Telescope Reviews: My 1st NEAF impressions by a Nexstar owner

NEAF impressions
Remember I’m a new comer and this was my first NEAF. I’ve been to other trade shows so I knew what to expect. I’m by no means a reporter and I get intimidated a little being a newbie so I kind of just look around.
I got up early on Saturday so I could spend a few hours at NEAF before getting back to work and family. Would have arrived at 8:30 a.m. but my son woke up and needed attention. Got there by 9 and headed for the Astronomics booth. They had all different colo(u)red AT 72mm refractors on alt-az mounts. I was interested in the TMB 92 SS. My goodness, this thing looked impressive, built like a tank and a thing of beauty. The focuser looks like it could lift a tank! The OTA weighs in at 12+ pounds, but seems heavier. I didn’t realize how big and heavy refractors are. It really makes you appreciate the compactness and light weight of a SCT. The price put me off, it originally goes for $1999 and at the show it was $1799 a nice little discount but that’s just the OTA no accessories(tube rings, dovetail, finder and diagonal).
I didn’t have much time so I checked the rest of their scopes and moved over to Explore Scientific. They had a nice display plus an additional trailer parked outside with all their scopes and EP’s. They were running a special on the 102 mm doublet and triplet. The original price of the doublet $499 new price $399 the triplet was $1399 show price $999. I was leaning towards the triplet. It looked like a nice package with the diagonal, finder, dovetail mount and a hard case. I asked about how flat the field is and the assured me I would not need a flattener for the dslr I was using, but I’ll see. They also had a carbon fiber prototype for the 80 and 102mm triplets, sorry no prices yet, but very light weight.
Next up was Stellarvue. There was a new 50mm refractor that looked very cute and would look nice as a finder on my C8. They had some very nice looking scopes but their prices were not listed and the rep I saw was having a few issues so I moved on. They were also having a raffle, but one needed to be present to collect so I didn’t bother.
I walked past some really big scopes by Planewave. Very intimidating! One woman was talking with the rep about a .7 meter($150,000) or 24” ($50,000)scope. I thought I had aperture fever! I’m guessing she has added a huge wing onto her mansion and needs a conversation piece(tongue firmly in cheek). I checked out a few other booths and checked a few prices at some retailers. I guess since it was early some of the vendors were not set up or were not ready for customers. I checked out the birds at the Talons booth. A mean looking hawk(?) or falcon(?) was checking me out. The owls didn’t want to pose so no pics. The Meade booth was well staffed but did not seem to be getting much traffic. Celestron seemed busier to me.
While I was walking around I was going through all my options. I wanted to purchase a CG-5 mount and a nice refractor. I finally ended up at a retail vendor who was willing to talk to me. I won’t mention names but they are local to my tri-state area. I had decided on the ES 102 EDT triplet refractor. I was talking to the sales person about mounts and he was trying to steer me to the iOptron EQ 30 and 45. They didn’t have a CG-5 in stock. He said they were problematic and noisy under load. He did have a CGEM at the show price of $1290. Well I talked him down to $1250 plus a cash discount on my entire purchase. He had a point that if I was going to do imaging that the CG-5 was going to be a challenge. The CGEM would be better suited for the C8 and refractor/guide scope combo. I added a few other accessories and I was ready to head back to my other realities of work and family.
I regret not having more time especially since I didn’t get to do any solar viewing. Next year I think I’ll a lot more time and bring the family along.

James (now I need to update my signature)