Meade LX-90 8"

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Meade LX-90 8"
make sure the scope is collimated. the test for poor collimation is simple, slowly rack a bright star out of focus, if the expanding round disc is not symmetrical, there is a problem. if the barlow you are using is from meade its junk, toss it out. eyepieces from meade are ok but you can do much better, i recommend tele vue. yes they are expensive, but they do make a differece. if money is an issue try orions ultrascopic ep's, they are excellent performers, and wont kill your bank account. if the atmosphere is cooperating and seeing is good you might get away with some high power viewing, my personal experience with 8" SCT's is that 300X is the practical limit for high power, and that is pushing it.

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Meade LX-90 8"
I just purchased a Meade LX90 from the Discovery Channel Store. OK so they ask $100 more than the usual mail order price, but you do not have to wait or pay for shipping which is usually around $100 anyway. Besides, they offered a free eyepiece which displays the field of view on a TV or monitor. They also offer a program where you get a $10 gift certificate for every $100 you spend. Well when you buy an $1800 telescope, these add up quickly.

OK let's get to the telescope...First impression, looks like and LX200. Second impression, hey this is pretty nice and solid. Third impression, Oh my gosh I just spent $2000! I practiced setting it up inside and it was easy. The telescope is fairly easy to lift up on the tripod because it has 2 handles on the fork. I am weak. I installed the 8 C batteries required and fired up Autostar. I practiced slewing it and found the motion steady and the motors quiet (except for the highest slew speed, although they are quieter than the LX200's). You cannot hear the slower slewing speeds.

First night out...After I finally aligned it after having to guess where North was, I first slewed to the famous globular cluster M13. And what do you know, right in the center of the eyepiece. I checked for collimation on I think Altair (can't remember) and collimation was just fine. Next I tried the Ring Nebula. Again right in the center of the eyepiece. In fact all but one object which was Mars was right in the center. Mars was set in the extreme left of the eyepiece, not sure why. I tried Neptune and Uranus and was impressed, again in the center. Tracking was great keeping all objects right in the center.

Overall the telescope performed very well. The scope is solid (as it should be for a couple of grand). Autostar is very user friendly and offers guided tours where one tour slews the telescope to more famous objects which are close to one another. I am glad I purchased the scope although the $600 set of free eyepieces for purchasing an LX200 was tempting. I figured I probably would not use all of them anyway, so I went with the LX90.

I gave it a 9.5 nothing is perfect except for nothing.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX-90 8"
I'm very happy with my LX-90
The tripod is rock solid, good motor drive. Tracking accuracy is fine, autostar very smart. Highly reccomended!
What a scope!

By
Benjamin

Benjiy@hotmail.com

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40917

Meade LX-90 8"
This scope has perfect GOTO's and the optics are the best of any 8" SC I have ever looked through.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40918

Meade LX-90 8"
This is to offset those nimrods who rated it a 1, and the other nimrod that gave it a 4 and said it wasn't good for astrophotography. Here is a direct quote from the Sky & Telescope review: "With a strong background in astrophotography, I was particularly interested to see if the LX90 would live up to its claims. The short answer? It certainly does, and then some. Indeed, for a general-purpose telescope, this is one of the best ones I've ever tested out of the box for long-exposure imaging." For the entire, in-depth review, check out http://www.skypub.com/resources/testreports/telescopes/0107meade.html

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX-90 8"
After going back and forth between the LX90 and the Nexstar 8 I went with the LX90. I liked the idea of two forks plus the rock solid tripod. What really sold me was the passion of the LX90 owners's. I read much on the Yahoo groups site and was very impressed with the info available for the LX90.

I bought the LX90 second hand along with some accessories(911B filter, polaraizing filter, plossls, etc.). I had it set up and running in 5 minutes. My only error was in believing the dec circles were calaibrated. In checking they were off about 3 deg from level, but that was easily fixed. I did the two star alignment and all searches resulted in the object being in the FOV of a 30mm plossl. The tracking and slewing worked flawlessly. I'm quite pleased with the LX90. However the success I've had with it is giving me aperature fever.

I almost didn't buy this cause of all the negative reviews here on Meade products. I'm sure there are clunkers out there but I'm sure all manufactuters have put out clunkers at one time or another. My advice is try the scope for yourself and try not to be too influenced by other's review's. A solid 9 for this scope!!

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX-90 8"
This is my ninth scope. I was surprised by the low price.
I thought the price was far too low to be true.
I was pretty iffy about it at first; I didn't have much trust
in meade. When I purchased it, hoping i would win a bet of twice
it's price, thinking it sucked my face went white.
Whatever. The optics are good, great for the price actually.
The mount isn't as stable as the LX200 that one of my friends owns, but it's prety sturdy. The tracking is smooth, Autostar isn't bad (I prefer Magellan 2)
I've compared this scope to some other SCTs of it's class. This one is better.
Considerably better. If you're interested in it, and you're budget is a bit less then $2000 then i would suggest you purchase it. And by the way...
I lost that bet.

by daSentinel

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX-90 8"
I got my lx90 on Sept 11th. Bad day but let me tell you the scope is really a winner. I have had nothing but perfect gotos. It has hit every thing right on.
The only time it is off is when the nut setting it up is off. :-). This is really a top of the line scope. Dont let the ones posting with 1s and 4s bother you. They probable dont know how to set it up or really dont own one.

