Meade Lightbridges

Started by enterprise, 12/26/2005 09:11PM
Posted 12/26/2005 09:11PM Opening Post
Hi Everyone, grin Did Santa bring a Meade Lightbridge to any of the good boys and girls out there.
I thinking of buying one and would appreciate any feedback on them. Cheers, John 8) 8)
Posted 02/20/2006 06:03PM #1
Hi John. I didn't buy one, but I looked at one before buying an Orion XT12i.

I really liked the Meade overall. It's beautifully built for the price. The model I looked at was a 12" deluxe with the "lazy Susan" style needle bearing on the groundboard. It had nice motions in both altitude and azimuth.

I didn't look through it, so can't comment on the optics on that unit, but web evaluations of the optics, which are by Guang Shen of Taiwan, have been very positive. These GSO optics are also used in other low cost Dobs such as Hardin, etc.

What made me ultimately choose against the Lightbridge came down to three things:

(1) At the time, they were packing them like crap and many buyers were on their second or third units because initial units and even replacements arrived with scratched mirrors due to the mirror cover coming loose during shipping and marring the primary. Supposedly this problem has finally been remedied with improved packing.

(2) The design of the aluminum altitude trunions didn't look like it would allow use of Digital Setting Circles easily. My suburban skies are about magnitude 4 at the Zenith, so I'm often forced to supplement my star hopping with some electronic assistance. That wouldn't be possible at least any time soon with the Lightbridge. Maybe someone will develop a commercial kit for adding an encoder and gear to the altitude trunion, but out of the box, you're star hopping only.

(3) For basically the same price, I was able to buy an Orion XT12 Intelliscope with the DSCs, and Pyrex mirror (The Lightbridge is BK-7), so for my requirements and observing conditions, the Orion fit a bit better.

Still, I think the LIghtbridge is an extremely good value for the right user (i.e., somone who needed easier portability). The XT series and GSO solid tube brethren in the 12" range are harder to transport in a compact car, though mine will fit in my Civic sedan.