Lynn - The Meade LX 600 Series 16" telescope without a tripod is listed for $16,500 and with a tripod for $23,000 on Meades' website. This is a huge research telescope that should probably be mounted in a permanent observatory. I was wondering how experienced you are in astronomy and what your goals are. If you are wanting to just look you can get a large dob with an object locator for much less. I have a 12 inch Orion Intelliscope that you could get new for $1,200. I have really enjoyed this telescope because my goals are to find and see. Orion has a 16" truss tube go to Dob for $3650. If your goals are astrophotography, I would go for a much smaller aperture telescope with a very steady equatorial mount and spend the excess money on image capture hardware and software. I have never gotten into astrophotography but when I lived in Texas I knew a number of people in the astronomy I was in there who were experts. Let me know either on this site or to my web address if you would like to discuss further. Sincerely, Paul S. Johnson psjohn@sfcn.org -----Original Message----- From: Lynn Cooley Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2015 9:50 AM To: Utah Valley Astronomy Association Subject: [UVAA] Telescope Hi my name is Lynn Cooley I am looking to get my hands on a Meade 16" telescope in the LX sears. But I can not afford to pay over $4000.00 for it. As I am retired and on a fixed income. So I would appreciate any help that any one can give me. Thank you very much. Lynn Cooley _______________________________________________ UVAA mailing list UVAA@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uvaa No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 9.0.935 / Virus Database: 4253.1.1/8359 - Release Date: 01/02/15 19:01:00