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Meade AR-5 OTA (LXD55 version)
Meade AR-5 5” Refractor OTA Review (LXD55 version)
Let me start off by stating that I’m in no way affiliated with Meade Instruments Corp. or Astromart and I purchased this OTA via normal channels. So... let’s get to it!
Throughout my years as an amateur, I’ve used, owned, and looked through many scopes. When I first got really serious with the hobby at the age of 17, I went right from a 4.5” equatorial Newtonian to a 12.5” dobsonian as everything I read stated aperture rules all. Soon after, I quickly discovered that even-though aperture does rule, so too, does optical quality.
So what does this all have to do with a 5” Refractor, you say? A lot actually…
I choose the AR-5 for many reasons. First was its price range. Nowadays, a thrifty shopper can find an OTA on the used market for about $225-$275. I purchased mine used in July of this year as a complete setup with the LXD55 GOTO mount, but we’re just looking at the OTA in this review. The next reason was aperture. 127mm (5”) is nice go between from the typical 102mm (4”) and rather large 152mm (6”). It should do well on various DSO’s and split most doubles rather nicely. The final reason, and most important to me, was focal length. For me, there’s something almost “majestic” about a long focal length refractor. Not only will it perform very well if it happens to be an achromat, but it just looks wicked cool when you set it up. My AR-5 is stamped with a focal length of 1180mm @ f/9.3 on the Meade badge mounted to the OTA in front of the focuser. (I don’t know if this a standard for the AR-5, but the newer LXD75 versions are documented on Meade’s website as 1143mm @ f/9.) Many of you might argue that the extra inch in aperture a 152mm would give me, would justify going down to an f/8. And that a 39mm (1.5”) focal length loss is negligible, and on the newer LXD75 models, it comes out to a 75mm (3”) difference in focal length loss. I would tend to disagree for 2 main reasons. That extra 39mm (1.5”) of focal length gives me tack sharp disk edges on Uranus @ 176X (6.7mm UWA eyepiece) with no image breakdown. It also gives me the Trifid & Lagoon Nebula in the same field @ 28X (42mm 2” eyepiece) with no image or contrast loss at the extreme edge of the FOV. Now, to some, these may seem like VERY fickle observations, but I for one, notice them, so I assume others do as well.
Build Quality & Mechanics:
Buying a used scope is like buying a used car in some respects. You can see the pictures and read all the information you want, but until it’s in your possession, everything you know or read is suspect, and it’s not until you put it under close scrutiny, that you realize what you got. In my case, I believe I got a fabulous scope at a very modest price. Now most will agree that when buying massed produced scopes, it is a crapshoot. Even if you buy it new, there’s a chance something will be wrong with it and it will have to be sent back to the manufacturer for tweaking or replacement. Fortunately, I got lucky in this regard.
Even-though I’m the 3rd owner; I find it hard to not to like this scope. I received it in the original Meade packaging, which was a nice plus. Everything was intact & in good order. There were some aspects to the scope I knew I would have to change right away, and others I would change in the future. For instance, the 1.25” stock prism diagonal is completely unsatisfactory. But again, you get what you pay for, and at this price, who could argue as long as the objective was nice. Also, the 2” visual back was the usual setscrew type, but would soon be upgraded to a compression type ($35). The diagonal was replaced with an Antares 2” Enhanced Silver diagonal ($79), which is a HIGHLY under-rated diagonal IMO. The dew shield was also surprisingly small. Rule of thumb calls for a dew shields length to be at least the diameter of the objective if not longer. The AR-5 fell short by ½”, so I just painted the interior Ultra-Flat Black for the time being. Next was the finder. Now, I absolutely love to star hop. The GOTO has its uses for viewing multiple objects in a short amount of time as in Star Parties & such, but usually, I don’t use like to use it. I’m not a big fan at all of finders. I know they serve their purpose for some, but not me. I just took it off & never used it (as of this writing, the finder was sold). Now came the focuser. The focuser had potential, but as it was, it was very sloppy. I completely disassembled it. I cleaned out ALL of the Chinese glue gunk they call grease, and re-lubed it with high-grade white lithium grease (Home Depot-$3). What a world of difference it makes. Granted, it’s no Feathertouch or Moonlite, but it’ll more than do the job. It now has extremely smooth motion inside & outside of travel.
All in all, mechanically, it’s an “ok” scope. If you can get past the issues I mentioned and are willing to make the necessary changes or adjustments, it’s very rewarding and makes it go from “ok” to “above average” scope mechanically.
