Having just bought the Nexstar 11 GPS I had the same question about the Meade. I am not an expert, having only recently caught the backyard astronomy bug. Just about everybody I spoke too either highler recommended the Celestron over the Meade or at least leaned in the direction of the Celestron as the better of two essentially equal choices. I spoke with several dealers and users of both scopes. One factor that helped me decide was how genuinely excited people seemed to be about the Celestron product. Most of the dealers I spoke with tried to simply provide objective information about both scopes without trying to "sell" either one too hard. However, it was clear that most of the folks in the know had a better impression of the Celestron offering. In the end, I selected the Celestron because (1) it had the larger aperature and (2) when all of the relevant costs were included it was the better bargain. One thing you'll need to add on to either scope right away is a 2" diagonal and some 2" eyepieces. It isn't cheap, it makes a huge difference.