Meade LXD55 SN-10

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Brand and Model:Meade LXD55 SN-10
Price ($USD):$879 + $95
Type:Shmidt-Newtonian
Attributes: checked Go-To un-checked PEC
Aperture:254mm (10")
f Ratio:f/4
Focal Length:1016mm
Finder:6x30
Electric Power:8batteries/12vDC car/115vAC home
Mount:LXD55
Tripod:aluminium
Weight (lbs):lbs.
Dimensions (w/h/d):
Description:dual-axis control system with digital readout display
9-speed drive controls
30,223-object celestial software library and automatic GO TO object-locating
Battery pack accepting eight (user-supplied) D-cells (optional 25 ft. cords permit powering from either 12vDC auto cigarette lighter plug or from 115vAC home outlet)


Meade's LXD55 Page

Vote Highlights Vote
Meade LXD55 SN-10
Packed with features, the 10" SN is sure to please!!!
FEATURING:

1. Lots of plastic parts made in China!!

2. Loads of PE, with no autoguiding capability! (Perfect for all of you CCD imagers out there!)

3. Sticky plastic focuser - perfect for that jiggly image not found in lesser scopes!

4. Flexible aluminum legs! Don't be fooled by imitation 'wooden' tripod legs, only our legs are made of extruded aluminum to offer a liberal amount of flexing under the weight of a 10" OTA!

5. Mystery goto-ing! You will have hours of fun playing "where is my scope pointing to!" All you have to do is select an object to goto, and the Autostar will automatically point to a -different- location! You will have countless hours of enjoyment guessing at what object (if any) the scope is actually pointing to! This unique feature is not available on ANY other GOTO scope at any price!

6. NOISE! - and tons of it! Never again will you 'fall alseep at the wheel' as long as the LXD55 is aimlessly slewing to mystery objects! Perfect for those who like a 'less than quiet' observing environment!

7. Quick-detach tube rings! Our tube rings are so easy to detach, you don't even have to touch them! Your scope will effortlessly come off the mount ON IT'S OWN!!! What other scope can promise that?

8. Loads of customer support - and you will need it! You will spend countless hours on the phone with Meade - AT ABSOLUTELY NO COST TO YOU WHATSOEVER! Furthermore, you will spend countless more hours on the Yahoo! groups talking to all the other LXD55 owners! With some telescopes, you could be spending your time looking at celestial objects. With the LXD55, you can spend all of your time fixing it and searching the webgroups for information about how to get it to work properly! This is not your ordinary telescope!

9. Wide-field, low-power views! You will need it to find the object you were hoping the Autostar would find for you!

10. Three free trips to the post office! As a new LXD55 owner, you will be guaranteed at least three trips to the post office to pick up the replacement mount and parts that Meade sends to you!

11. Bent encoders! Only our encoders are bent at the factory to our exacting standards!

12. That satisfied feeling that you saved $300 over the LX-90 - a scope that doesn't feature any of these options!

All of these 'research grade' options are only found on the new 10" LXD-55 Telescope! Order yours today!

Overall Rating: 1
Optics:6 Mount:1 Ease of Use:1 Value:2
Weight: 11 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=163910 

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The latest Meade cataog shows a slightly different trpod fr the LXD55.  Is it "new and improved" or just a newpaint job?




>Packed with features, the 10" SN is sure to please!!!
>FEATURING:
>
>1. Lots of plastic parts made in China!! 
>
...snip...
Meade LXD55 SN-10
Fantastic optics! Drives very smooth and good goto accuracy. Can't expect anything more for the money. With the eyepiece deal, its hard to beat. No real problems except finder didn't focus and focuser draw tube not butter smooth. Getting Meade replacements.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:10 Mount:8 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=155620

Meade LXD55 SN-10
After owning this scope for several months, I am reasonably unhappy with it.

First of all, it is very poorly made. Many of the parts on it are made entirely out of plastic! The weak tripod legs can barely support the OTA - they flex alot when you put it on the mount. When you are focusing, the image shakes horribly due to all the flexing and slop in the mount.

Even though I have carefully balanced the scope, the weight puts alot of strain on the motors - you can actually see them shift when you start slewing. I bet they will not last long under this strain. It seems like this mount was not designed for this heavy of a payload. Maybe the 6" version does a bit better. The motors themselves do not mesh well - I actually had to re-mount them to get them working correctly!