WRP in northern ca.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX-90 8"
Too early for a rating. I did a lot of research and comparative shopping among brands and types fo scopes. Bottom line: best scope for the dollar that is still portable enough to be carried out to the yard and good enough to grow in to, and not outgrow.

Autostar and sidereal tracking works fine - only erors were operator errors. Arrived from dealer unscathed, undented, and ready to go. Plenty of dealer and user group support. Lots of opportunities to add upgrades over time, but straightforward enough for excellent planetary viewing, hunting down the Messiers, etc.for right now.

jhwsby@yahoo.com

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Meade LX-90 8"
This is for inktomi2-mid.server.ntl.com, gdmi14.gardnerdenver.com, c341584-a.alntn.tx.home.com and all the other morons who rated the LX90 as a 1! Are you insane? My LX90 outperforms every other Schmit-Cassigrain I own, and a many of my other telescopes as well. It's questionable wether or not any of you have ever even seen a LX90, or even know what you are talking about.

As for the guy who said that the LX90 doesn't have as much light grasp as the LX200 10", well duh, it's 2" larger you idiot! And for all you people who said the LX90 isn't good at astrophotography, even the Meade corporation ITSELF said it wasn't meant for astrophotography! I don't know what you guys who said your LX90 was in peices after you got it are doing! Have you ever thought that it might be FedEx's fault, or maybe your own stupidity?

And do you people really expect me to believe you when you give me an extraordinary list of every possible problem you could've had happened when the other 95% of the people writing gave it a 9 or better? I've been to four star parties in the last five months and have seen six or more LX90s, and none of them have cracked mirrors, or broken tubes, or disintigrating tripods or any of the other crap you've been dishing out. You might as well not waste my time with your attempt for attention, because no one believes any of you. And for all of you who are so "displeased" with your LX90, there is either something really wrong with it, or there is something really wrong with you.

Overall Rating: 10
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Meade LX-90 8"
After spending some nites with a friend's LX90 model, came up with the following notes:
- ota views are par with other mass-produced 8"sct's - moderate mirror shift, although focuser is stiff in this model.
- mount feels steadier than Nexstar 8, but does not show on visual work.
- both this and Nexstar GOTO's have their own quirks, but both found targets after careful alignment. RA drive motor on LX90 seemed to have irregular stoppage (?). Friend complained of customer service performance.
- LX90 was heavier to carry by some 10-15#.
In summary, an average SCT design, but execution and customer support maybe an issue.

Overall Rating: 6
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Meade LX-90 8"
great scope! mine has perfect goto. with correct alignment it will center the object in the eyepiece everytime in a 26mm plossl. not to heavy to transport & rock solid tripod! really good optics! nothing less than a rating of 10 for me.

Overall Rating: 10
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Meade LX-90 8"
Great Scope. Evaluated one at a recent star party and it performed excellent. It had one of the best star tests for an 8" SCT I have seen, and I have seen
a lot of them! I highly recommend this scope!

Overall Rating: 10
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Meade LX-90 8"
why should the LX90 'outperform' every other SCT as you put it. It's the same OTA as the LX10 or 200. As for astrophotography I think it demonstrates that the drive electronics and 'bells and whistles' are more towards market gimmickry than serious astronomical functionality. It's only MY personal opinion, but what was wrong with marketing the LX200 more heavily and discontinuing the half way house scopes Meade continue with (LX50's etc).

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Meade LX-90 8"
At the price: Brightness is good, optics are great (same as LX200). Tracking is good for visual observing. Go To is quite accurate. The unit's mount is stable.

Overall Rating: 9
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Meade LX-90 8"
I have not purchased the LX-90 yet, but the non-stop praise, loyalty and high marks that it receives from it's owners leave zero doubt as to it's quality, ability and bang-for-the-buck value. I totally plan on dumping the $2k. I have been looking into this scope for a long time and can't find a single realistic/believable bad LX-90 review ANYWHERE. S&T magazine's review (and everyone else's) almost makes this scope walk on water, with a blurb at the bottom about the reviewer being heavily tempted to buy one for himself even though he doesn't need it - he was that impressed. I can't say that any other scope I've looked into can boast this kind of unanimous praise, even the LX-200. For all practical purposes, this scope is indeed an LX-200 (who cares about a bigger LX-200 database when you can UPGRADE the LX-90 as often as you want, including satellite tracking data?). And another thing that these nay-sayers need to keep in mind - market success is indeed the #1 goal of ANY company, as it should be. Cranking out good products like the LX-90 is exactly what makes shareholders, telescope owners and magazine reviewers happy. Given the difficulty of finding stars in the sky yourself, ANY kind of GOTO capability is good (and nothing short of miraculous in amateur astronomy's history), let alone the reports of this thing's near-flawless accuracy. There are also other bozos out there who fail to realize that there are just as many "right" ways to look at the sky as there are people in this world, and the LX-90 will be just perfect for about 95% of those people, including me. I've seen the web sites of astrophotography taken with LX-90's, and I'm downright impressed. These astrophotography web sites also reveal these nay-sayers as liars. This is a seriously capable scope for the bucks. I look forward to joining the ranks of loyal, satisfied, proud, happy and enthusiastic LX-90 owners who do nothing but rave about this scope in ways that shame an LX-200. I have read enough reviews to know that if I have any problems with the scope after it checks out as being delivered in one piece, then I know it will be my own user error, and not that of the scope.

