Meade LX200 GPS 12"

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Meade LX200 GPS 12"
I bought a new Meade LX-200 GPS 12" SCT scope recently, after using a Celestron 11" Nexstar for the last 2 years.

The Meade is bigger than the Nexstar, noisier, not as kewl looking, has wires everywhere, takes much longer to align, sits on a much-too-high giant tripod, and has lousy manual focusing... compared to the Celestron Nexstar.

I suspect the "microfocuser" was added to compensate for the Meade's poor manual focuser.

Images in the 12" SCTs from Meade vary because of rather inconsistent quality control, compared to Celestron's consistently excellent optics in Nexstars. My Meade with the costly extra UHTC coatings had good images, a bit brighter than the Nexstar, which has great coatings at no extra charge.

I'll be selling the Meade as I don't think it's on a par with the Nexstar 11" GPS.

And have I mentioned that meade mostly has a deaf ear to service once you have purchased, whereas Celestron has great service!

Michael Spicer, VP
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
Hamilton Centre

(who received no payment for his support of Celestron)

Overall Rating: 7
Optics:7 Mount:8 Ease of Use:7 Value:6
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: https://www.excelsis.com:443/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=259849

Meade LX200 GPS 12"
The 12" LX200GPS w/ UHTC is an excellent instrument. Having used a smaller DS scope w/ Autostar for a couple years made my transition to the Autostar II very smooth. I can't recommend this scope highly enough... you should definitely look into it :). The mount is very robust, although we always use 2 people to attach the 75# scope onto the 50# tripod. The GoTo's are right-on, and the startup sequence determines true north, location and time (via GPS), tripod mount tilt, and alignment stars without flaw. My previous scope experiences were with a 4.5" newtonian, 8" dob, and 7" refractor, and the (don't remember size) refractor at the Univ of Ill observatory. I have also looked thru many other scopes at star parties, and haven't seen one that beats the Meade for quality, portability (it's big & heavy, tho), and overall value in my price range. Purchased from OPT Corp, with excellent advice from Mike Fowler. Also got the $99 super plossl eyepiece set, which is a good deal. Future plans include Nagler's and astrophotography.

Overall Rating: 10
Optics:9 Mount:10 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: https://www.excelsis.com:443/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=265121

Meade LX200 GPS 12"
Very nice scope! I purchased mine in 10/02 and have had very few problems with it. The Autostar II hand controller was a bit quirky (I had to press hard on each button to get it to "take") but I called Meade Tech support and they overnighted me a new one free of charge.

Optics are definitely on the plus side and I believe the UHTC is worth it. Goto and tracking are superb. It's a little noisy when slewing but if you turn down the max slew rate it's much quieter.

Mount is good, heavy, and steady. If you had 4 of them you could build a house on top of the tripods. Vibration pads are probably un-necessary but I don't think I've done any imaging on a concrete surface with this scope. The C-ring that holds the mounting bolt is always falling off and I gave up putting new ones in long ago.

Lots of nice features for the price, such as the micro-focuser, the GPS, and the OTA temperature readout on the hand controller. The temperature readout helps with the setting on a dew heater so you don't wind up too hot (tube currents) or too cold (dew).

The scope is big and heavy and it's a back-breaker (or at least strainer) if you set it up yourself. I recommend a friend, a loving spouse, or at least a good teenage slave to help with set-up. Take-down always seems to be easier and I can do that myself.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:8 Mount:9 Ease of Use:7 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: https://www.excelsis.com:443/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=307927

Meade LX200 GPS 12"
This is a heavy scope but once set up it is professional quality. The mount is so heavy duty that at star parties people steady themselves on it with no vibration transmitted to the OTA, try that with a Celestron 11" for about the same
money. The $99 eyepiece perk is great. Next stop would be an assortment of 2" eyepieces, a dew shield, and a camera. I'm extremely happy with it and everyone else is wowed by it's goto and self setup abilities. My kids love to have it hum from location to location and see what objects pop up. I won't outgrow this telescope anytime soon.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Mount:10 Ease of Use:7 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: https://www.excelsis.com:443/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=330643

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