Meade 8-Inch LX90-SC (f/10) Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope

by Meade

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 14 x 47 x 21 inches
• Shipping Weight: 71 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0029EEDMG
• Item model number: 0810-90-05
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,062 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
  • #30 in Camera & Photo > Binoculars, Telescopes & Optics > Telescopes > Catadioptric
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 17, 2003

Product Description

Aperture: 8-Inch. Focal Length: 2000mm. Focal Ratio: f/10. UHTC Coatings, 1.25-Inch Diagonal Prism. LX90-SC. Meade¹s Schmidt-Cassegrain (SC) optics give you high performance for the best possible price. For the person looking to get the most from their astronomical dollar, look no further. Meade uses water-white glass with superior light transmission across the entire visible spectrum, unlike inferior standard plate glass used by other telescope manufacturers. Combined with our industry-leading Ultra-High Transmission Coatings (UHTC) -- with 15% better light transmission than standard coatings -- and oversized, thermally-stable Pyrex primary mirrors for optimum light collection, you get a spectacular viewing experience not available on comparable competitors¹ telesscopes. GPS - LX90 can do more than track satellites. It talks to them as well. Turn it on and the built-in Sony GPS sensor immediately determines your precise date, time and location. AutoAlign then uses this info to align your scope for a tour of the most spectacular sights in the universe. EASY ALIGN –LX90s are smart scopes that know the night sky right out of the box. Easy Align picks two alignment stars for you and places them right in your viewfinder. Just center them to fine tune your alignment and the wonders of the universe are at your fingertips. OVERSIZED PRIMARY MIRROR – Only Meade manufactures their primary mirrors in diameters larger than their listed aperture (e.g. the diameter of the 8-Inch LX90’s primary mirror is actually 8.25-Inch).This additional 1/4-Inch yields a wider, fully illuminated field-of-view, and allows you to see the light other telescopes leave behind.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Scope, March 7, 2011

By 

R. Amato - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Meade 8-Inch LX90-SC (f/10) Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (Electronics)

The optics on this scope are top notch. The Go-To capability works pretty well and alignment in the field is pretty straight forward. There are only a few minor complaints I have.

First, I wish they put the external power jack on the base rather than the fork so that the power cord is not getting pulled around as the scope is slewing to a particular azimuth. The computer has a "Cord Wrap" setting that prevents the fork from turning to much in one direction if you are using an external power supply but that results in some long slews sometimes.

The second is that the computer still uses a serial RS-232 connection when attaching to a PC. Meade really needs to upgrade to USB. Nevertheless, I bought a $15 serial to USB adapter for my PC and I was ready to go - so no big deal.

Overall though, I completely love the scope - especially for the $1,618 I paid for it on Amazon. If you do buy this scope, note two things: 1)The ability to track objects over time work great for observing, but is not accurate enough for astrophotography. I think the more expensive LX200 has a feedback mechanism on its motor drives and is therefore more accurate. 2) This ships from Amazon in TWO boxes despite having ONE tracking number. This freaked me out after I signed for the first box which turned out to only have the tripod - and I was in the system as signing for the whole thing! The scope box arrived the next day.