Meade LX200 12"

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Meade LX200 12"
Have had the 12" lx200 for about 6 months and am happy to say I am very pleased with my choice. I am a long time newtonian owner and was ready for something different. Out of the box I had no problems. It was collumnated and while in the altz. mode was real easy to align and use the go-to on my first attempt. The scope is very "HEAVY" so if you dont plan on using it on a perminate mount buyer beware!! Optics a great and it is fun to use. After 30 plus years of star hopping its a real treat to go after the really hard stuff. With the wedge its a real strong tool for serious astrophotography. Hats off to Meade for supplying me with a awsome piece of equipment to explore the cosmos.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38115

Meade LX200 12"
I've been using a friend's 12" LX200 extensively for a month or so now and overall it's OK, nice but not superb. Once we collimated the scope (it was way off), the optics turned out to be pretty good with nice contrast. Although I will say that I've used smaller Newts and refractors where the stars "snap" into focus better. Double star performance is good but somewhat higher magnifications are needed to get a clean split than with my 8" Newt. Haven't had a chance to test it on planets, but based on its double star performance I don't think it'll be as sharp as my Newt in which I can clearly see the Cassini Division on Saturn at only 55x.

It's permanently mounted in an observatory so I'm not sure about cooldown time. The giant field tripod seems solid and very stable, although we get vibrations because it's sitting up on a platform in the observatory. Perhaps those vibration dampeners would help....

We were very disappointed with the keypad controller which has a major problem with excessive heat and behaves very strangely in hot ambient temperatures. If we keep a fan blowing on it then it's OK, but otherwise it can go berserk and lose polar alignment along with all GOTO capability! Also, the stock location for the finderscope causes it to rub against the forks which throws both the finderscope and GOTO off. Finally, the tube is too long to rotate completely between the forks. Poor design in these regards...

Also, the 8x50 finder is wholly inadequate with poor optics and short eye relief. We replaced it with a Takahashi 11x70: worlds apart. The included eyepieces are OK but should quickly be replaced with premium eyepieces to get the most out of this scope.

For $4000 you can't expect a world-class 12" scope. Overall, the design has some mass-production compromises that I wouldn't settle for. It's not bad though if you're willing to deal with a few relatively minor headaches. The good optics and stable tripod may be worth it to you. Personally, if I were going to spend serious cash anyway I'd save up 2-3 times as much for a Takahashi or similar exquisite quality scope.

Overall Rating: 6
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38116

Meade LX200 12"
Star test: 8

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38117

Meade LX200 12"
Awesome scope. Great value for money and none of the above mentioned problems have been experienced by me.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38118

Meade LX200 12"
I love my 12" Meade and have had no problems. About the only bad thing is fork mount should have been designed better. Other than that it is a very good telescop.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38119

Meade LX200 12"
Having moved up from an LX10 to this scope has opened new wonders for me. Although I have had it less than 1 week, I have already seen more objects in 2 hours than I would have seen in one week with the LX10. The optics on my sope came perfectly collimated and the GOTO feature has been dead on. Splitting the double,double in Scorpious was not a problem. It is a heavy scope, but is easily mounted to the sturdy field tripod with the scopesaver tray. The one complaint I have is with the diaganol. Twice last night I had to take the visual back off just to get the diaganol off. very difficult to move the diag. nto comfortable viewing positions. Other than that, this is a world class scope and I doubt I will ever part with it.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38120

Meade LX200 12"
I could expound on a lot of the above comments. My opinion is that this is best SCT in it's price range you can buy. Optics 10. Mechanics 10. Goto 10. Only downside is the fork arm design but it in no way hinders usage. Great scope. Buy one if you can.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38121

Meade LX200 12"
Absolutely love my 12" Meade. Wouldn't trade accept for maybe a 16" Meade!

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38122

Meade LX200 12"
Great scope. Best mechanical SCT in this size range. Optics superb. BIG!

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 3 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade LX200 12"
Would anybody like to donate one of these telescopes to me?

