Meade LXD75 Heavy Duty German Equatorial Mount with Heavy Duty Tripod & #497 AutoStar handbox with 30,000+ Object Library.

SKU: MDLXDMTWA

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2011-12-25T19:00:00

Rated 4 out of 5

great for the money

This is a great middle step from a starter

booker

2007-03-25T21:00:00

Rated 4 out of 5

Heavy Duty, but bring a tool box

I was really excited when the UPS guy finally showed up. I Hauled the mount to the garage and began unpacking and assembling. I wasn't until I laid hands on it that I realized how heavy it really was. My last mount was a very flimsy DS2000. This LXD is the real deal. I hooked up the power, control box and hit the power ... Grind, gnash ... horrible, frightening sounds. The mount moved maybe 1 inch before stripping gears. I began looking for the cause. The bolts that hold the motor drives to the mount were loose. A bolt check reveals the almost every screw is loose. Some are really hard to get to and require special tools. How many people have a 0.035" Allen wrench in the tool box? The gears that drive the mount will not stay tight on the motor shaft. They should have used thread locker in the factory. You will need to address this when you get the mount. Either add a bit of aluminum to provide a crush lock or put some locktight on the _TINY_ grub screw before you even think of taking this out. Once I addressed the parts falling off the mount works very well. There is close to no slack in the drive and it's weight keeps it from moving around when bumped. The documentation is too brief. For example there is no directions on how to use the polar scope. The manual is simply a part identification. I could have really used some help with that setting circle. With a little help from various websites I was able to figure it out and now I use the Kocab clock method. Rather than fiddling with the setting circles you can use the location of Kocab, a star in the Little Dipper. After what seemed like too much struggle for an expensive mount I'm finally able to go out in the field and trust it to work and not loose parts. I am happy with the performance of the mount but very disappointed in Meade's QA. A little torque here and there and a bit of locktight would have saved me a lot of curse words and a couple of wasted nights observing. I would recommend it to a friend, but only if I knew they were mechanically inclined. If you are afraid to turn some screws this is not the mount for you.

Charles

About Meade LXD75 German Equatorial Mount with Tripod

• The Stable Meade LXD75 German Equatorial Mount...

Sturdy Mount with Heavy-Duty Castings:
• Designed by Meade's engineers and manufactured for high-performance observing and astrophotography.
Shaft & Bearing System:
• The sturdy German Equatorial Mount is accurate & precise. The RA & Dec axes move effortlessly on 4 high-precision stainless steel ball bearings.
High-Precision Worm Gears:
• Located on both axes for smooth tracking & slewing.
Heavy-Duty Tripod:
• Variable-height field tripod with spreader bar brace provides the stability & vibration damping required for visual observation and astrophotography.
Illuminated Polar Alignment Viewfinder:
• For quick, precise polar alignment.
Power Supply:
• Powered by 8 D-size batteries. Can also be powered by optional car cigarette lighter or AC wall adapter.

• One of the most important advances in telescope control in the past 25 years, the Meade #497 Autostar Computer Controller turns the ETX-90AT, ETX-105AT, or ETX-125AT into an automatic celestial object locating system. Just plug the Autostar into the telescope's HBX port, do a quick, less than one minute, telescope alignment, & you're ready to observe any object in the Autostar's 30,000-object database. Best of all, the Meade Autostar is easy to use.
• Even the most novice observer will find himself or herself locating dozens of fascinating celestial objects the very first night out - from commonly-observed objects such as the rings of Saturn, the satellites of Jupiter, and the Orion Nebula (M42); to more difficult objects such as the Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra, the Spiral Galaxy (M33) in Triangulum, & the Sombrero Galaxy (M104) in Virgo; to very obscure objects near the telescope's threshold of visibility such as the diffuse nebula NGC 6559 in Sagittarius, the galactic star cluster NGC 1778 in Auriga, & the spiral galaxy NGC 3310 in Ursa Major.
• Any of Autostar's database objects can be called up & entered on the hand controller display in seconds. The observer then simply presses the GO TO pushbutton & watches as the telescope automatically slews (moves) to the object & places it in the field of view. The effect of Autostar is to bring objects easily within reach which were previously unreachable for all but the most dedicated of amateur astronomers.
• Without exaggeration the Meade Autostar Computer Controller opens up a new era in astronomical study for the casual or beginning astronomer, just as Meade LX200 and LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrains have for the advanced amateur. Most Autostar users see more celestial objects in one night's viewing than typical first-time telescope owners previously have in a lifetime.
• With Autostar plugged into your ETX-90AT, ETX-105AT, or ETX-125AT, the astronomical universe is in the palm of your hand: never before has such powerful telescope technology been so easy to operate, even by the most casual observer.

What's in the box:

  • Meade LXD75 Heavy Duty German Equatorial Mount with Heavy Duty Tripod
  • #497 AutoStar handbox with 30
  • 000+ Object Library
  • RA & DEC Motors
  • Built-in Polar Alignment Scope with Illuminated Reticle