LIDL Meade LXD 75 6" Newtonain

themole

On the 30th of Nov LIDL will have a Meade LXD 75 for €600.

Does this seem like a good deal?

From here
I can see it for $900, but that in the US where telescopes seem to be much cheaper.

Redshift

Would appear to be a good deal alright, any reviews I found were quite good.

slade_x

themole wrote:

On the 30th of Nov LIDL will have a Meade LXD 75 for €600.

Does this seem like a good deal?

From here
I can see it for $900, but that in the US where telescopes seem to be much cheaper.

The Model on sale in LIDL is discontinued and has been for quite a while, it is not a Schmidt-Newtonian but a standard base Newtonian Reflector , the models you see for $700-900 are new and improved, of which are schmidt's, if you look in the brochure you can clearly see item no. 4 "Newton Lens" this model doesnt have a corrector plate and so is definitely not a Schmidt-Newtonian. In light of what it is, I wouldnt think its a great price but if you're looking for convenience and dont want to hunt around for a telescope store it would be an easy way out, it is still a capable 6".

I see in the brochure it says High-end telescope for professionals that can easily be used by anyone. this particular astronomical scope would still be in the beginner/amateur section, its mount will require basic knowledge of how to set up, The LXD75 Mount does have considerable praise as it is a solid heavy duty mount, however i wouldnt consider it a professional scope though. anything under 8" is considered a small telescope, over 8" is medium and then depending 12" would be large. In this particular instance the mount actually makes this telescope

Also included is one 26mm super plossl eyepiece (in the brochure and online plossl is mispelled as ploessl) which gives you a total mag of 29x, if your interested in buying it, it might be a good idea to invest in another 2 varied eyepieces (i would recommend at least 1 wide field one) and at the very least a 2x/3x barlow lens, apparently you can use 1.25 and 2 inch eyepieces with it so if you already have a good build telescope, then you will be able to use your existing eyepieces

Another thing of note is it will weight a considerable amount because in addition to the required counterweight. so its not exactly the most portable. also the finderscope seems to be positioned very awkwardly.

If you have a good camera and an existing meade t-ring /mount then this definitely isnt a bad scope to get started in Astrophotography

Note: this is a deep sky telescope or what one would consider an astronomical scope, perfect for nebulae, galaxies and star clusters

Lastly I wonder why LIDL keep insisting on selling discontinued telescopes, i think last year it was the ETX70 AT that was discontinued for at least a year when lidl stocked it

I noticed this offer a while ago myself but didnt think it note worthy to mention. i think all who buy this will buy it for convenience of simply being able to pop in to your local store

EDIT: Here is the exact model on sale; Meade N6-AT on LXD75 EQ Mount

Alun

slade_x wrote:

Also included is one 26mm super plossl eyepiece (in the brochure and online plossl is mispelled as ploessl)

Well, AFAIK the guy who developed them is actually called Plössl (note the umlaut) and the accepted German way of writing an "ö" when an umlaut is not available on your keyboard is as an "oe", so strictly speaking "Ploessl" is equivalent to "Plössl".

themole

slade_x wrote:

EDIT: Here is the exact model on sale; Meade N6-AT on LXD75 EQ Mount

Hi.
Thanks for the feedback. From that site UPS shipping would be: $282.47, I have emailed them for a usps price.

Myself and my brother were looking at buying a scope together. It would then be left in Galway. He is interested in doing come photography at some stage.

What would you reccomend for a similar price (+/- 100)?, here in Ireland, so the price should include shipping if from elsewhere.

Cheers

slade_x

it all depends on what your plans are? for all i know this scope could happily satisfy your needs for many years to come.

What do you currently own or use?

If you dont currently own one, what are the types of objects you would like to observe and what are you realistically expecting to see from a telescope.

Most beginners when setting their budget for a scope usually end up having to double or even triple what they originally had in mind to get the kind of performance they would expect.

