I had the opportunity to view through a 16" F4.5 Meade Lightbridge which was set-up next to my own 16" F4.5 Astrosystems dob at Mt Pinos on Saturday night.
Conditions were generally good with the sky being darker than the previous Saturday, with a reading of 21.66 on the dark sky meter after 2:00am. I could see the difference visually through my scope wherein the extensions on the Saturn nebula were more easily seen than in the previous week. The crescent nebula was a real blazer as well.
Overall, the lightbridge is shorter than my own 16" even though the F ratio is the same. The base, however, is quite wide and I suspect it would be a bit of a chore taking it in and out of a vehicle. The mirror box reportedly weighed in at a hefty 70 lbs and the owner said he needs a second person to help him move it.
The motions were generally smooth as I panned widefield views of the milky way in Cygnus. Gone are the annoying bearings of the hardin GSO dobs, a fore-runner of the lightbridge.
I enjoyed the widefield views of the milky way and coma was reasonable (and not objectionable) given the fast f-ratio of the scope. I didn't star test the scope but I did enjoy the contrast of the images, although Jupiter was too low for views of its belts and bands.
I did not like the typical GSO secondary attachment to the spider with glue. It's a fairly big secondary, though appropriate in size, but I had my secondary fall off and chip my mirror in my hardin 10" dob.
All in all, I think the 16" lightbridge is a whole lot of scope for the buck...
Conditions were generally good with the sky being darker than the previous Saturday, with a reading of 21.66 on the dark sky meter after 2:00am. I could see the difference visually through my scope wherein the extensions on the Saturn nebula were more easily seen than in the previous week. The crescent nebula was a real blazer as well.
Overall, the lightbridge is shorter than my own 16" even though the F ratio is the same. The base, however, is quite wide and I suspect it would be a bit of a chore taking it in and out of a vehicle. The mirror box reportedly weighed in at a hefty 70 lbs and the owner said he needs a second person to help him move it.
The motions were generally smooth as I panned widefield views of the milky way in Cygnus. Gone are the annoying bearings of the hardin GSO dobs, a fore-runner of the lightbridge.
I enjoyed the widefield views of the milky way and coma was reasonable (and not objectionable) given the fast f-ratio of the scope. I didn't star test the scope but I did enjoy the contrast of the images, although Jupiter was too low for views of its belts and bands.
I did not like the typical GSO secondary attachment to the spider with glue. It's a fairly big secondary, though appropriate in size, but I had my secondary fall off and chip my mirror in my hardin 10" dob.
All in all, I think the 16" lightbridge is a whole lot of scope for the buck...
