model DS90 your looking at- but i bought meade 90mm acromat on their rather large EQ1 mount this year for $45 (craiglist) it included a RA motor drive and EP's, the mount was wobbly junk, my older and smaller japan made tasco was much better- the OTA wasnt bad but had a cheap R&P focuser, i might of kept it, but the OTA ring system wouldnt match up to better mount (vixen dovetail)- the finderscope was virtually useless, you couldnt interchange it not having a dovetail base- i sold it 4 weeks later for $140, i originally bought it cause the price was cheap, and it reminded of my old orion 90mm F/11 which was a terrific scope- naturally, thats no londer made

can anyone tell me how this telescope compares to a tasco luminova I had a few years ago?   Is it better or about the same?

Can someone tell me if this telescope is worth 200

 Meade 90mm refractor, 1000mm focal length. They replaced the original plastic focuser with an all-metal one.  It will take either 2" or 1.25" eyepieces.  The tube is metal, the dew shield is plastic; they modified the mount by adding 18" extensions to the top of the legs, enabling chair-height views approaching the zenith.

Sale of the scope includes the scope, mount, 2 eyepieces, a Barlow lens, a variable polarizing lunar filter, the stepper motors and hand paddle (for Autostar) which came original with the scope.  One of the motors is in need of repair due to a power surge. They could only rarely get Autostar to track well anyway, so they shimmed up the worm gears on the mount and added flexible-stalk hand knobs for moving the scope. They replaced the stock finder scope with an Orion 6X30 right-angle finder and mount.

ummm can anyone help me and tell me if this seems like a decent telescope please.   I am considering getting it and need to know if I should get this or just save the 200 for a better one.

Hi maryccc,

I would stay away from that particular scope, You would do much better to save your money and purchase something with more aperture like a 6, 8, or 10 inch Dobsonian.

That scope will also do you no good for any decent astro imaging, since it's an Achromat and with the legs extended, it will be even more wobbly than the original mount for any kind of observing, and it will be useless for imaging.

If you have your heart set on imaging you really need to spend a considerable amount more than just 200 dollars.

For deep sky observing you want at least 8 inches of aperture, although you may get by with a 6 inch DOB, In this hobby aperture rules. 

 For imaging you need a very stable mount with tracking and auto guiding abilities, and either a SCT or a very expensive APO type of refractor or a Newtonian, mounted on a good stable EQ mount.  if you choose a fork mounted scope you will need an EQ wedge for imaging,

You really have to decide on what is you main interests in this hobby, before you spend your hard earned cash.

You really should read (getting started with a telescope), that is posted on this forum by Tkerr.

http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/forums/t/16753.aspx

Some folks do very well with a CG5 ASGT mount with a small APO refractor for imaging, but for visual work on deep sky objects you need as much aperture as you can afford, the minimum would be a 6 incher.

 Just my two cents worth!

Dennis

 Thanks  I will do that.   I didn't think you could take pictures with a dobsonian.  I have always wanted one.

Keep in mind that a Dobsonian telescope is just a Newtonian on a simple mount, and any DOB can be mounted on a EQ mount with the purchase of the right size tube rings, but the bigger the DOB, the more stable and hefty the mount will need to be.

You can however do limited Planetary imaging with a Dobsonian, It is hard to do, but do-able.

There are universal camera mounts that you can use to take an afocal image, one of the adapters that can be used is sold by Orion and it is called the steady pix camera mount.

It simply attachés to whatever eyepiece you have inserted in the focuser. 

You can always later purchase the EQ mount, then purchase the correct size tube rings and counter weights, and remove the alt Hubs that hold the optical tube on the DOB, and mount the tube with the tube rings on the mount.

Dennis