Also do you live in a well light area? would you have to commute to another location free of light pollution or that would at least have more acceptable seeing conditions?

themole

just got a reply from opt about shipping the same telescope from the us:

Hello Liam,

Thank you for inquiring with OPT. Unfortunately we are unable to ship Meade products outside of the United States or Canada due to a contractual obligation. We can ship them anywhere in the US, Canada and US territories, so if you have a US address that we can ship to then we would be happy to accommodate you. We can also ship to any APO or FPO (American Military) address in the world.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience that this may have caused you. OPT is working hard in an attempt to change the international policies at Meade, so hopefully before too long they will drop their restrictions and allow free trade outside of the United States. If you have any questions or if there are other products you are interested in, please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

Emily
Internet Sales Support Team

what a pile of ass

themole

slade_x wrote:

What do you currently own or use?

I currently just have a pair of binoculars.

slade_x wrote:

If you dont currently own one, what are the types of objects you would like to observe and what are you realistically expecting to see from a telescope.

I'm not really sure. The brother said he would like to see the rings of Saturn.
I am interested in seeing various things, including planets and galaxies.

slade_x wrote:

Also do you live in a well light area? would you have to commute to another location free of light pollution or that would at least have more acceptable seeing conditions?

I live in Dublin, but am planning on having the scope in my parents house in Claregalway in Galway. We also do not live in the "village", so there is little or no light pollution. So the brother can use it and i can the odd weekend when i'm down.

Are there any good guides to scopes which would provide price guide as to what gains there are to spending more money.

slade_x

themole wrote:

I currently just have a pair of binoculars.

I'm not really sure. The brother said he would like to see the rings of Saturn.
I am interested in seeing various things, including planets and galaxies.


Are there any good guides to scopes which would provide price guide as to what gains there are to spending more money.

A reflector telescope is a better all rounder in the interest of cost per aperture and functionality, they are best suited for deep sky objects and still are pretty good for planetary observations. having that said you'll be able to see the halo around saturn with a 70mm refractor but without detail (hence why i said halo and not rings). to see a comfortable amount of detail in the rings a 5"/6" refractor or 6"/8"+ reflector would be pretty nice.

Lately i see more and more beginners starting off on telescopes called Dobsonians, these are pretty big and bulky but if you dont plan on portability they are very very cost effective and as per their design have very large apertures for less money, you'll probably pick up a new 8" Dob for €500, for example see the below link:

http://www.celestron.uk.com/catalogues/browse_content.asp?CatalogueID=272&page=products - Just a quick google
Unfortunately Andromeda optics site is still, down. it may be worth your while to contact either them and/or North Down telescopes by phone

Looking through the site i linked to they seem on the expensive side, i originally would have thought you could pick up a 10" dob for around the €500-600 mark. A dob is mounted on a very simple mount called an Alt-Azimuth. basically the type of mount you would see being used in conjunction with a camera on a tripod (simple up-down, left-right movement)

To be honest i may have come off a little harsh on the N6-AT, it is a very fine and capable scope on a very sturdy mount. with it your basically paying for the mount (LXD75) and #497 Autostar controller, which on their own without a scope could come to €400+ in ireland.

The LXD75 in case you didnt know is known as an Equatorial mount. you may have guessed it may have something to do with the earths equator from the name(specifically perpendicular to earths equatorial plane).
It basically describes a mount that is tilted along the same angle as the Earth's axis of rotation (along the earths pole)

A little diagram to illustrate:


Thus this type of mount is much more suited to tracking objects in the sky as relative to us on a rotating earth, the sky rotates around us in relevence to the earths polar axis. with an EQ mount you not only have the altitude and azimuth axis's but declination (DEC) and right ascension(RA) also. RA and DEC are part of the celestial coordinate system which you will more than likey familiarise yourself with later or you already have.

As a beginner you could easily grow into the N6, it offers more than acceptable aperture (6 inches/152mm) and will allow you to ease into the coordinate system

A thing to note is, if you do purchase the N6 from lidl. you do not need knowledge of the exact operation of the EQ mount, nor as a beginner are you expected to in order to begin your first session. being new to owning a telescope your best bet is to just go out and look at random parts of the sky, even if it doesnt look like there's something there with the naked eye. there are an unimaginable amount of objects that can be seen well beyond the range of your eyes especially and even a pair of binoculars.

