Meade has made the latest version extra versatile by allowing the telescope tube to detach from the dual-arm fork mount. This is an enjoyable beginner system that will give you a lot of fun exploring the night sky with the benefit of audiotours. The mount is suitable for simple astrophotography of the Moon and brighter planets but not ideal for deep-sky imaging. Using the flip switch at the rear of the telescope tube, you can direct the light away from the eyepiece to the camera port note you will need a suitable T-adaptor to connect your own camera. We did notice a little vignetting on the bottom half of the view when using the 26mm eyepiece this turned out to be the flip mirror system, which didn’t quite tilt all the way back, but the effect was not too obtrusive and did not affect the 9.7mm eyepiece.
The latter did fill the view, but using the controller’s movement keys we could trace out the disc and even got a hint of a dust lane and the two companion galaxies, M32 and M110. These included planetary nebulae M27 and M57, star clusters M11 and M34 and the magnificent Andromeda Galaxy, M31.
We turned to the deep sky and were pleased that we could see many of the bright Messier objects despite the long focal ratio. The Go-To placed them close to the centre of the view, which helped confirm their identity. However, we did view Uranus and Neptune, with the first a lovely greenish-blue disc and the second a distinct bluish colour, making it stand out well. The long focal ratio of f/13.8 is good for bright subjects such as the Moon and brighter planets, but unfortunately none of them was in a suitable position for viewing on the limited number of clear nights we had. We felt the latter was close to the limit of usefulness. The optics have ultra-high transmission coatings and the scope has a focal length of 1,250mm, giving magnifications of 48x and 129x with the supplied 26mm and 9.7mm eyepieces respectively. We took the ‘tour’ option and enjoyed hearing interesting facts about the most popular targets. We used both modes for our tests, though bear in mind you need to also set the hand controller to altaz or equatorial mode for the Go-To to work properly. This allows you to track the stars for basic astrophotography or use the scope for prolonged observing sessions without having to endure the field rotation that occurs in altaz mode. The tripod mounting plate can also be tilted to turn the mount into an equatorial system. There are three ways to align – easy, one star and two star. If I can't find a local pickup buyer I may consider shipping at buyer's expense.Once we had levelled the tripod and telescope tube using the supplied magnetic compass/bubble level, we found that both options produced good results after we had performed an alignment procedure.
MEADE TELESCOPE SERIES
Meade 26mm Series 4000 Super Plossl (chipped)Īsking $700 local pickup cash preferred. Straight through 8x50mm finderscope and bracket The drives and hand controller work great, and I've replaced the four troublesome tantalum capacitors with 50V radial electrolytic capacitors, so it can be used with its original 18V power supply without issue.
Does not have a dust cap, a shower cap is being used in the meantime. There is no apparent wear on the coatings of the corrector plate or on the primary, only a superficial amount of dust here and there. The cosmetics and optics are in excellent condition, with some minor UV wear on the anodization on one side of the fork (pictured), as well as a few rusted accessory screws. Up for sale is an 8" Meade LX200 EMC classic quartz drive telescope with extras.
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