Thanks all for the advice.

I appreciate all those that took the time to give me advice when I asked about the 127mm ED Meade with the LXD650 mount.
This Saturday I will be picking it up. Not sure what I will think about it, but I think the deal was good enough that it will be a good chance to check one of these out. Not expecting an APO as it is called, but a well corrected Semi-APO will be a lot of fun I think.
Believe it or not, I got the chance to talk to Meade about the scope and mount. I called and waited on hold for about an hour before a tech answered the phone. I wanted to know about the scope and the mount and whether there was still available parts and service for the discontinued mount. The fellow was quite nice and knowledgeable and did have some experience with both. He also stated that for $200, they will repair any thing on the mount, a flat rated repair regardless of parts required. The factory is not too far from me, so I can take the scope or mount to them for work.
He also said that in his opinion the 127mm ED was the best of the entire series and his favorite of the Meade ED refractors and that he had used all of them at one time or another. More consistent quality of the optics he said where the larger 6" and 7" tended to vary in quality. The mount, he claimed, is the heaviest and best built of any of the mounts from Meade. He also said that they had nothing in that class of mount for their scopes today and that it was a shame that they were not still available.
Impressive to hear the honest opinion from an employee and refreshing to get someone that was willing to make statements about products that were pretty subjective.
I hope that the new scope has a properly aligned lens assembly because I have never tried to align one. It is a new unused scope and mount and has not be abused or dropped. So, maybe I will be lucky!
This is my first refractor since I was a young boy. I have had reflectors and enjoyed them a lot. This is my first chance to play with a 5" with a decent mount. If the optics are good it will be a nice addition to my scope family.

I am glad you got some honest talk from Meade, Floyd. We are looking forward to a report on your viewing experiences with your new baby. Given your extensive experience, it will be very interesting to hear about comparisons with your other favorite scopes.

Clear skies!

Congrats Floyd. I owned the 127ED briefly. I think unless you are super critical you will be quite pleased with the color correction. Assuming you get a good one.

One thing you will want to do is join the Yahoo Group for these refractors. There are explicit instructions there on not only the collimation but also the lens centering procedure--should yours need to be re-centered.

If it has the newer cell then you can adjust it yourself. If it has the older cell then it will most likely have to be sent to Meade for the upgraded cell.

I got mine from Mark Rieck. I enjoyed it, but in the end it was a bit bigger setup than I was willing to take out each night. I performed the centering adjustments just to see if I could do it, based on the instructions on the Yahoo Group. The scope arrived well aligned, but I tried it just to be sure. Because the scope uses FPL-51 I believe, the curves are quite steep to maintain color correction. Unfortunately the steep curves can be problematic with regard to decentering.

The one I had was a very good performer. A serious CCD imager would probably not be satisfied with the color correction, but for visual I found it to be quite a bargain. One last thing. I really liked the focuser on the Meade ED's. Once adjusted it was smooth as butter and solid. Although often maligned, I think these scopes are much better mechanically and quality than the SCT's they produce. I think you will be quite pleased with how "solid" these scopes are. Good luck, look forward to a first light report.

Donnie

Good luck with the new scope. I'm still finding it hard to believe that you are getting a refractor. I never thought I'd see the day.