The goto is the biggest joke of all! I have owned 2 ETX's and a LX-90, so I am fairly used to Autostar. After careful setup and polar alignment, I have never had good goto's with this thing. I think alot of this has to do with the poor machining of the mount. It doesn't even have bearings - instead it relies on friction and grease. It also has alot of slop in it - too much for the autostar to accurately correct for, even though it tries to do so. Although if you look carefully in Meade's ads, they admit to the poor pointing accuracy of this mount - they list it at 15 arcmins accuracy. My mount also had burrs on it, creating 'high' spots as it rotated on the axis. Keep in mind that this scope mount is MADE IN CHINA - not made in the US like other Meade scopes. Consequently, the quality is not anywhere near the other meade scopes.

The optics ARE good, however. Although for the price I paid, I could have had a REALLY nice OTA from another manufacturer.

If you are planning on getting this scope because you cannot afford the better ones, DON'T! DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK! You will spend endless hours of frustration trying to get it to work. You will spend even more hours on the user groups just to try to figure out how to fix it (if you don't believe me, check out the groups! All the owners are constantly working on these things just to get them to work like a normal goto telescope!). Save your money and get something better. Fortunately, I was able to sell mine last week while the market is still hot. GOOD RIDDANCE!

Overall Rating: 2
Optics:8 Mount:0 Ease of Use:0 Value:2
Weight: 9 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=138012 

Here, here. I wish someone had warned me. I lost an entire summer of viewing because of this lemon.
>After owning this scope for several months, I am reasonably unhappy with it.
>
>First of all, it is very poorly made.  Many of the parts on it are made entirely out of plastic!  The weak tripod legs can barely support the OTA - they flex alot when you put it on the mount.  When you are focusing, the image shakes horribly due to all the flexing and slop in the mount.
>
>Even though I have carefully balanced the scope, the weight puts alot of strain on the motors - you can actually see them shift when you start slewing.  I bet they will not last long under this strain.  It seems like this mount was not designed for this heavy of a payload.  Maybe the 6" version does a bit better.  The motors themselves do not mesh well - I actually had to re-mount them to get them working correctly!
>
>The goto is the biggest joke of all!  I have owned 2 ETX's and a LX-90, so I am fairly used to Autostar.  After careful setup and polar alignment, I have never had good goto's with this thing.  I think alot of this has to do with the poor machining of the mount.   It doesn't even have bearings - instead it relies on friction and grease.  It also has alot of slop in it - too much for the autostar to accurately correct for, even though it tries to do so.  Although if you look carefully in Meade's ads, they admit to the poor pointing accuracy of this mount - they list it at 15 arcmins accuracy.  My mount also had burrs on it, creating 'high' spots as it rotated on the axis.  Keep in mind that this scope mount is MADE IN CHINA - not made in the US like other Meade scopes.  Consequently, the quality is not anywhere near the other meade scopes.
>
>The optics ARE good, however.  Although for the price I paid, I could have had a REALLY nice OTA from another manufacturer.
>
>If you are planning on getting this scope because you cannot afford the better ones, DON'T!  DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK!  You will spend endless hours of frustration trying to get it to work.  You will spend even more hours on the user groups just to try to figure out how to fix it (if you don't believe me, check out the groups!  All the owners are constantly working on these things just to get them to work like a normal goto telescope!).  Save your money and get something better.  Fortunately, I was able to sell mine last week while the market is still hot.  GOOD RIDDANCE!
Meade LXD55 SN-10
A mess. Had 2 have 2 mounts replaced because of mechanical breakdowns. Had the entire optic tube fall off due to a faulty bolt in the mounting bracket, Meade promised a replacement in 2 months, maybe. Imported from China and a quality control nightmare.

Overall Rating: 1
Optics:8 Mount:1 Ease of Use:3 Value:1
Weight: 9 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=135771

Meade LXD55 SN-10
[webmaster note: vote moved from description of a duplicate entry]

Been awhile since I've given an update on the LXD55 SN10. Skies have been lousy so I'll give you what I have experienced. The mount and scope are well exceeding my expectations. Lunar views with 12mm and 9mm ep's are absolutely incredible. Views of the ring nebula are outstanding. Doubles split easily with both eps's. Field of view is still breathtaking. In short, the optics on this scope with the UHTC package would be hard to beat for the money.

