Serious question about Meade Cats.

Hello,

I found out about this forum three weeks ago from a member (Thanks Ron!!) and really like it. The posters here are the politest group I have run across on the Net. Really great.

One of the members of our astrnomy club is a college professor who teaches astronomy and who is in charge of the clubs telescopes. I consider him an expert as he can take most scopes apart blindfolded and tweak them, repair them, or just about anything else he has a mind to do.

I was floored a couple of weeks ago when he began talking about how poorly the Meade cats were made and lousy their quality control is. He told me that just about every Meade he has come across has some problem when he opens them up that would lead to premature wear. He especially mentioned the overtightening of some componants which leads to premature gear failure and the nylon gears themselves which are prone to wear.

He was saying this as he just finished repairing one that had failed. He is, in fact, in the process of replacing the nylon gears on several Meade cats. with metal ones.

He also mentioned that the tripod screw can extend too far into the mount, contact the wiring and wrap it around the screw and pull everything loose.

I own a Meade 10" LX200 and I have to admit that it broke the first night I used it. The other guys there agreed with him and seemed to have the attitude that this was old news.

Now, the kicker to all this is that the Meade scopes are very popular with the members in spite of this. As a matter of fact, one of the members who is a professional astronomer and in the PhD program at the local university is planning to buy a Meade 14" Cat. soon.

So, my question is, "Does your experience bare this out?" Are the Meade scopes prone to breakage and premature wear?

Except for the one problem I had and the silly way the scope mounts to the tripod, I really don't have any complaints. As far as I am concerned it is an excellant scope.

Good luck and good seeing. Sorry this post is so lengthy.

Tom Bourg

I can not comment on my own experience as I have not owned a Meade SCT.
However, one of our members 12" SCT has be a problem child since new, with numerous trips to the factory and poor overall views.
To be fair though, my NS8GPS is the 3rd one I received after buying a new one 1.5 years ago. It was a series of problems with the 1st two that almost made me get a refund. The 3rd one has been very good. So, who can really say whether one manufacturer has more problems than another.
Floyd

Tom:

I have a 10" LX200 GPS. I haven't experienced such problems although I plan to replace my gears with Bucks gears in the near future.

The only problem I had is the tripod to base mounting screw got very difficult to turn. I found that the retaining washer had gotten chewed up at sometime and I relaced it with another from the local hardware store.

The finder scope is a piece of junk, but everyone knows that, and I replaced it a long time ago. I've also replace my 90 degree with a 2" Willaims Optics. Both changes were made to fluff up the scope and you can get by just fine without them. If you get something larger than a 8" consider getting a Jimi case with wheels. The softside case furnished by Meade doesn't do much to protect it or make it easier to pack around. To be blunt it's a pain in the back!

As for the mounting of the scope on the tripod use one of the OEM mounting plates. I couldn't find one at Anacortes but you can get a good one from Stellar Visions in Tucson, AZ. Talk with Frank. The plate is about 12" wide and 24" long. Holds about 8 eyepieces and makes the lining up of the scope to the tripod a snap. Without anything like that holding a ten inch on the tripod while trying to afix the mounting screw is a nightmare.

I have inadvertantly plug the hand controller into the guide slot with no ill effects. I know that if you do the same thing on other scopes the S hits the fan.

I think they could have done something better on the electric focuser to indicate the maximum travel had been reached. The book states that you can hear the focuser change it's small noise when you reach the end but that's not to good if either you're:

1. Hearing is not to good
2. You're remoting the scope from another location.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a HUGE Meade or Celestron fan. You can buy better scopes than either one of these [SIZE="Large"][COLOR="Red"]BUT[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE="Normal"][/SIZE]you also have to consider cost. As far as I'm concerned price to quality you can beat either one.

Hello again,

It looks like quality control is an issue with both the Meade and Celestron scopes.

I believe our club membership thinks fairly highly of Meade optics, though. In addition to 8" and 10" Meade cats the club owns an old spiral-wound paper equatorial 16" Meade Newtonian that looks old enough for Isaac himself to have used. The guys consider the optics on this one really good and maybe even exceptional.

My only problems with my 10"Meade are that the mount and scope weigh over 60#s and fitting it onto the tripod is a test of endurance as much as patience. (I just ordered a scope saver and that should make things a little easier.)

And, viewing the zenith in alt-azimuth mode is all but impossible in some instances. I am really not a fork mount fan, at all.

I've been observing for more than 40 years, but my knowledge about the hardware for observing is lacking. I've done a very good job of fighting the urge to buy new equipment although I recently purchased an Orion Skyview Pro 127 Mak. which I really like.

I've recently joined the local astronomy club, something I should have done years ago. The club, along with LSU and Southern Universities (I believe I am correct on this),have an observatory with a $500,000+ Richey-Cretien scope. On Friday nights the observatory is open to the public and we give information to the visitors and let them look through the various scopes including the RC. Sometimes more than 300 people visit and 100 is a good average.

Anyway, if the budget will stand it I would like to purchase a 14" TScope lightweight truss dob sometime this year. This is about the largest dob I can own as I can't climb a ladder although I have climbed one to gaze through a couple of the members 20" dobs!

The reason I wrote all this is to let you all know that I am trying to bring myself up to speed on the hardware that is out there right now, so if some of my questions seem kinda dumb or silly that is why.

See you guys and thanks for the responses. I wish I had found this site a long time ago.

Tom Bourg
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Tom- Meade mounts also have the reputation of failing in cold weather. Rich

Meade is the largest seller of telescopes, therefore, I would expect a larger number of problems. But, percentage wise, I'm not so sure. If you go through the Yahoo telescope forums, you will find unhappy Celestron users just as often as unhappy Meade users.

I don't think anyone has data to statistically substantiate whether Meade or Celestron has better quality control. You said, "...just about every Meade he has come across has some problem....". This is meaningless unless you know the relative sample sizes for various manufacturers. Your professor probably opens up a telescope for a reason, some sort of problem that needs looking into. If there are more Meade telescopes in the area, he will find more Meades with problems. It is the distribution and numbers that tell the tale and no one has the data. What you are telling us is anecdotal.

By the way, I have both Celestron and Meade telescopes and don't have a bias either way. I have noticed that certain models of each manufacturer tend to get panned or praised fairly regularily, but, again this is not scientifically surveyed.

Russ Schnitzer

My local telescope dealer, an extremely reputable shop, won't carry Meade telescopes anymore. 'Nuff said.

Hi Tom,

Most of the problems I have heard about or have had personally on Meade and Celestron scopes, can be fixed by a person who is competent with a screwdriver. Although I have had to use my soldering iron once. I have owned at one time or another around 6 Celestron and 2 Meade Cats. One of the 10" early LX200 scopes I thought at the time was too heavy, had some of the best SCT optics I have seen since, and I wish a had that scope today. I currently have an older 12" LX200 and it is a workhorse. It has seen a lot of action, and will most likely keep going for many more years.

If one of your club members has experience with these type of scopes, then I think the 14" is a good purchase (Meade or Celestron). I'm not sure I would advise this for a persons first scope with no one else around to help "tweak" it in unless they are reasonably mechanically inclined.

Another item is the Meade 14"SCT is very heavy and awkward. Will this be an issue?


David Simons

Hello there!

I personally own a 10" LX-200GPS scope, have had it for about 2 1/2 years now, and has worked like a charm since the first day (and bought it used!)!


Ivan
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