Meade Quality??

Glad Tele Vue doesn't sell products like I saw at a friends the other day. I don't want to compare Apples to Oranges, but I was looking at a friends little Meade Refractor the other day, a 60mm. 289m. mounted on what appeared to be a Ger. Type EQ tripod. I couldn't believe my eyes. The scope was so so, never really viewed through it, but I did try to put the mount through a few paces.. the flimsy black painted tripod was wobbly, the slow motion cables had so much slop in them it was a joke.. the setting circles spun when I touched them. Has anyone had the opportunity to see one of these set-ups? Shame on Meade for selling this to anyone. JM

That's how companies stay afloat and not charge $3000 per 4" refractor. They sell cheapy stuff to unknowing public. People like to bash Meade/Celestron for doing it, but every company does it (mass producers...not specialized companies). Ever go to Best Buy and look at computers, generally they are O.K., just like most scopes. If you look around though, places on the internet sell very high powered gaming, application, graphic design computer setups for about the same price. You just have to know about computers and know what you want. I have a 2.8Ghz OC'ed to 3.18Ghz rig setup for my gaming and it was less than $780 not including a monitor and my monsterous speakers . Companies sucker people that don't want to learn and make an educated decision about their purchase... it's sad, but true.

For the price you pay for Meade products you get a lot of scope for the money. The 60mm that you tried is a toy. I still cant believe that people go out and spend $3000+ on a 4" APO and mount when you can get a Meade AR-6 LXD55 6" f/8 go-to equatorial refractor for $895(with goto) that will blow away any 4" APO. Why do you think you see so many APO's and prontos for sale on astromart? It’s because people buy them thinking that they will perform as a much bigger scope. Right. A 4" scope is a 4" scope. I have a 10" LX-200 and it works perfectly and has great optics. Got it for $1000 off astromart and it will beat any 4",5",6" APO in any measurable department. But I'm sure it makes people happy that they have something way overpriced, I know it makes me happy to own the biggest and most expencive eyepiece ever made the Nagler 31mm.

They sell that stuff because that's what the majority of buyers want. In fact, 98% of their scopes sold are such scopes, only 2% are serious instruments.