The mount is working flawlessly to date. Only problem I have experienced is that I twisted off one of the tightening bolts on the legs - I called Meade on Monday and on Wednesday I had a new leg assembly on my doorstep - I call that outstanding customer service. I made a few mods to the leg assemblies and the mount seems to be rock solid with about a 2 sec settling time if I rap on the tube. Set up time from "decision to view" to finished polar alignment now takes about 5 - 7 minutes and gives excellent goto's with objects being almost dead center in the 12mm ep. Clear sharp edge to edge views with almost no coloration on edges of stars. Only slight coloration at the very very edge of the field. The screw adjustments for the optical tube axis alignment are a little trickey but no big deal. Once centered in the EP objects stay very well centered for over 45 minutes (longest I have tracked).

I plan on internally flocking the tube within the next week of so - will let you know the results.

All in all, I would give this combo a 9 out of 10. It looks impressive (I constantly have strangers standing in line with their cars double parked in my street) to get a glimpse. Operation and set up are easy. This scope seems to be an excellent value and real bargain. Weakest link is the tripod legs but these can be quicklly beefed up with a couple of hours work and around $20.00 in parts.

I've taken several single shot ccd images of the sun with an inexpensive RCA CDS6300 which I bought from ebay for $150.00. I'm using an Orion Steady Pic camera mount ($34.95) with their 14mm Epic ED eyepiece and Intellivue Solar Filter (full apeture). Internal "grain of sunspots is clearly visible as well as temperature gradient rings surrounding the spots. Color is pure beautiful yellow orange (yes it looks like the sun should look) and clarity is fabulous. Some surface "grain" is clearly visible. As soon as skies allow, I am hoping to try it on the night sky.

Everyone here that has seen the shots says they are great. As soon as my PC at home is up and running again, I will post for all to see.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 6 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=125460 

This guy is very dishonest.  He gets paid by OPT to advertise the LXD55 scopes on the LXD55 yahoo group.  Take EVERYTHING he says with a huge grain of salt.  

The reality is that the 10" is way too heavy for the mount, and that the mount is not very accurate at pointing, and lots of bolts and pieces break on it very quickly.

Save your $$ and get an LX-90 instead - it is one of the most trouble-free scopes Meade makes, and is very accurate and has very few problems.  Plus, it is ten times easier to set up and tear down, and is much lighter than this 10" piece of CR#P.
Looks like the crappy quality of this product is going to bite Meade in the butt! Dealers are now refusing to carry this LEMON of a scope.
Check out...
http://www.proastronomer.com/lxsertel.html
You know it must be bad when a dealer posts something like this.
My personal experience with this telescope, LXD-55 10"was a disaster. 
After a much anticipated delivery, the mount on the scope gave out 
under the strain of the weight of the scope the first night. My 
dealer was kind enough to replace the mount for me immediately, the 
next outing, despite hours of trials (and I've had years of 
experience with Autostar alignments on other scopes) the Goto was 
completely inaccurate. The next night out, the ENTIRE OTA fell off 
the mount due to a faulty bolt, Meade said they couldn't guarantee 
replacement for months. The scope is made in China and obviously very 
poorly, the parts are crudely machined and the gears in the mount 
strain under the weight of the scope. After a jury-rigged mount 
repair by my dealer, the next time out the mount again gave 
outcompletely. I was only fortunate to have an amazingly 
understanding dealer who refunded all my money and sent this lemon 
back to Meade. Others may not be so lucky. Caveat Emptor! I have 
since saved my money and purchased an LX200 10"GPS and it's a dream