You are free to freely guide the telescope around as you please. you can later ease yourself into how to setup up and use an EQ mount as you progress. But just remember astronomy isn't an instant satisfaction, even for the most experienced of stargazers, we all need to spend time searching, centering, focusing etc. you will more than likely be met with a lot of frustration, but given time, patience and a steady mount astronomy is an unbelievable rewarding hobby for all that get into it

Edit: Here's a Photo gallery of shots taken with the LXD75 range:
http://www.meade.com/photogallery/lxd75_gallery.html

The bottom two are taken with the Schmidt-newtonian (SN6) version of the standard N6 newtonian

paddyman

One question, Since the main cost of this package is taken up by the autostar and mount, if i was to buy this with future proof in mind and in 2 years decide "i need a bigger, better scope", would this mount be capable of mounting scopes of larger sizes like 10" to 12" or would you need to buy a new mount then anyways?

themole

paddyman wrote:

One question, Since the main cost of this package is taken up by the autostar and mount, if i was to buy this with future proof in mind and in 2 years decide "i need a bigger, better scope", would this mount be capable of mounting scopes of larger sizes like 10" to 12" or would you need to buy a new mount then anyways?

Good question, i too would like to know that

Right now we are not thinking of rushing into buying a scope. I have relations in the US who could post/bring a scope back for us. So we may do that, dunno.

I was aware of the different types of mounts, so afaik to do astrophotography an Equatorial mount with electronic control is required.

I would be happy enough with an Equatorial mount with a scope and no electronic control, if that meant for my money i was getting a better scope. However the brother is looking at astrophotography so he is looking at the cost of scope, Equatorial mount, electronic control and ccd as a package as some places give discount on the ccd when bought with a scope.

Am i right in saying that the us is the place to get stuff at any reasonable price? if so where would you reccomend, Andormada optics?

slade_x

The LXD75 Mount is recommended up to a 10", im not sure about 12", there probably are some that have mounted such a scope on the mount though

To be honest if you want 10"/12"+ then i would really recommend a Dobsonian, if you look at this site you can see how cheap the Truss Lightbridges are:

10" £499 - €740
12" £589 - €871



Meade's Truss Lightbridges are built as portable "easy assembly" large aperture telescopes


http://www.andromedaoptics.com/ site is down and has been for quiet a while

slade_x

So did anyone buy it? any free software like the "Carte du Ceil" that came bundled with the ETX70-AT?

squonk

No bundeled software apart from the autostar computer. Haven't started to set it up yet. Will try it over the weekend I think.

slade_x

squonk wrote:

No bundeled software apart from the autostar computer. Haven't started to set it up yet. Will try it over the weekend I think.

Thats unfortunate, usually i have seen "AutoStar Suite Software: Astronomer Edition" bundled with the N6 in the past and now the SN6 models.

Not a bad program too

libertycat

hello to all..
As I am reading on the net about this next MEADE in Lidl... No one can say about it thruthfully ??? I mean... reading here on the net.. ok. But anyone can give feedback after bought it maybe ? I can't think that as I was reading, this is not good model.. I guess that a telescope that usually cost 800 euros need to be telescope you can see details of saturn and Mars.. Hope so !! Isn't this wright so much ?

libertycat

I don't know why I was reading all these since 2 weeks.. I bought this telescope that was for sale only this week in my city.. and it is really amazing device for such price ! And quality of the optic tube is great, not at all as reviews I saw on the net at all.

albertw

slade_x wrote:

The LXD75 Mount is recommended up to a 10", im not sure about 12", there probably are some that have mounted such a scope on the mount though

I've the LXD55 with the 10"SN and the mount is only barley able to handle that (30lbs scope + 30lbs counterweights). It would not hold a 12".

To be honest if you want 10"/12"+ then i would really recommend a Dobsonian

Funny you should mention that. I use the lxd55 mount for my 4" mak and have the 10"SN in a homemade dob mount. I get more use out of the scopes that way.

http://www.andromedaoptics.com/ site is down and has been for quiet a while

Wally has ran into some problems moving from one provider to another. He hopes to get it all sorted out soon.

dubtom

I see lidel on the greenhills road still has one of those scopes for sale on Saturday.

decco15

Anyone familiar with the other 2 telescopes that Lidl are offering, the Bresser Messier R-102 and the Meade ETX-70AT? Difficult for a beginner to decide which is the best offer.

Thanks

Petands

slade_x wrote: »

So did anyone buy it? any free software like the "Carte du Ceil" that came bundled with the ETX70-AT?

