Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

Well, I spent a lot of time on the internet searching for spot diagrams on the Meade 127ED objectives. But not one to be found anywhere.
I was just curious, knowing that it is not an APO but an ED. It is stated a few places that this objective has 4x the color correction of a Achromat, but nothing shown to prove it.
I guess it does not matter too much, I did not expect an APO for the price. Heck! For the price that I paid with the mount and all, a good Achromat would have been a decent price I think.

Here is a shot with me standing under the OTA to give a little indication of the size of the scope.I am 5'9" tall.
I installed a guide scope too.

Well, the clouds moved in after about 30 minutes, but I did get a chance to do some more star testing on the 127ED.
I used Altair because it was in a good area of the sky and the air was pretty steady in that part.
I tried to use a 4mm (285x) but the conditions were not good enough to give me crisp rings. So I ended up using a 5mm (228x) TMB/BO EP and did quite a few runs in and out of focus looking for any changes in the rings.
First thing that I noticed was that the blue separated early on the inside of focus. This was obvious with 2-3 rings but disappeared with 4 rings. Outside of focus did not show this color separation.
The next thing that I noticed was that the rings were basically identical on both sides of focus. There was no sign of any aberration, turned edge, correction or spherical. I am pretty amazed that the scope tests this well. The diffraction rings are as nice as I see with my Zambuto mirrors, minus the central obstruction.
I also found that Altair a .8 mag star showed no color around it when in focus. Nothing like a halo or ring could be seen. Vega, a 0 mag star, did show a slight amount of blue or purple, but no halo or ring, just a slight hazy of color around it. This seemed to almost disappear when focus was perfect.
I also found that when I switched to the Radian EP, the diffraction rings were more sharp and easier to read, which was an interesting find. The difference was fairly large, with much better definition. I did not have a Plossl or Ortho of 5mm to try so these were the only EP used.
Then the clouds moved in and covered all my sky so I put the scope away again.
I can not wait to get it out on a good night with clear and dark skies. But the forecast for the weekend is not good. :S

Well, the clouds moved in after about 30 minutes, but I did get a chance to do some more star testing on the 127ED.
I used Altair because it was in a good area of the sky and the air was pretty steady in that part.
I tried to use a 4mm (285x) but the conditions were not good enough to give me crisp rings. So I ended up using a 5mm (228x) TMB/BO EP and did quite a few runs in and out of focus looking for any changes in the rings.
First thing that I noticed was that the blue separated early on the inside of focus. This was obvious with 2-3 rings but disappeared with 4 rings. Outside of focus did not show this color separation.
The next thing that I noticed was that the rings were basically identical on both sides of focus. There was no sign of any aberration, turned edge, correction or spherical. I am pretty amazed that the scope tests this well. The diffraction rings are as nice as I see with my Zambuto mirrors, minus the central obstruction.
I also found that Altair a .8 mag star showed no color around it when in focus. Nothing like a halo or ring could be seen. Vega, a 0 mag star, did show a slight amount of blue or purple, but no halo or ring, just a slight hazy of color around it. This seemed to almost disappear when focus was perfect.
I also found that when I switched to the Radian EP, the diffraction rings were more sharp and easier to read, which was an interesting find. The difference was fairly large, with much better definition. I did not have a Plossl or Ortho of 5mm to try so these were the only EP used.
Then the clouds moved in and covered all my sky so I put the scope away again.
I can not wait to get it out on a good night with clear and dark skies. But the forecast for the weekend is not good.
[COLOR="Red"]I posted this in the refractor forum, but I thought that the findings on the difference between the TMB/BO and the Radian doing the tests was interesting and on topic for this forum.[/COLOR]

Hi all,
I have bad weather so I have had to settle for working on the scope. I could not help but notice that the focuser had the typical glue grease that seems to be used for everything in scope manufacture. It left streaks on the barrel and made the focuser stiff. So I took it off the scope and disassembled it and cleaned every part down to perfectly clean. One thing I noticed was that the inside of the barrel had a wonderful baffle system with true knife edges (I cut my finger on one) . There was a lot of stuff in the baffles though, like dried up globs of grease. It was very dirty! 8O I cleaned it out with WD40 and then Windex followed with hot water and compress air to blow it all clean. This worked well.
Next I reassembled the rack and pinion and lubed it with a Molybdenum grease that will stay put but not harden. Then I adjusted the rack and pinion (it was not adjusted well at all from the factory) until it worked smoothly throughout the draw. With the modification I had done previously it now has a release knob for the electric focuser drive gear. The focuser now is as smooth as any R&P focuser that I have used. In fact I think that it is a pretty good one.
If anyone is interested in the modification I will post a picture or two.