Optics:
Now we get to the good stuff. I’ve had this scope for a few months now, and all I can say is the more I use it, the more I love it. I said earlier that I got lucky with the objective lens in this scope, and I truly believe that now. Star tests reveal beautiful concentric rings in & out of focus. And I must add, for an achromat, it has surprising little false color even on the moon! Last night, looking at the edge of the moon @ 176X, there was a faint, and I mean faint, yellow tint around it, but nothing like I’ve seen described in previous reviews. Alberio is nothing short of breath taking. The red-orange and the blue-white contrast is simply gorgeous. The double-double in Lyra is split cleanly at 85X. Stars are tack sharp and I get a nice concentric airy disk when I bump up the power on them.
Planet-wise, I’ve only looked at Uranus and Neptune with it so far, so I will amend this report upon viewing the rest and give a detailed observing report when I do so. Uranus is mag 5.7 or so & has a 5.4 arc sec diameter that is easy to view in this scope. The greenish hue to the planet is readily noticeable and the razor sharp edge on the planets disk itself is always a real treat to these eyes. Neptune is only 2.8 arc sec in diameter and at mag 9 is tough to spot. But again, resolving the disk on this planet is not as hard as I would have thought with this scope. The blue color of the planet gives it away and is also very noticeable in the eyepiece. The disk resolves nicely at 176X, but really shines at around 295X. The scope also delivers a beautiful blue disk on Neptune, with tack sharp edges.
DSO’s are nothing short of amazing. M13 is resolved @ 85X with nice array of grainy stars on black sky. I was surprised when I viewed M57 through it though. The contrast this scope yielded on the nebulosity was extraordinary. The same for M8 & M16. I actually saw M101, M51, NCG7331, & M33 in one evening with this scope in mag 5.5 skies. I kid you not!!! The optics in this particular scope are excellent!
Overall
In one word, my overall opinion would be “Lucky”. I firmly believe I happened to get one of a few really well corrected objectives in the Meade batch and it really shows on this scope. I couldn’t be happier with it, and I know it will provide me with many wonderful nights of observing. Many members of my astronomy club, STILL can’t believe it’s just a Meade Achromat, because of its performance. But the proof is in the eyepiece, and who can argue that? Not any of us.
Clear Skies,
Eric
Let me start off by stating that I’m in no way affiliated with Meade Instruments Corp. or Astromart and I purchased this OTA via normal channels. So... let’s get to it!
Throughout my years as an amateur, I’ve used, owned, and looked through many scopes. When I first got really serious with the hobby at the age of 17, I went right from a 4.5” equatorial Newtonian to a 12.5” dobsonian as everything I read stated aperture rules all. Soon after, I quickly discovered that even-though aperture does rule, so too, does optical quality.
So what does this all have to do with a 5” Refractor, you say? A lot actually…
I choose the AR-5 for many reasons. First was its price range. Nowadays, a thrifty shopper can find an OTA on the used market for about $225-$275. I purchased mine used in July of this year as a complete setup with the LXD55 GOTO mount, but we’re just looking at the OTA in this review. The next reason was aperture. 127mm (5”) is nice go between from the typical 102mm (4”) and rather large 152mm (6”). It should do well on various DSO’s and split most doubles rather nicely. The final reason, and most important to me, was focal length. For me, there’s something almost “majestic” about a long focal length refractor. Not only will it perform very well if it happens to be an achromat, but it just looks wicked cool when you set it up. My AR-5 is stamped with a focal length of 1180mm @ f/9.3 on the Meade badge mounted to the OTA in front of the focuser. (I don’t know if this a standard for the AR-5, but the newer LXD75 versions are documented on Meade’s website as 1143mm @ f/9.) Many of you might argue that the extra inch in aperture a 152mm would give me, would justify going down to an f/8. And that a 39mm (1.5”) focal length loss is negligible, and on the newer LXD75 models, it comes out to a 75mm (3”) difference in focal length loss. I would tend to disagree for 2 main reasons. That extra 39mm (1.5”) of focal length gives me tack sharp disk edges on Uranus @ 176X (6.7mm UWA eyepiece) with no image breakdown. It also gives me the Trifid & Lagoon Nebula in the same field @ 28X (42mm 2” eyepiece) with no image or contrast loss at the extreme edge of the FOV. Now, to some, these may seem like VERY fickle observations, but I for one, notice them, so I assume others do as well.