No, I don't work for Meade, but I'd take the job if they needed another computer network guy.

Bob
Seattle area
bobh@ppsf.com

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Meade LX-90 8"
Bought my LX-90 about 5 months ago and love it. I also have a Nexstar with a GOTO. Tne Nexstar GOTO was the reason I went with LX-90. I found the Nexstar accuracy too be just terrible. My wife now uses the Nexstar just too slew and not for tracking.

I have found with the LX-90 that sometimes I have to align twice to get it tracking properly (yes I have done the drive training), but once it does it's great. Now that problem with alignment could just be me, I'm no expert. I mainly wanted the LX-90 not only because of the cost, but for CCD astrophoto. So far I haven't shot anything but the planets which by the way turned out great. I have seen serveral long exposure pictures both from film and CCD from LX-90 which have turned out great. Check out Ricks Astro Cam page at http://home.earthlink.net/~rjkrejci/ most everything was using the LX-90.

The biggest complaint I have is the stiffness of the focuser which I see several have complained about. I use a external battery pack which I purchased at Sam's Club. The battery last all night with both telescopes and a lap top plugged in.
I find the optics too be very good, tracking in the alt/az mode also very good and pretty quite while slewing except at the highest speed which is still twice as quite as the LX-200 series. I usually setup right next to 2 guys with LX-200 10" and 12". I see almost everything they see with the same quality.

I highly recommend the LX-90 unless you have extra $$$ laying around then got with the LX-200.

Gary Janssen
lablim@hotmail.com

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX-90 8"
Just got my Lx-90. I had a nex 8 which I sold about six months ago. LX-90 has the nex 8 beat in mounting, GO TO and tracking. My nex 8 would not track anything longer than 2-3 minutes, and yes I aligned it perfectly using all the tricks from celestron tech support. The meade autostar is much better in my opinion then the nexstar. The mount on the LX-90 is solid the nex 8 mount is your standard cheap aluminum tripod. I found the meade docs were also better. Scope arrived in good shape, good star test and one minor scratch in base of scope, tube was fine with qa sticker in place. The focuser I think is much better than the one on my nex 8 and much better than the one on my celestron 9.25 SCT OTA for that matter. Both celestron focusers seem to be smooth and then course as they are rotated, the meade focuser is just smooth all the way around. I also like the meade visual back for that matter. Everything on this scope seems beefy. Views look good so far, have only had it out for a couple of nights but I am impressed. I think I know a little something about scopes I also own a TV-102 and Celestron 9.25 SCT, which is great. Both ride on a Losmandy GM-8, also great. I have had trouble with meade scopes in the past but this scope seems to be a winner, time will tell. Rating 9.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Mount:10 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX-90 8"
I've had my LX-90 for a year now, and I still find it a wonderful tool to teach me in my new hobbie. I started out with a Meade ETX90EC as my first telescope, the LX-90 was a big step up, yet just as easy to operate. The GOTO is alot more accurate (near perfect as long as it was set up right). The tripod is very stable. I've only owned these two telescopes so I don't fell qualified to comment in detail on the optics other than to say I have been very impressed with what I've seen.
The only thing I found wrong is the same thing I've heard everyone else say and that has to do with the PLASTIC Lens Cover. This has a tendency to fall off as the temperature drops, this could scratch the Objective Lens. My solution has been to take a folded up cloth and wedge it in between the lens cap and the base(I use the cloth when I observe; to block out unwanted light).
All and all this scope is worth the money. Clear Skies!!

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Mount:10 Ease of Use:10 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX-90 8"
Owned my LX-90 for several months now and am extremely happy with its performance. I agree with the positive comments of previous posts. After collimation optics are excellent-sharpness of image better than dobs I've seen at star parties. Much better that Nexstar series scopes I have compared with, especially Autostar and electronics. I had problems with an ETX-70 and ETX-125 I owned previously, but the LX-90 is far superior in every way to these, especially in quality control ans stability. A friend has an Ultima 2000 that does not track as well as my LX-90 and is not as good at locating objects with the Nexstar system. Just be sure you take the time to align the scope properly and train it if needed.

This scope has greatly enhanced my enjoyment of astronomy in ways I never thought possible. Just the fact that most of my time is now spent observing and not hunting and wondering what it is I've found makes this scope worth the price. I predict the whole field of amateur astronomy will grow in leaps and bounds because of instruments like the LX-90.

Don't hesitate-buy it!

Dirk
dlrph@juno.com

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:8 Mount:9 Ease of Use:9 Value:9
Weight: 11 (Trustworthy Vote)
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