Meade LXD75 SN-8AT (f/4) Schmidt-Newtonian Telescope

by Meade

Product Details

• Item Weight: 94.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 95 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009O9RUG
• Item model number: 0804-75-02
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,600 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
  • #67 in Camera & Photo > Binoculars, Telescopes & Optics > Telescopes > Catadioptric
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 17, 2003

Product Description

Aperture: 8-Inch. Focal Length: 812mm. Focal Ratio: f/4. 8x50 Viewfinder, Ultra High Transmission Coatings (UHTC). Optical Tube Construction Schmidt-Newtonian and Schmidt-Cassegrain optics are mounted in precision-machined aluminum cells and mounted in sturdy steel tubes which are baked with highgrade textured enamel paint. The optical tube assembly is closed, reducing air currents inside the tube. This prevents distortion of an otherwise sharp image. Plus, a closed tube significantly helps keep the optics clean. Corrector Lens Fully corrects for spherical aberration and provides pinpoint star images. Water white glass is used in all Schmidt-Newtonian and Schmidt-Cassegrain corrector lenses to maximize light transmission. The use of water white glass results in an increase of light transmission in excess of 10%, as compared to competing telescopes using soda lime glass. Individually Figured Optics Schmidt-Newtonian and Schmidt-Cassegrain corrector lenses and mirrors are individually figured to create a superior optical system, which is renowned for its exquisite smoothness and performance.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Novice astronomer's perspective, January 3, 2011

By 

Earl E. A. Dopter (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Meade LXD75 SN-8AT (f/4) Schmidt-Newtonian Telescope (Electronics)

This is my first "real" telescope. Here are my impressions so far.

The telescope does come with everything you need to "get started," but there are several items you will absolutely want and need, so you might as well consider ordering them with the scope:

1. Additional eyepieces. If you intend to view anything other than the moon, you will need eyepieces with greater magnification than the wide angle 26 mm (low magnification) Super Plossl that comes with the scope. This is the one you need: Meade Series 4000 Eyepiece for Telescopewith Filter Set. (You will also need a filter to view the moon properly, at minimum). So you'll really need this set.

2. Get either an A/C adapter Meade Universal AC Adapter for LXD75 mount and any ETX-PE and AT, LS, LT, LX (up to 14-Inch), MAX. or a car adapter Meade #607 - Power cable - automobile cigarette lighter - DC jack - 25 ft. FYI, I ordered the DC adapter, figuring that it would be better to be able to go far, far away from any AC source for maximum viewing potential. You will need the adapter because you are going to consume 8 D-size batteries every two hours if you don't have an adapter. The telescope consumes a lot of energy when it's slewing between views.

Here are my other thoughts on the scope:

3. The directions for assembly and alignment leave something to desire. First, bear in mind that once you assemble the telescope, you first need to balance it and then put it in the polar home position, and that both of these are very simple to do, even though the directions seem complicated, and they really mangle the directions for initializing Autostar. If anyone needs more feedback on this I can provide it.

4. Although it was counter-intuitive to me, you have to LOCK the two axes of your equatorial mount in order to train and use the Autostar correctly. I thought that locking would prevent movement, but locking prevents only MANUAL movement, the Autostar operates with these axes LOCKED, not unlocked.

5. Use the three star alignment procedure whenever you set up the telescope for viewing. The easy alignment is not as accurate and the three star alignment doesn't take that much longer.

6. I found the Autostar user interface to be very far from ideal. There is a great deal of room for improvement. The actual data is good and is impressively thorough. But there's no reason I can think of why Meade shouldn't get with the graphical user interface at this point. What you get is a completely text-based, labyrinthian menu structure that is far from intuitive. This is where Meade gets its lowest marks. No matter how well-versed you are in astronomy, there are too many keystrokes and too little thought put into the menu structure. Just inputting my address required a ridiculous amount of time, for example. Accuracy is OK, but there is room for improvement on that as well. Repeated calibrations and training may help, but seriously, this could be MUCH better executed. How about an iPhone app and a way to link smartphones to the scope?

7. The scope plus the counterweights and the tripod are VERY heavy. I can lift the entire assembly, but I would not recommend most people doing it. It was all I could do to transport the assembly by hand 100 feet. You will either need a dolly or you will need to disassemble the tube from the rest of the assembly and transport in two pieces.

