Frankly, this is what Ive heard also. Its not the optics per se in fact
our lx200 has a nice primary and when you lock down the priamry
carefully so as to keep things oin axis, then collimate, the scope is
quite crisp.... but with poor contrast. Mechanically the scope is a dog.
jerry
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Hi Jerry, Well, I'll buy that. I would assume that there shouldn't be
differences between the optical quality, or the time spent to match
optics between an 8" LX-200-16"-LX-200, and one would also think that
closer attention to detail and quality would be spent on thier flagship
SCT scope.

No doubt these same maladies also affect the Celestron C-14 also, in
that countless owners try to devise ways of getting away from mirror
flop, as the mirror flop definitely has an effect on GOTO Pointing, CCD
Imaging, and maintaining a high degree of collimation which as we all
know is paramount to achieving top performance from any SCT.

Many C-14 owners also have resorted to OTA internal flocking, and I've
even heard mentioned the flocking of the Baffle Tubes as well on SCTs.
Pehaps this is mod also needs to be done on the Meades to enhance
performance?

Though, for the price of what these top of the heap SCT's cost, maybe
areas like this should have a bit more sophistication implemented into
them like a better Primary Baffle-Mirror Support.

I imagine on an 8" SCT, the primary mirror is not so heavy-bulky to be
that great of an issue, but on 14"-16" SCTs, even though these mirrors
are not full thickness, and are cast in a roughly concave state first
before grinding-figuring-polishing, they still must weigh a substantial
amount. Mark