Build Quality & Mechanics:
Buying a used scope is like buying a used car in some respects. You can see the pictures and read all the information you want, but until it’s in your possession, everything you know or read is suspect, and it’s not until you put it under close scrutiny, that you realize what you got. In my case, I believe I got a fabulous scope at a very modest price. Now most will agree that when buying massed produced scopes, it is a crapshoot. Even if you buy it new, there’s a chance something will be wrong with it and it will have to be sent back to the manufacturer for tweaking or replacement. Fortunately, I got lucky in this regard.
Even-though I’m the 3rd owner; I find it hard to not to like this scope. I received it in the original Meade packaging, which was a nice plus. Everything was intact & in good order. There were some aspects to the scope I knew I would have to change right away, and others I would change in the future. For instance, the 1.25” stock prism diagonal is completely unsatisfactory. But again, you get what you pay for, and at this price, who could argue as long as the objective was nice. Also, the 2” visual back was the usual setscrew type, but would soon be upgraded to a compression type ($35). The diagonal was replaced with an Antares 2” Enhanced Silver diagonal ($79), which is a HIGHLY under-rated diagonal IMO. The dew shield was also surprisingly small. Rule of thumb calls for a dew shields length to be at least the diameter of the objective if not longer. The AR-5 fell short by ½”, so I just painted the interior Ultra-Flat Black for the time being. Next was the finder. Now, I absolutely love to star hop. The GOTO has its uses for viewing multiple objects in a short amount of time as in Star Parties & such, but usually, I don’t use like to use it. I’m not a big fan at all of finders. I know they serve their purpose for some, but not me. I just took it off & never used it (as of this writing, the finder was sold). Now came the focuser. The focuser had potential, but as it was, it was very sloppy. I completely disassembled it. I cleaned out ALL of the Chinese glue gunk they call grease, and re-lubed it with high-grade white lithium grease (Home Depot-$3). What a world of difference it makes. Granted, it’s no Feathertouch or Moonlite, but it’ll more than do the job. It now has extremely smooth motion inside & outside of travel.
All in all, mechanically, it’s an “ok” scope. If you can get past the issues I mentioned and are willing to make the necessary changes or adjustments, it’s very rewarding and makes it go from “ok” to “above average” scope mechanically.
Optics:
Now we get to the good stuff. I’ve had this scope for a few months now, and all I can say is the more I use it, the more I love it. I said earlier that I got lucky with the objective lens in this scope, and I truly believe that now. Star tests reveal beautiful concentric rings in & out of focus. And I must add, for an achromat, it has surprising little false color even on the moon! Last night, looking at the edge of the moon @ 176X, there was a faint, and I mean faint, yellow tint around it, but nothing like I’ve seen described in previous reviews. Alberio is nothing short of breath taking. The red-orange and the blue-white contrast is simply gorgeous. The double-double in Lyra is split cleanly at 85X. Stars are tack sharp and I get a nice concentric airy disk when I bump up the power on them.
Planet-wise, I’ve only looked at Uranus and Neptune with it so far, so I will amend this report upon viewing the rest and give a detailed observing report when I do so. Uranus is mag 5.7 or so & has a 5.4 arc sec diameter that is easy to view in this scope. The greenish hue to the planet is readily noticeable and the razor sharp edge on the planets disk itself is always a real treat to these eyes. Neptune is only 2.8 arc sec in diameter and at mag 9 is tough to spot. But again, resolving the disk on this planet is not as hard as I would have thought with this scope. The blue color of the planet gives it away and is also very noticeable in the eyepiece. The disk resolves nicely at 176X, but really shines at around 295X. The scope also delivers a beautiful blue disk on Neptune, with tack sharp edges.
DSO’s are nothing short of amazing. M13 is resolved @ 85X with nice array of grainy stars on black sky. I was surprised when I viewed M57 through it though. The contrast this scope yielded on the nebulosity was extraordinary. The same for M8 & M16. I actually saw M101, M51, NCG7331, & M33 in one evening with this scope in mag 5.5 skies. I kid you not!!! The optics in this particular scope are excellent!
Overall
In one word, my overall opinion would be “Lucky”. I firmly believe I happened to get one of a few really well corrected objectives in the Meade batch and it really shows on this scope. I couldn’t be happier with it, and I know it will provide me with many wonderful nights of observing. Many members of my astronomy club, STILL can’t believe it’s just a Meade Achromat, because of its performance. But the proof is in the eyepiece, and who can argue that? Not any of us.
Clear Skies,
Eric
Funding Member