8. I was able to home in on Jupiter yesterday. I saw the planet and three moons with some degree of clarity. However, I was hoping for a sharper image, and you can forget about it if all you have is the eyepiece that comes with the telescope. I used an 8mm eyepiece for a decent-sized image, but even then it was blurry and took up only a small percentage of the total viewing angle. I blame atmospheric interference and will continue to try, in case more clarity is possible on a different night.

9. I shined a flashlight down the tube just to inspect the optics. My unit had a great deal of dust stuck to the main mirror, and some also stuck to the front lens. I would have thought that Meade's assembly line would be extremely clean. This amount of dust leads me to believe otherwise. I intend to take this up with Meade and will update when I have an answer from them. Hopefully I can clean both.

10. Two out of six of the set screws that hold and adjust the spotting scope arrived broken. I was able to more or less align the spotting scope despite this setback, but Meade will owe me the other two screws.

11. On the tripod, there are two setscrews per leg to hold the legs at whatever height you want. One of the six was impossible to thread into its hole and became cross threaded. I will repair it myself but for most users this wouldn't be a very good thing.

12. On my unit, the powered, illuminated reticle does not show up. I have not taken that up with Meade. It's definitely energized; I followed the instructions to a tee, and can see it when looking directly through the reticle, but it doesn't show up in the main scope, as it should.

13. There are NO directions concerning the clocking of the scope tube within its clamps. At this time I can only assume that it's not important, but it seems like it would be important. When you are looking at an entire sky, as you normally do during a full tour, the optical tube rotates all over the place; sometimes the eyepiece is at the bottom and sometimes it's at the top. There is no way to rotate the tube without the possibility of also translating it. I feel there should be a way to just rotate the tube to achieve the best eyepiece location without risking unbalancing the telescope at the same time.

I am sure I will have other thoughts on this scope and will post them as updates on this review.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meade LXD75 SN 8AT (f/4) Schmidt-Newtonian Telescope, July 7, 2010

By 

S. Whitworth "Hannah's Mommy" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Meade LXD75 SN-8AT (f/4) Schmidt-Newtonian Telescope (Electronics)

Additional details about this product:

* Model: LXD75 8" Schmidt-Newtonian
* Optical Design: Schmidt-Newtonian
* Clear Aperture: 203mm (8")
* Focal Length: 812mm
* Focal Ratio: f/4
* Resolving Power (arc secs.): 0.56
* Optical Coatings: Ultra-High
* Transmission Coatings Limiting Visual Magnitude (approx.): 16.5
* Maximum Practical Visual Power: 500x35 mm
* Angular Film Coverage: 1.66 x 2.36 degrees
* Optical Tube Dimensions (dia. X length): 10" x 29.5"
* Secondary Mirror Obstruction (dia.;%): 3.10e; 15.0%
* Counterweights: 2 x 10 lbs.
* Telescope Mounting: LXD75, German-Type Equatorial Setting Circle Diameters
* RA and Dec: 2.25"
* Polar Illuminated Viewfinder: Included
* RA and DEC Control System: 9-speed, microprocessor-controlled
* 12V DC, 72mm (2.83") worm gear
* Hemispheres of Operation: North and South
* GO TO Pointing Precision (approx.): 15 arc mins.
* Slow-Motion Controls: Electric, both axes
* Bearings: 2 ball bearings
* AutoStar Hand Controller: PIC 16C57 microcontroller; 2 line x 16 alphanumeric character display; 20-button keypad, red LED backlit
* Main Telescope Controller: Motorola 68HC11 microprocessor; 1-Megabyte flash memory (field reprogrammable); 32K RAM
* Batteries (not included): 8 x D-cells
* Battery Life (approx.): 40 hours
* Onboard Celestial Object Database: 30,223 objects
* Slew Speeds both axes: 9 slew speeds
* Tracking Rates: Sidereal, lunar, or custom-selected from 2000 incremental rates
* Tube Body: enameled steel
* Mount Castings: Aluminum
* Primary, Secondary Mirrors: Pyrex glass
* Correcting Plate: clear float glass
* Field Tripod Height: 27" - 43" variable
* Telescope Dimensions with Tripod: 36"L x 32"W x 59"H

I posted this because of the lack of product detail on this page. My review will be forthcoming on this product.