wrote:
Any online comparisons of the two? Or any user experiences here?
Both are f/9 apo doublets, so are they the same manufacture?


Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
--------

I can only provide you a few tid bits...

1. I believe the Meade uses FPL-51 as the ED component where as the
Synta/Orion scope uses the more desireably FPL-53. How this affects
the overall color correction I cannot say. Roland is always stressing
that it is not the ED element that determines the color correction but
the mating elements.

On the other hand, he uses FPL-53 in his stuff so there must be some
advantage.

2. I am quite sure the Meade and the Orion are of different
manufacture, Synta makes the Orion stuff, don't think Synta ever made
anything for Meade but I could be wrong.

3. One reason these Meades are showing up is that Meade closed them out
in their Ebay store a while back at pretty good prices. Some people
might be keeping the mounts and attempting to move the OTA's to help
cover their costs and maybe end up with a nice mount at a great price.

Jon

Thanks for the reply! I did know the syntas were chinese, and the
Meades were not. I didn't mean to say same manufacturER, but
manufacture-
i.e. were they the same design. You've both answered that quite well,
thanks you.

It sounds to me as if the Meade is the way to go. Now, I just have to
work up the guts to sell my Nexstar11GPS to finance it. (Or, maybe the
127ED!!!!!!! 8-)