Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

I would think they are two different scopes entirely. The original is a visual and the new is more engineered toward CCD, but I would imagine they both would keep their values.

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 just got back from picking up the 127mm ED. It was a long 630 mile drive, but worth it! The scope is beautiful and brand new without a scratch or mark on it or even a speck of dust on the lens!
I had no chance to try it, the weather is overcast with some rain of course!
But it is a great looking scope and mount! I will post a picture later.

Be sure to check out the review by William Paolini on the 5mm shootout using the new evaluation form.
Bill, I very much liked the review. I thought the presentation was well done and the information was thoughtful and factual.
I also agree with your findings.
The other thing that you stated that I have been saying for a while, really hit home. EPs are almost specialized. They perform best on certain objects and perhaps not as well on others.
The rating of the UO Ortho was just what I found, a Jack of all trades and master of none. This is what you could call an inexpensive work horse of an EP. Good performance though not outstanding, but a price one can afford.
I think the two parts, one technical and one more emotional was the right approach. You just can not always describe things in a black and white technical manner, the feeling one gets when using the EP is almost as important as the black and white factual information.
Thanks for creating such a nice easy to use form and for your efforts in presenting it in this fashion.
Floyd Blue
Moderator EP Forum

The 9.25" and the 11" SCTs would make nice scopes for what you want to do, even a little photography.
The 9.25" is lighter and smaller, so if that is a factor it might be a good choice. The 11" will show DSO better and is just a bit brighter image wise.

Congrats on the $50 win for your review!

I hope to get the new meade 127 ED out in the next few days if the sky clears. I am wanting some opinions from more experienced refractor owners as to how to test the scope to see how well it is collimated and how well it performs for color correction, Star test, bright objects, daylight test or what exactly. I am not very experienced with refractors. Any advice would be appreciated.

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)

Well, I thought I would post a picture of the new Meade 127 ED that I just bought. It is new and never been setup or used for observing. So this will be first light. I will just try to align it and do some testing, maybe a few objects and a look at the Moon.
Last night we had a club meeting and we got to use the new Planetarium that was just installed in Bakersfield College. It has a 36' dome and a new projector and film projector that cost about $410,000 for the two. This was so nice compared to the old 1950's system that we had before. Nick Strobel is the man in charge of the Planetarium and he also teaches at the college. He is a member of the Kern Astronomical Society and we were the first to actually use the facility. Really impressive! We traveled to Australia and saw the southern skies just as if we were there. We traveled all over the northern and southern skies and it was so realistic that you were really drawn into it as if you were in an open stadium looking up.

I have decided that the thread is not on topic and would appreciate it if it were moved to the Astrophotography Forum.
Thanks,
Floyd