alleng's Full Review: Meade LX200GPS (16105026) (800 x 415.9mm) Telescop...
I have had my 10" LX-200 for 6 years now, and it's a great telescope. I have used it for casual observation, astrophotography, and as a guiding platform for a camera and smaller telescope. With it's 10" aperture it resolves individual stars in globular clusters such as M13 and garners lots of "wows" at public star parties.
The Meade LX-200 is a solid computerized telescope that can locate any object in it's 65,000 object database, or more if connected to a computer, at the touch of a button. The telescope need only be set up by pointing it to one or two known stars and making sure that the date, time, and location are correct. After that, it's only necessary to select an object from the database or enter a celestial coordinate pair using the hand controller and to push the goto button. The telescope automatically moves to and tracks the object. Pointing accuracy is generally quite good if care was taken in the setup process. Most objects are placed within 7 or 8 arcminutes (for reference, the full moon is 30 arc minutes across) or about 1/2 way between the center and edge of the viewing field using the supplied 26mm plossl eyepiece (about 100 power). It's great for locating planets and deep sky objects and especially for locating objects for photography that are not visible for direct viewing. With care, it's even possible to view some planets and bright stars in the daytime! At high speed (8 degrees per second) slewing, the motors are a bit noisy. It's usually not a problem, but it's possible to select a slower maximum slewing speed if the noise irritates anyone.
The telescope requires considerable electric power for operation. Although the LX-200 can work directly from a 12V DC supply, the specification, to get full power from the motors, is for 18 volts at over an amp. I usually use it outdoors with a 12V battery (car cigarette lighter) connected to a 12V to 120V inverter that drives the 18V AC supply that came with the scope. I also use it with a 12V to 15V DC-DC converter from an old laptop computer. Both work well, but this isn't a case of dropping in a couple of AA alkalines.
Optics are generally very good, but because of it's large aperture and big mirror, it requires a steady atmosphere and long cooling time (about 2 hours) to produce clear images. Under good conditions I have been able to use magnifications as high as 500x and split double stars closer than one arcsecond. That's near the theoretical limit for a 10" aperture. Most of the time, however, magnifications of 200x to 300x are the maximum useable. It's also great for wide field views with the optional f/6.3 focal reducer and wide field eyepieces.
The mount is very stable in alt-azimuth mode, allowing for excellent viewing at high magnifications. Because of it's computer tracking capability, the LX-200 will stay on an object for hours, moving in altitude and azimuth as required to track as the earth rotates. This mode however (what you get with the standard LX-200) results in the view field rotating as it tracks. That's not a problem for viewing through an eyepiece, but it's definitely not suitable for astrophotography without the use of an equatorial wedge or field de-rotator. I use the Meade Super Wedge (a $400 option) which allows photography both through the telescope and via a "piggy backed" camera or smaller telescope. The LX-200 is strong enough to carry an 8 lb. telescope and 35mm camera as long as it's correctly balanced, which requires an optional counterweight system. The mount is a bit less steady when the wedge is attached, but still adequate for long exposure photography.
My experience with Meade's service is less satisfying. Although the LX-200 is well built, it is a mechanical device and can occasionally fail. The azimuth drive on mine failed after the scope was out of warranty. My options were to fix it myself using a replacement parts kit from Meade for about $200 or send it in for about $400 with a guaranteed fix of whatever is wrong. Since there was no guarantee on the $200 option, I elected to send it in (mistake). It took about 2 months before it came back and the result was that although they had fixed the drive problem, the pointing accuracy had greatly deteriorated. After several calls with their service department we determined that in addition to fixing the drive, they had "aligned" it. When they did that, they had neglected to tighten a bolt that caused the pointing problem. So I sent it back a second time. When it came back this time, the pointing accuracy was slightly better (not as good as it was originally), but now there was considerable slop in the altitude movement. Back it went to Meade, and after several more fruitless round trips, it finally came back with no change and a note saying that it was "within spec". I finally took matters into my own hands and, with the help of some members from the Meade LX-200 user group mailing list, managed to align it correctly myself, even though Meade claimed that it couldn't be done without special equipment. Although the Meade customer support person was very good and tried to be helpful, and Meade paid for all the shipping both ways after the first shipment, I was not impressed with the results that came out of their service department. If you have a problem with your LX-200 I would strongly suggest getting the information and fixing it yourself unless you absolutely have to send it back to Meade. Fortunately mine has only needed service once in the 6 years I have had it.
This telescope is for the serious amateur astronomer. It's quite heavy. I am not large (5'6" and 150 lbs) and can put it on it's mount by myself, but only with considerable effort and lots of worry about dropping it. I usually ask for help if someone is around. The scope fork arms cannot be separated from the optical tube and the combined unit that has to be hefted onto the tripod weighs over 60 pounds. Also, plan on spending a considerable amount of money ($500 or more) on accessory eyepieces to get full value from a scope of this capability. I would recommend a 2" wide field eyepiece like the Televue 35mm Panoptic, a few higher magnification eypieces like 7.5mm, 13mm, and 18mm plossls, and a 2x barlow. The focal reducer for wide field viewing or photography is another $150 or so. If you want to do astrophotography plan on an additional $400 for the wedge or de-rotator. The finder scope is pretty poor and needs re-aligning every time it's removed from the scope. I added a Telrad finder (about $50). Another necessary addition is some kind of dew protection. The front corrector lens collects moisture quite quickly if the air is at all damp. I use an extension tube for light dew conditions and a powered dew heater if it gets really bad.
Overall, if you are serious about astronomy, this is a great telescope. You get excellent views of star clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and the planets. It's very versatile for visual as well as photographic observation, but does require optional components and some experience to use properly. The computer finding and tracking it a great convenience, although it's easy to get spoiled and forget how to find objects yourself. It's solidly built and reliable, but getting service on it when it does fail is a bit iffy.
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