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Meade 6" LXD 55 f/8 Refractor



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 17th 03, 12:25 AM
Chris Knight
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Default Meade 6" LXD 55 f/8 Refractor

Hey all;

I am considering buying the Meade 6" LXD 55 refractor. Anybody tried it
yet?What do you think? Pros? Cons? Comparisons to the ED? I'm looking at
this one because I've always been a refractor fan, but never able to afford
a big one. Now that I finally can, this is starting to look like a dream
come true.

Feedback please.

Chris


  #2  
Old July 17th 03, 01:21 AM
Rod Mollise
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Default Meade 6" LXD 55 f/8 Refractor

I am considering buying the Meade 6" LXD 55 refractor. Anybody tried it
yet?What do you think? Pros? Cons? Comparisons to the ED? I'm looking at
this one because I've always been a refractor fan, but never able to afford
a big one. Now that I finally can, this is starting to look like a dream
come true.

Feedback please.


Hi Chris:

Based on what I've seen, you'll be very lucky if the mount works correctly out
of the box. Most people (though not all) have had to do considerable
tuning/tinkering to get the mount working right. You might want to look on the
new Celestron "Advanced Series" scope. It's very similar, but based on the
CG5/EQ4 which, in my opinion, is better at this point.


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
  #3  
Old July 17th 03, 02:47 AM
Chris Knight
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Default Meade 6" LXD 55 f/8 Refractor

I just checked it out at the Anacortes site. Does look promising, and as a
past owner of a C-8+, I am familiar with Celestron's quality. Thanks, Rod.


"Rod Mollise" wrote in message
...
I am considering buying the Meade 6" LXD 55 refractor. Anybody tried it
yet?What do you think? Pros? Cons? Comparisons to the ED? I'm looking at
this one because I've always been a refractor fan, but never able to

afford
a big one. Now that I finally can, this is starting to look like a dream
come true.

Feedback please.


Hi Chris:

Based on what I've seen, you'll be very lucky if the mount works correctly

out
of the box. Most people (though not all) have had to do considerable
tuning/tinkering to get the mount working right. You might want to look on

the
new Celestron "Advanced Series" scope. It's very similar, but based on the
CG5/EQ4 which, in my opinion, is better at this point.


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



  #4  
Old July 17th 03, 04:06 AM
Tom Hole
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Default Meade 6" LXD 55 f/8 Refractor


"Chris Knight" wrote in message
. ca...
Hey all;

I am considering buying the Meade 6" LXD 55 refractor. Anybody tried it
yet?What do you think? Pros? Cons? Comparisons to the ED? I'm looking at
this one because I've always been a refractor fan, but never able to

afford
a big one. Now that I finally can, this is starting to look like a dream
come true.

Feedback please.

Chris



Everyone,

I was considering the OTA only. I was thinking of going for a 6" achro to
check it out. Any comments on the optical and mechanical quality of the OTA
(assume it is mounted very well)? How about compared to the 6" offering
from Celestron? Any QZ issues where the optics quality has a large delta?

Thanks,

Tom


  #5  
Old July 17th 03, 04:14 AM
Al
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Default Meade 6" LXD 55 f/8 Refractor


"Chris Knight" wrote in message
. ca...
Hey all;

I am considering buying the Meade 6" LXD 55 refractor. Anybody tried it
yet?What do you think? Pros? Cons? Comparisons to the ED? I'm looking at
this one because I've always been a refractor fan, but never able to

afford
a big one. Now that I finally can, this is starting to look like a dream
come true.

Feedback please.

Chris



The Chinese have been building and selling these scopes for years now, so I
think they have the know how to build them fairly well. I've owned 2 of
these 6" refractors, one made by Synta (Celestron, Orion, Skywatcher) and
the other a Meade scope (LXD55 AR6) made by another Chinese company. Both
are very good optically, but one of them (the Synta made scope) is
mechanically superior to the Meade. In my opinion, the edge displayed by
Synta is _very_ important. As an example, the Meade 6" refractor has an
objective lens cell that's made out of a rather weak plastic. I'm sure that
the plastic lens cell saved the manufacturer much money, but this is one
corner that they should not have cut. The actual objective lens is quite
heavy and the plastic cell is easily broken off by the weight of the lens
with the shock inherent in the delivery process while in the hands of UPS.
This happened to me once and the same thing happened to 5 other people that
I know of. The sun shade on this scope is frictio fit and often does not
fit the OTA very well. I also had one scope delivered to me with this
problem. Finally, the focuser on the Meade scope leaves much to be desired.
To be accurate, the focuser on the Synta built scope is also fairly poor,
but it's still better than the Meade.

The above is a brief discussion about the OTA only...not the mount. The
Meade LXD55 mount is entirely another story! This is a very troublesome
mount, which should be avoided! This is not to say that all of the mounts
that Meade ships are problems, but if you buy one, you stand a very good
chance of getting a lemon. Want to take a chance?

Al


 




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