Hello all, this is my first post here at Astromart 
I am in the process of rekindling my love for space, so tonight I went to look at a used Meade LX3 10" circa 1986. I was in high school when the scope was new, and could only ogle them in magazines seeing how I was a broke kid with a 60mm refractor.
Anyway, the scope was only 15 or so miles away so I went to check it out. A guy answered my "WTB" craigslist ad (before I wandered across this place). He told me via email that the secondary had been recoated just a year ago. He is only asking $500 firm, so I think this has to be too good to be true.
The scope was in his garage and it looked clean and colossal. I was pretty happy. Then, I looked down the tube and the first thing I saw was a huge swirl of scratches on the secondary. I mean, it looked like someone tried to clean it with a dirty Brillo pad 8O OK, maybe not THAT bad, but the scratches were blatant. I engaged the guy for more detail about it, and the best conclusion I can come up with is that "someone" tried to clean the tarnish off an oxidized secondary at one time... then the mirror was sent off to get aluminized/coated.
It was a cloudy, sweltering afternoon, but we did set it up and look at a couple terrestrial objects. A stop sign looked nice from 300 yards or so, a radio tower on the horizon was magnified incredibly (to my untrained eyes). The stop sign was good, but not razor sharp. The images actually looked better than I thought they would after seeing the scratches.
I didn't buy the scope, I was just too worried about what aberrations might occur with starlight and those secondary scratches. I am not in a hurry, and not hurting for cash, so I want to make sure the scope I get will perform well and last me for at least a decade.
Do you think that this scope is cheap enough that it might be worth this kind of trouble?
One other intimidation was the sheer size of it- my back hurt just looking at it-
Maybe a newer 8" would fit the bill...
Thanks, Mike
I am in the process of rekindling my love for space, so tonight I went to look at a used Meade LX3 10" circa 1986. I was in high school when the scope was new, and could only ogle them in magazines seeing how I was a broke kid with a 60mm refractor.
Anyway, the scope was only 15 or so miles away so I went to check it out. A guy answered my "WTB" craigslist ad (before I wandered across this place). He told me via email that the secondary had been recoated just a year ago. He is only asking $500 firm, so I think this has to be too good to be true.
The scope was in his garage and it looked clean and colossal. I was pretty happy. Then, I looked down the tube and the first thing I saw was a huge swirl of scratches on the secondary. I mean, it looked like someone tried to clean it with a dirty Brillo pad 8O OK, maybe not THAT bad, but the scratches were blatant. I engaged the guy for more detail about it, and the best conclusion I can come up with is that "someone" tried to clean the tarnish off an oxidized secondary at one time... then the mirror was sent off to get aluminized/coated.
It was a cloudy, sweltering afternoon, but we did set it up and look at a couple terrestrial objects. A stop sign looked nice from 300 yards or so, a radio tower on the horizon was magnified incredibly (to my untrained eyes). The stop sign was good, but not razor sharp. The images actually looked better than I thought they would after seeing the scratches.
I didn't buy the scope, I was just too worried about what aberrations might occur with starlight and those secondary scratches. I am not in a hurry, and not hurting for cash, so I want to make sure the scope I get will perform well and last me for at least a decade.
Do you think that this scope is cheap enough that it might be worth this kind of trouble?
One other intimidation was the sheer size of it- my back hurt just looking at it-
Maybe a newer 8" would fit the bill...
Thanks, Mike
