My new Meade 127mm ED

Ok, I got it set up in the back yard to see if I can give it first light tonight. I hope to get it all going and actually see a few objects. With any luck, it might even find something. 8)

Attached Image:

Good luck with it Floyd

Bob

That is a beautiful set up!!!! I am sure you are going to have lots of fun with that scope and mount!!!!!!

Hey this picture looks familiar. Didn't I just see this somewhere?

Holy moley, Floyd! That's quite a rig.
It will take a while though, for me to get
used to seeing you behind anything but a Dob.
Have fun!
Linton

Hi Floyd,

I owned a 127ED that had an absolutely excellent objective lens. Planetary performance was very impressive- one night I had it out next to an MN76 and the Meade provided slightly sharper planetary detail and superior contrast. The MN was putting up a brighter image, but the Meade was more pleasing. Mine was on the old 600 Goto mount. I found the need to program in time, location, etc. a bit slow but when I did my part, it certainly did its too putting everything I asked it to find in the FOV. After a few years I took mine to Meade which is near me and had the newer lense cell added. They also centered and collimated the objective and when I got it back, I was convinced I would keep it forever. Of course that was several refractors ago.......

Not shot, Floyd. Would you mind posting a shot of you, perhaps with just the OTA and a yardstick in the photo? It's a little difficult to see just how big the tube is from your shot. It looks a bit larger than I anticipated. Thanks,

Hey Floyd,

Congrats! Can't wait for the report. Looks like you're eyepiece collection is going to grow even more now. Hope you got a winner like Larry did.

Cheers,
-JW:

Hi all,
I got a bit more time at the 127ED tonight and can give a bit more info. The Go-To works very well and the Polar Alignment Scope is quite handy. The stock finder sucks, but I have a new Sellarvue Right Angle Correct Image 50W2 coming from Anacortes so that should help.
I did a few star tests and the optics look textbook perfect. Very good consistant difraction rings on each side of focus. No turned edge or correction problems that I could detect.
Color on Vega was just a slight tinge of blue around it, not distracting or particularly noticeable. It is there, but it is much better than the AR5 and on stars less bright, I could not detect it.
The scope works well and brings in the DSO fairly well for light polution and a near full Moon. It can not compete with a 10" Dob, but it is about as nice as the 8" SCT that I had.
The tube is great looking and not too heavy at 14.5 lbs. The mount is solid and very quick to slew to objects. The electric focuser works very well and has 4 speeds which makes it nice to use.
It would be nice if they put stars in by name, but they are by a number system.
The strangest thing was that they set GMT at +7 instead of -7 for Pacific Daylight Time. I do not understand why they have that backwards, but you have to put it in incorectly or it does not know where anything is located.
The quality overall is quite good it seems. I am pretty impressed so far. It is not a true APO, but if it were it would have cost a small fortune too.