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, thank 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-)

Or , maybe wait for a Synta 5", with the FPL-53 D element. It's gotta
be
coming, right?