Overall Rating: No Vote
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Meade LX200 12"
In my 12" star test are as good as a SCT can be. These aren't refractors, but the images are incredible and this thing gobbles up the light. Flawless performance in GOTO mode. I have not had a single mechanical problem with electronics or motors. Only drawback is that the mirror is very heavy and will eventually get a little sloppy (mirror shift) as it rides on a large spring. This is common in SCT's. However, there is a very simple fix for this that you can do yourself or buy a kit. After I made this modification it works better than new. Great scope. Buy one if you can and you won't be disappointed.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
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Meade LX200 12"
Hey it's me, daSentinel! Believe it or not I havn't purchased this
telescope (yet). And I would appretiate some help from another
serious amateur. And how about the mount? Give me a detailed review
if you can. I'm still a bit iffy about it.

by daSentinel, who's wrote more reviews here than most!

Overall Rating: No Vote
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Meade LX200 12"
too bad da sentinel havn't learned to wrote coherent english

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Meade LX200 12"
Great versatile scope for the money. Large aperture, fine for both planetary and deepsky. Very stable GOTO mount with superb accuracy for CCD imaging and general astrophotographic use. Only drawback is weight. One person can handle it but he'd better work out regularly!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:9 Mount:10 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 15 (Trustworthy Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=80856

Meade LX200 12"
I bought one in August 01 with the $1000 off deal, and the ep deal. I have been thoroughly pleased with its performance and ease of use. I have mine set up in the garage on a modified hand truck. All I have to do is roll it out into the yard. It is heavy but with the hand truck, most adults could move this whole thing with little trouble. The optics were a little out of collimation when received. Bob's knobs fixed that. I find the electronics and the goto to work extremely well. I have not had any problems other than the ep and diagonal hitting the fork during a goto slew. I have to keep my eye on the scope when it slews to make sure it doesn't hit. I've had to shut the power off once or twice when a goto slew was going to slam my 31 naglar into the forks. BEWARE. Other than that problem I'm an extremely happy camper. Boy what a toy! Great scope, great views! Dave

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Mount:9 Ease of Use:9 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=83135

Meade LX200 12"
Very nice scope. Does as it is advertised to do. No problems yet. Bought mine used at a slightly reduced price, not a GPS scope, made in 1998. Well made, solid, finder is cheap but you won't use it that much. Optics are surprisingly good for a SCT. Much better than my used C-11 it was a piece if junk. Did I mention it was heavy! My only complaint is Meade should have got new fork casting for the 12" so the tube could swing down for easyier storage and carrying. Mount is stable enough for visual work. Computer works great no problems yet, places objects every time right the the eyepiece. Very Happy with the purchase.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:9 Mount:8 Ease of Use:8 Value:7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=84556

Meade LX200 12"
You have got to use one to appreciate the greAT COMBANATION OF OPTICS AND MOUNT!!!!!

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Mount:9 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=120377

Meade LX200 12"
Great telescope for advanced atronomer.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:10 Mount:10 Ease of Use:10 Value:10
Weight: 10 (Trustworthy Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=128497

Meade LX200 12"
Meade LX-200 "classic"

Compared optics to some catadioptric scopes of "known good" quality (e.g. Intes MK-67) for planetary contrast and found it to be equal or superior. Large aperature resolves globulars' component stars - beautiful!

Mount is Extremely Stable - Tracking Excellent.

Unit is Easy to use. Set-up and start viewing.

Paid $4000 + ~250 shipping for scope in 1996...just before the price increase which soom became a large price decrease (I guess due to competition). Still think the scope is a very good value

Easy to collimate (only secondary needs collimation).

Altazimuth mode is superbly comfortable for visual use (esp with binoniewer) as eyepiece(s) repain at fixed orientation; scope is also more stable in AltAz mode.

Don't like the cheap "toy" motors used in the drive - they sound horrible during fast slewing; although very quiet during tracking and slow speeds.

Use the AC adapter when possible -it eats batteries (drains rechargables) fast.

Overall an excellent observing tool for planetary and deep-space "exploration"

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:7 Mount:9 Ease of Use:7 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=458581

Meade LX200 12"
Worst optics I ever looked through an Ed 80 at 300x on top out performed the 12" on stars Mars and Moon and the monster scope was cooled down and collimated with good seeing.Star images are really bad I wouldn't have that scope if given to me.

Overall Rating: 3
Optics:3 Mount:10 Ease of Use:9 Value:3
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=472464

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