Meade Polaris 127mm (5") 1000mm f/7.9 German Equatorial Reflector Telescope, Red Dot Viewfinder, Rack-and-Pinion Focuser, MA6.3, MA9, MA26 Eyepieces

2019-09-16T09:40:47

This review is for the Meade Polaris 127mm F7.9 telescope kit. Overall this is an excellent value for anyone curious about astronomy but not wanting to dive in and spend big bucks on expensive gear. Of course it will not perform optically as well as high end gear, but as a beginner I was impressed with its capabilities. First off, this is a Bird-Jones scope. This means that the primary mirror is spherical, not parabolic, and is actually 500mm focal length. There is a lens mounted at the bottom of the focuser draw tube which serves as a spherical corrector and 2x magnifier, bringing it up to the advertised 1000mm FL. You can find an abundance of bad reviews about the Bird-Jones design online, but there are some benefits too. It is smaller, lighter, and cheaper than a longer tube with parabolic mirror. Not great for a photographer or serious astronomer, but for a beginner wanting a good size aperture at this price point, there's no other way to do it. The scope comes with an equatorial mount and tripod that is surprisingly big and solid. The legs are steel tubing and pretty hefty and can easily support the weight of the scope. I did notice that there was a little play where the steel tubes connected to the base mount at the top. A little wood glue to fill in this joint seemed to really firm things up. The equatorial mount is great at keeping your object centered, and is a must have for photography too. One nice feature is that the focuser tube itself is threaded on the exterior for M42 (T-mount) so that you can simply buy a T-ring for your specific camera and the ring will screw right to the focuser draw tube. No T-ring adapter tube necessary. You can take pictures this way in prime focus, or even place eyepieces in the focuser with the same setup for eyepiece projection photography. Meade also sells a motor drive for this mount which attaches easily and you can dial in the right speed for your target. Getting a good picture takes some tinkering and I'm still trying to perfect this. I will attach 2 photos, the moon and Saturn. I took these by digi-scoping with my cell phone up to the eyepiece. I cannot seem to get as good quality with a DSLR attached, and I think this is because I'm pushing the quality of the optics. Spherical aberrations are present and the field is not very flat, which makes photography with DSLR a challenge. The focuser is a bit frustrating. It is a little too coarse for my liking, and though it has almost zero backlash, it takes a very fine touch to get focus. The included lenses (26mm, 9, 6.3) are all quite good quality for a kit this cheap. I bought an additional Meade 8-24mm zoom lens, and to my surprise it was not as sharp zoomed in as the included 9mm or 6.3. The barlow, however, is not very useful and should be replaced. It is plastic and cheap, and introduces a lot of aberrations. I should mention that collimating this thing is a real pain in the ***. It actually arrived perfectly collimated, and I should have left it alone. One problem is that the corrective lens in the focuser tube prevents you from using a laser collimator (which I don't have anyway). The other big problem is the mirror is not center marked. I recommend doing that yourself to aid in alignment. After spending an entire weekend center marking and making a homemade cheshire eyepiece, I finally got it dialed back in to collimation. Hopefully it will stay for a while. So how does the night sky look through it? Well I've been using it for about a month now. The moon is a great view, very sharp and clear with all the eyepieces. It is actually too bright, and you will want to get a moon filter. Jupiter has been a great show, with 4 moons clearly visible. Cloud bands are perceptible, but limited (I can only see 2 bands near the middle). Saturn is a pretty small target, but you can clearly see the gap between the rings and the planet, although I cannot make out Cassini's gap (between inner and outer rings) or any surface detail. If you are new to astronomy you will be amazed at the deep sky objects that pop out at you with this, as I was able to clearly see the Ring nebula M57 and Andromeda, and a few star clusters. I find that the maximum useful magnification for this scope is about 150x, or the included 6.3mm eyepiece. This is probably due to the fact that it is really a 500mm focal length scope with a barlow already in there, so the optical quality degrades at high mag. So overall I would say this is a great beginner scope for someone who wants to explore the night sky but is not experienced enough to dive in deep on expensive gear. If you end up getting a cheap 60mm refractor on and Alt-az mount then you will just end up frustrated and may abandon the hobby. For just a few more bucks you can get this setup which is versatile enough to bring some detail in from distant planets as well as faint deep sky objects. It will keep you curious, entertained, and well educated for your eventual upgrade.

Michael B.

2018-04-12T10:36:40

Have not put it together yet but it looks great!! Will follow up

Robert R.

2016-12-05T13:04:29

The set up of the telescope was pretty easy with the instructions provided. Being a novice I did refer to the internet just to receive a separate set of instructions on setting up this reflector telescope and then it was a breeze. I've only had a few chances to use it because I've been socked in with clouds for nearly a month. I'm excited as are my friends and their kids for some clear nights ahead. Don't be intimidated by the looks of the setup; its not that complicated really.

Alan H.