Meade 102ED (lens question)

Hello,
I've a chance to pick up an older Meade 102ED scope and was wondering about the dispersion characteristics of the lens elements. An old catalog I dug up from 03' states one element as KF3, and the ED element as FK01. Does any know how this type of glass would stack up to the newer designs, such as FPL51 or FPL53.
Also, anyone know the weight of just the OTA.
Any advice welcome, thank you.
Ed

FK01 is the old name Ohara had for FPL-51. Same optical properties.

Philip

Make sure it has provisions to center the ED element. This consists of 3 tiny screws set in to deep holes evenly spaced around the OD of the cell, not to be confused with the standard sets of collimation screws on the front face of the cell.

Once the element was properly centered, mine was basically color free for visual use at any power I cared to choose, very sharp, no obvious zoning with a nicely defined airy disk. A high quality optic.

Regarding the centering, there are well published procedures for it. Some scopes seem to hold the centering adjustments well, others, like mine, needed a tweak from time to time, which was a simple smaaaaaaalllllll turn of one of the centering screws, usually the same one. Coma is the symptom of a mis-centered element.

I also found the stock focuser quite servicable when adjusted to my liking.

I'd say the weight without the stock cradle rings (which are heavy) was on the order of 5 pounds.

Jeff

Jeff