Meade LXD75 SN-8 AT 8047502 Telescope
Out of stock |
Similar in Telescopes
- Optical Diameter: 203 mm
- Max Useful Magnification: x 500
- Finderscope: Optical
- Mount Type: Equatorial
- Motorized: Yes
- Focal Length: 812 mm
- Overview
-
Reviews
-
Compare Prices
User ReviewRead All Reviews »
A Great Telescope but be ready to "fix" it out of the box
Pros
Excellent Optics! Sturdy mount and drive unit.
Cons
LOA/FR (Lots of assembly/Fixing required) out of the box
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
I highly recommend this scope, but be ready to "tinker" with it prior to going out for first-light.
I purchased this Meade LXD75 SN-8AT/UHTC (NEW) from Telescopes.com and it arrived in 3 days. Kudos on the quick shipping! I bought this telescope to give me better views of my light-polluted (Houston) sky than my existing 1-month-old Meade DS-2130AT telescope (which works great, but I wanted more aperature).
Right away I noticed that the box for the Optical Tube Assembly had been opened, then re-taped. I can't say I was expecting this for a "new" product.
Upon pulling the OTA out of the box, I heard something rattling around inside. After unscrewing the corrector lens a screw about 1.5" fell out. I searched and searched but found no place where this screw would have went. After re-attaching the corrector lens, nothing more was heard. I set the OTA off to the side to setup the mount.
The tripos and equitorial mount are very sturdy and on the heavy side - just what I was wanting considering the somewhat rickety mount for my existing DS-2130AT. The tripod went together quickly and was quite solid. Mounting the drive unit to the tripod went quickly as well. Upon hooking up the Autostar (#497) and installing the 8 D-size batteries (user supplied) and running through a "mock" alignment I noticed right away that the Alt axis (up/down) was not moving...
After removing the inspection plate for the motor drive (nice touch!) it was apparent that not only was the entire motor drive assembly loosely screwed on, but the set screws for the large aluminum and brass gears were missing! This allowed the motor to drive the gears, but the gears simply spun on the shafts they were meant to turn. Shaking the drive unit failed to turn up the tiny set screws (6x32 thread). Needless to say, by now my "OOBE" (Out-Of-Box-Experience) was turning bad quickly.
Placing a call to Meade tech support (wait time; about 2 minutes on a Friday night) resulted in the nice lady sayign she would issue a "call tag" to pick up the scope to return to Meade for repair. This simply was not acceptable for a goofy little set screw; it should have been installed correctly at the factory with a dab of threadlocker to prevent this from happening in the first place.
I hopped in the car and took off to the local hardware store to purchase a pack of set screws (8 in case the other drive was in similar shape) as well as some blue "removable" Locktite. Getting back home I installed the set screws with a drop of Locktite and it worked just fine. I reassembled everything on the drive unit and tightened all of the screws and bolts on it since every single one of them was loose.
Now 2.5 hours into what should have been a 20 minute setup, I brought it outside and, using Meade Series 4000 eyepieces, proceeded to get breathtaking views even with my severly light-polluted skies (three streetlights within 100 yards).
By using the three-star alignment of the #497 autostar (compared with 2 on the #494 autostar on my DS-2130AT) resulted in aiming accuracy that was dead-on-center even though I had yet to train or calibrate the drives! (reommended). I am very impressed with the optics of this telescope and the accuracy of the drive unit, but only after the "fix" described above.
I highly recommend this telescope for its performance but just know that you may have some "work" to do on it after you get it. Even if the drives work out of the box, I would still recommend checking those set screws as they may wander out with repeated use.
Reted 4 out of 5 stars with the full five not being awarded due to the sloppy quality control at Meade and for Telesopes.com having shipped a previously-opened box that was supposed to be new.
Right away I noticed that the box for the Optical Tube Assembly had been opened, then re-taped. I can't say I was expecting this for a "new" product.
Upon pulling the OTA out of the box, I heard something rattling around inside. After unscrewing the corrector lens a screw about 1.5" fell out. I searched and searched but found no place where this screw would have went. After re-attaching the corrector lens, nothing more was heard. I set the OTA off to the side to setup the mount.
The tripos and equitorial mount are very sturdy and on the heavy side - just what I was wanting considering the somewhat rickety mount for my existing DS-2130AT. The tripod went together quickly and was quite solid. Mounting the drive unit to the tripod went quickly as well. Upon hooking up the Autostar (#497) and installing the 8 D-size batteries (user supplied) and running through a "mock" alignment I noticed right away that the Alt axis (up/down) was not moving...
After removing the inspection plate for the motor drive (nice touch!) it was apparent that not only was the entire motor drive assembly loosely screwed on, but the set screws for the large aluminum and brass gears were missing! This allowed the motor to drive the gears, but the gears simply spun on the shafts they were meant to turn. Shaking the drive unit failed to turn up the tiny set screws (6x32 thread). Needless to say, by now my "OOBE" (Out-Of-Box-Experience) was turning bad quickly.
Placing a call to Meade tech support (wait time; about 2 minutes on a Friday night) resulted in the nice lady sayign she would issue a "call tag" to pick up the scope to return to Meade for repair. This simply was not acceptable for a goofy little set screw; it should have been installed correctly at the factory with a dab of threadlocker to prevent this from happening in the first place.
I hopped in the car and took off to the local hardware store to purchase a pack of set screws (8 in case the other drive was in similar shape) as well as some blue "removable" Locktite. Getting back home I installed the set screws with a drop of Locktite and it worked just fine. I reassembled everything on the drive unit and tightened all of the screws and bolts on it since every single one of them was loose.
Now 2.5 hours into what should have been a 20 minute setup, I brought it outside and, using Meade Series 4000 eyepieces, proceeded to get breathtaking views even with my severly light-polluted skies (three streetlights within 100 yards).
By using the three-star alignment of the #497 autostar (compared with 2 on the #494 autostar on my DS-2130AT) resulted in aiming accuracy that was dead-on-center even though I had yet to train or calibrate the drives! (reommended). I am very impressed with the optics of this telescope and the accuracy of the drive unit, but only after the "fix" described above.
I highly recommend this telescope for its performance but just know that you may have some "work" to do on it after you get it. Even if the drives work out of the box, I would still recommend checking those set screws as they may wander out with repeated use.
Reted 4 out of 5 stars with the full five not being awarded due to the sloppy quality control at Meade and for Telesopes.com having shipped a previously-opened box that was supposed to be new.