>[webmaster note: vote moved from description of a duplicate entry]
>
>Been awhile since I've given an update on the LXD55 SN10. Skies have been lousy so I'll give you what I have experienced. The mount and scope are well exceeding my expectations. Lunar views with 12mm and 9mm ep's are absolutely incredible. Views of the ring nebula are outstanding. Doubles split easily with both eps's. Field of view is still breathtaking. In short, the optics on this scope with the UHTC package would be hard to beat for the money.
>
>The mount is working flawlessly to date. Only problem I have experienced is that I twisted off one of the tightening bolts on the legs - I called Meade on Monday and on Wednesday I had a new leg assembly on my doorstep - I call that outstanding customer service. I made a few mods to the leg assemblies and the mount seems to be rock solid with about a 2 sec settling time if I rap on the tube. Set up time from "decision to view" to finished polar alignment now takes about 5 - 7 minutes and gives excellent goto's with objects being almost dead center in the 12mm ep. Clear sharp edge to edge views with almost no coloration on edges of stars. Only slight coloration at the very very edge of the field. The screw adjustments for the optical tube axis alignment are a little trickey but no big deal. Once centered in the EP objects stay very well centered for over 45 minutes (longest I have tracked).
>
>I plan on internally flocking the tube within the next week of so - will let you know the results.
>
>All in all, I would give this combo a 9 out of 10. It looks impressive (I constantly have strangers standing in line with their cars double parked in my street) to get a glimpse. Operation and set up are easy. This scope seems to be an excellent value and real bargain. Weakest link is the tripod legs but these can be quicklly beefed up with a couple of hours work and around $20.00 in parts.
>
>I've taken several single shot ccd images of the sun with an inexpensive RCA CDS6300 which I bought from ebay for $150.00. I'm using an Orion Steady Pic camera mount ($34.95) with their 14mm Epic ED eyepiece and Intellivue Solar Filter (full apeture). Internal "grain of sunspots is clearly visible as well as temperature gradient rings surrounding the spots. Color is pure beautiful yellow orange (yes it looks like the sun should look) and clarity is fabulous. Some surface "grain" is clearly visible. As soon as skies allow, I am hoping to try it on the night sky.
>
>Everyone here that has seen the shots says they are great. As soon as my PC at home is up and running again, I will post for all to see.
Don't believe this guy -  he works for Meade.  He is well known on the LXD55 group (where everyone reports their problems with these scopes).

If you want the real scoop on the LXD55 10", go to the yahoo group.  This guy is the only one who is happy with his.
Meade LXD55 SN-10
I bought the SN10 for use on another mount. I have the UHTC coatings and they do make a difference in brightness of objects. The OTA is big and a pain to load on the mount by yourself, but accomplishable. My optics are pinched by the mirror cell clips and so it shows less than perfect stars. I plan on giving the C-clips a clipectomy to solve the issue. The focuser is also a piece of junk, but it gets the job done for now. Yet another item to replace is the finder scope. I use a telrad and my AT1010 mounted on it for finders.

I'm about 6 ft tall and need a small step stool to view some of the time, so plan on using one. All in all the views are quite nice with quality EP's. I use my T6 Naglers (9&13) and my panoptics and the views are stunning. M13 and M57 are very nice and take on 3D appearance.

Bottom line; don't by the LXD55 setup and expect perfection! The mount that I have works well(after several hours of getting used to it and calibrating it) but needs some adjustments. The SN10 is TOO big for the mount unless you don't mind long dampening times. The OTA is a nice scope for the price and gives better views than the Orion XT10 and the Meade 10" SCT in my opinion and based on several nights of viewing in all 3 scopes.

Overall Rating: 7
Optics:8 Mount:7 Ease of Use:5 Value:9
Weight: 4 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=246750

Meade LXD55 SN-10
Complete piece of junk. Avoid this scope, as it is undermounted and wobbley in the smallest breeze. The go-to doesn't go-to anywhere, and is tedious to align. Focuser and tripod are incredibly cheap. I returned it for an LX-90 and the difference is night and day.

Overall Rating: 1
Optics:4 Mount:0 Ease of Use:0 Value:0
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=395989

Meade LXD55 SN-10
Great optics, but the mount is a pile of garbage! As the other review stated, the "goto" just "doesn't". Takes 20 seconds to dampen from focusing. This OTA is WAY too large for this mount. A small refractor is a much better match. Sell the mount on Ebay and put the OTA on an Orion Atlas (like I did) and you will have a good setup.

Overall Rating: 3
Optics:10 Mount:1 Ease of Use:1 Value:2
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=368348

Meade LXD55 SN-10
This is a 2nd scope for me for 2nd home. Main scope 10" LX200 but I have been more than satisfied with the SN-10.
I feel it is very good value for money and although in the uk it seems a high price compaired to the USA you either buy it or go without.
In short it's a lot of scope for the money.
PETER BRUCE. Croydon u.k.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:10 Mount:8 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=134848

Meade LXD55 SN-10
EXCELLENT OPTICS, CRUDE AND WEAK MOUNT, GOTO GOES EVERYWHERE BUT WHERE IT IS SUPPOSED TO.

Overall Rating: 5
Weight: 2 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=242937

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