Meade LX85 GoTo German Equatorial Telescope Mount with Tripod and AudioStar Hand Controller, 33 Lbs Capacity

2021-05-27T11:09:20

Let's start with good: looks good, feels good, sturdy enough for 6" Meade telescope and Canon R camera (I could probably put much heavier telescope). Now bad things: polar alignment-I watched several videos how to do this. I set up location, altitude, set tripod on flat surface-leveled, time zone, time... From my backyard I can see Polaris. After placing tripod and moving to right direction I'm almost spot on Polaris. OK, according to some people that's good enough for watching Moon. When I pick Moon from list of objects press GO TO it takes me far away from Moon (20-30 degree) Even after I did different polar alignment (easy or 1 star) effect are always the same...far away from chosen object. After I move telescope to right location tracking works very good and I can take long exposure photos. I don't know if I have problems because I don't know how to use it or there is something wrong with software on mine AudioStar unit. I don't know how to check this.

RYSZARD K.

2021-02-10T08:07:25

Adorama was a pleasure to deal with and processed the order quickly . A well built ota with quality lenses and shipped without the need to collimate. So far this scope has excellent resolution providing a detail view of the sky including the moon .clusters and nebulae.

ROMAN S.

2021-01-11T07:19:15

Great scope! Highly recommended

CALEB B.

2020-09-29T08:27:11

The mechanical parts of the scope are very good, i.e. well built, sturdy, and more than adequate for a casual observer like myself. But I'm disappointed with the optics. Smudgy & smeared images of the planets, the Galilean moons of Jupiter, and stars.

J C.

2020-08-20T12:41:14

I recently bought this telescope from a different website. But I'm sure this review is viable and the less, especially since I don't see any posted yet. This telescope is one big MF so make sure your not over doing the payload of your mount. However because of its 8 inch primary mirror(thats where most of the weight is located) you get a wide view of the sky. Stars are crisp and pinpoint but as with most reflectors it does suffer slight coma aberration near the edge of the field of view. I would take the tradeoff for the amount of light you get for an 8 inch. Any bigger of a primary would almost certainly require a dobsonian mount. Speaking of which, on a negative I found. Would I'd recommend using an Equatorial mount instead of an Altazimuth because of the size of this scope, the slightest vibrations can cause a seizure at the eyepiece and takes well over 3 seconds to settle down and by that time you may have to adjust it again. Another negative would be that the finder scope is practically useless, not that it's not good, but that it is so close to the frame of the telescope you have to be a contortionist to look through it. All and all this would be a great telescope to add to your collection if you already have the necessary tools and equipment to use such a telescope. If you're just starting out I would not recommend buying something of this scale because it would be too hard to set up and not worth the hassle of dealing with if you're a beginner. So that being said I stand by my rating of 5/5 on this telescope.

Matthew C.

2020-07-14T08:24:46

Looks like it will work well. The power switch beast broken so Im currently waiting for a replacement mount

Justin H.