I am not certain whether rapping on a scope and watching the oscillations is a valid test. A valid test is whether you can touch the focuser and not induce oscillation or whether the wind will induce it.
If you hit a scope it will surely oscillate and I guess that the time required to dampen it is relevant, but still I think it is not the right way to see if a scope has a problem.
Also, A Starmaster with a ServoCat system installed will dampen more quickly than one without this system installed. I know, because I checked mine before and after installation. It seems the drive cable tension as well as the drive spur on the ground board have an effect on dampening times.
So if you want to test scopes, they must be equipped with the same systems.
If a scope has better dampening times, this will only be of use during windy conditions, but it certainly is a good attribute.
I would be more concerned with the optical quality however. 8)

I got out last Friday night for a few hours. Conditions were not the greatest, but it was better than the clouds we have been experiencing.
I got the chance to use the 127 ED for a number of different object types. Globulars, Open Clusters, planetary nebula, stars and nebula.
The scope performed very well for the conditions prevailing. It had views that actually compared to those in the 10-12" scopes at the site. Not quite as bright, but not much different.
I did look at the Double Cluster and it was a real WOW! 8O Everyone looked as said that they had never seen a better view of it. The pinpoint stars and pure color was spectacular. In fact it was the best view of the night.
I find that the color is very slight and usually not noticeable on most any object except Vega. Even Deneb looked color free. Very nice indeed!
But, the tracking was the real surprise. The tracking on the LXD650 was excellent. It stayed exactly on target. I never saw the object move to any perceptible amount in 20-30 minutes. Go-To was also quite good. At least as good as the ServoCat on my Dob and it is very good.
I have to say that I feel the scope is under-rated and unless I just got lucky, is a very competent and high performance refractor with ED quality. For $2175 complete, I got a great deal I think.

I plan on using a Meade Pictor 201 XT autoguider with my Meade 127 ED and am wondering what size guide scope to use? 50mm, 60mm, 80mm? I know the 201 is mag 11 limited and so is a 80mm scope, but I am not sure about the size and even the focal ratio, f/6 or f/11?
The camera used will be a Meade DSI II Color one shot.

Last Saturday at the LAAS site at Lockwood Valley, California I got to do some real comparison testing as well as just testing of the 127 ED. The sky earlier in the evening was quite good and gave a chance to evaluate the spot size and color accuracy as well as flatness of field and FOV with wide field EPs.
I used Pentax XLs (10.5mm, 7mm) TV Naglers 22mm, and a few Zeiss, Pentax and Nikon Orthos of 10mm, 10.5mm, 12mm and 12.5mm for testing.
I asked others there to help with the evaluation and to give their opinions on the EPs and the scope.
The scope was much better than I thought it might have been. The flatness of field was incredible and the color correction was excellent with only small amounts of blue around very bright stars. Star test performed by myself and others showed excellent results. Many commented on the flatness of the whole field with perfect pinpoints edge to edge. The pinpoint size was extremely small, in fact smaller than the 85mm TV beside me. Open clusters showed pinpoints that were so small that they just seemed to go on for ever. I got a few statements that the view was the best that they had personally ever seen of the Double Cluster with a depth that made it a walk in space experience.
The color of the stars in cluster I compared to those in APOs there and they were identical. No signs of smear or loss of color or changes in tone could be seen between the ED and the APO scopes. So visually, it performs very close to an APO.
Over all I would say that as a visual scope this has got to be one of the best deals I have ever seen for the price. I am sure that as a photography platform it will not perform quite a well, but as a visual scope this is a very good 5" that the price did not break the bank.

Hi all,
Here is a picture of Linton Rohr on the right with his 14.5" Starmaster, my 14.5" Starmaster front left and the 127 ED on the far left.
This is taken last Saturday night at the LAAS site in Lockwood Valley, CA.
Thanks to LAAS, Jim and Larry Steenhoek and all the people that were present for a nice night.