Is LXD75 Series Shipping Yet ?

does anybody have any confirmation of when is the Meade LXD75 series
shipping ? Any shipments yet ?
Does anybody how this thing is going to have PEC and 3 star alignment using
the Autostar 497 that it is supposed to ship with ?
Does this mount have a guiding port or would guiding be limited to the Meade
LPI serial guiding commands ?

best regards,
Matt Tudor

I've heard everything from "2 weeks" to "6 months." ;-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise

After the problems with the LXD55, I would think the appropriate question would
not be "are they shipping yet?" but rather "are they working yet?"

By the way, has Meade gotten the LXD55 straightened out?

jon

By the way, has Meade gotten the LXD55 straightened out?


Hi Jon:

No, they never quite did. I believe they decided to just scrap the mount
instead of trying to modify it. The major problems were the (extruded aluminum)
tripod and gears that could not be tightened down enough or for long enough to
stop them from slipping. The mount's castings were also weak and prone to
breakage. That said, lots of folks had lots of fun with the scopes. The OTAs
were pretty darned good (I was recently impressed by a view of M51 through a 10
SNT). Let's hope Meade has learned its lesson mount-wise.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Jon Isaacs wrote in message
...
I've heard everything from "2 weeks" to "6 months." ;-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise

After the problems with the LXD55, I would think the appropriate question
would
not be "are they shipping yet?" but rather "are they working yet?"

By the way, has Meade gotten the LXD55 straightened out?

jon


I'd have to respectfully disagree. It doesn't matter if they're working or
not . Experience has shown that from Vixen (with the non working autoguider
port on the Sphinx ) to Microsoft, everybody ships half baked products .
Therefore, my only question was, are they shipping yet ?
Don't get me wrong , I've worked in corporate R&D for over 20 years and I've
seen worse. MEade is no dofferent than any other public company . Sales and
marketing plus the next quarter bottom line are what matters.

best regards,
matt tudor

p.s. probably the lxd75 is Meade's attempt to straighten out the lxd55, make
it cheaper and add a few extra features to charge more . Also don't forget
the all important color change . Sadly, the lxd75 tripod legs showing in
their lxd75 ads look identical to the Meade #884 tripod used for the etx
series . Parts of that tripod are made of plastic . The white leg sockets
(which were black for the #884 but same exact shape ) were plastic and the
steel tube leg ends were glued inside these plastic sockets. After some use
and abuse, especially if one wanted to tighten the spreader bar/accessory
tray to make the tripod more stable, the sockets would start stretching for
lack of a better word and the glued legs would simply fall off . I've had 2
of these tripods and got rid of both . The steel legs are there just because
they look good in magazine ads . I wouldn't place a 20+ lbs scope on such a
contraption even for visual . So to restate my answer, the lxd75 is probably
Meade's attempt to convince the market that they've modified the lxd55 and
not only fixed but improved it. I can picture some marketing directors
getting million $ bonuses because they asked in a management meeting why is
a good mount colored black when eveyrone knows the good guys were
traditionally white .

I'd have to respectfully disagree. It doesn't matter if they're working or
not . Experience has shown that from Vixen (with the non working autoguider
port on the Sphinx ) to Microsoft, everybody ships half baked products .

Therefore, my only question was, are they shipping yet ?

Given Rod's response about scrapping the LXD55, I guess that means you are
willing to take a chance that Meade will get the LXD75 mount working properly
and not abandon it too....

Personally I would not want to take shipment of one until I was pretty darn
sure they were going to get it straightened out and working.

At one point I passed on buying a Super Polaris mount that a friend was selling
because the LXD55 was coming and it seemed like a better choice for about the
same money.

Obviously I was wrong.

Jon

Subject: Is LXD75 Series Shipping Yet ?
From: (Jon Isaacs)
Date: 6/12/04 2:09 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:


Given Rod's response about scrapping the LXD55, I guess that means you are
willing to take a chance that Meade will get the LXD75 mount working properly
and not abandon it too....

Personally I would not want to take shipment of one until I was pretty darn
sure they were going to get it straightened out and working.

At one point I passed on buying a Super Polaris mount that a friend was
selling
because the LXD55 was coming and it seemed like a better choice for about the
same money.

Obviously I was wrong.

Jon
*************************
The new LDX-75 looks like a nice mid size mount! But time will tell if it's
gonna be worth a darn.

The LXD 650 and 750 mounts were no AP , thats for sure!!!

Chas P.

Looks like it has!!!!!!!!!!
http://telescopes.net/TELESCOPES/MEA...__newtonia.htm

Julius

"matt" wrote in message
.. .
does anybody have any confirmation of when is the Meade LXD75 series
shipping ? Any shipments yet ?
Does anybody how this thing is going to have PEC and 3 star alignment
using
the Autostar 497 that it is supposed to ship with ?
Does this mount have a guiding port or would guiding be limited to the
Meade
LPI serial guiding commands ?

best regards,
Matt Tudor

Rod Mollise wrote:

I'm
planning on putting the NS11 in an observatory

Your own, Rod?

nothing else with goto--and I'm
SPOILED.

You are not alone. My NS8GPS is really slick!

Phil

Your own, Rod?

Hi Phil:

Yep, after all these years. It's not really practical to do one here. Dorothy
and I are in the Historic District and cutting trees is a no-no. But we've got
no kids at home, now, and this big Victorian is something we just don't need,
much as I've loved it in the years I've been here. So...in the next year or
two, we'll be moving (staying in the same area), and I plan on a nice backyard
observatory for the NS11 with room left over to add a CGE14 or LX200 14.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Rod Mollise wrote:

Your own, Rod?


Hi Phil:

Yep, after all these years. It's not really practical to do one here. Dorothy
and I are in the Historic District and cutting trees is a no-no. But we've got
no kids at home, now, and this big Victorian is something we just don't need,
much as I've loved it in the years I've been here. So...in the next year or
two, we'll be moving (staying in the same area), and I plan on a nice backyard
observatory for the NS11 with room left over to add a CGE14 or LX200 14.


Good for you!! Glad you mentioned a 14": That was my next question :-)

I've got plenty of room to erect an observatory (small house on big lot)
but this is not the place: Too much light pollution for DSOs, too poor
seeing for doing high mag on planets.

Phil