"Carte du Ceil" is free to download just google it, also google WWT "World Wide Telescope" is free to download too which i thinks is the best. Enjoy

Kalli

Hi all,

bought this telescope and thought I might post.

I had a 5" newtonian before but I upgraded to this one mainly because of the tripod/mount.

unpacked and put together no problem a week ago.

Yesterday I tried it out and had a bit of starting problems:
a) watched Venus, which looked good (could see the crescent), but there were 4 bright straight lines going away from the middle of the scope (venus) to the edge oif the FOV. I suspect that is the spider. I didn't get this effect on darker objects (like nebulas). So I'll see what I can do against that. maybe they are not in straight ?!

then I tried aligning the scope which failed miserable (3-4 tries). I'm quite convinced I was doing something wrong so I'll re-read the manual about those procedures. I had a hard time to verify the star in the finderscope. I know where they are in the sky but i'm missing a lot of FOV to be sure on what I'm looking at in the finder scope

I have aligned my EQ2 mounted 5" newtonian with no computer controlled moter with no problems whatsoever just using the polar star. But in this case the alignment progress is working but it fails to go even near the object once aligned. as in turning to south when object is in east. But as said. I'm quite sure I misunderstood something in the docs

As I sold my other scope I ordered a new set of lenses and filters and barlow. But I hope to have alignment at least kinda ok until then

even though I'm used to newtonians this is again a steep learning curve for me.

oh btw: the collimation is near perfect on the scope. no changes needed. that was the great news so far ;-)


kalli

FishD

Been thinking of a scope for many years to replace a very old 2.5" reflector, and yes bought this out of convenience. Prices looked competitive, and i'm not really concerned with if its a '2008' model or older, once it fulfills my needs. I can understand why LIDL might get a good price on a job lot of old stock.

I like the convenience of 'autostar' appears easy to use once setup (have not tried to align outdoors yet). Build is very solid, and yes mine came with the free Carte du Cel, software, but i found a newer version on the internet also free, but would have liked the ability to link it with a computer, particularly with the advent of the cheap 'atom' processor based machines.

Big limitation with this scope is the low power eyepiece which came with it as standard. Im sure its capable of much more with a couple of good higher power eyepieces. ( i will look advice for these probably in a separate thread). This price should be factored in.

The finder scope is fine, and its not awkard to use. The two clips holding the scope barrell are easy to loosen up, and roll rotate to put it in a better position, if thats whats needed. This wont affect the setup, as its fixed to the barrel (unless you have completed the accurate polar alignment for astrophotography).

Its got a polar reticle built on the mount, and i havent got to setting that up accurately yet, but don't intent in the short term to do any astrophotography, so a crude setup works for observation seems to work fine.

I agree with other poster, its not a 'professional', but a top end amateur one, and the idea that the scope can be upgraded to an 8 or 10" appeals, should i want to get more into the hobby.

Transportabilty is a problem, and it really can't be lifted by one person in one piece. However Ive chosen to remove the scope and the top part of the mount from the tripod, after removing the counter weight (i marked its balance position for easy setup), and battery (which hangs loose). This allows the tripod to be folded somewhat. Providing portability, safely, will be a challenge.

There is a lot to be said for being able to buy this in a local store, knowing that you can bring it back if there is a problem, and not have to worry about any shipping damage, and returns to a foreign country. But that approach is not for everyone.

Just my 0.02$


Fish
Leixlip

Kalli

Hi FishD,

i got more time now playing around with it.
I got the alignment going now as well. The secret was to train the motor and then in the site setup, once you selected Dublin to press "go to". The thing will rotate a bit.
On the alignment i had it then pretty much to polar star and when it went to first alignment star capella it was nearly bang on already. From then it all went fine.
I bought a set of eyepieces and had some left from my older scope. On a newtonian you usually say 50 times aperture in inch. for this 300x max. It can do way more but it will get dark and blurry. with the focal length of 762mm. With the nights we had I only had a look at moon, a few nebulas and clusters. But so far all good.

The biggest thing about the scope is the mount (LXD75). before I saw the scope at LIDL I was planning to buy this exact mount because i'm interested in astrophotography. Someone was bidding higher for a used one on eBay (it went for 520Euro!) and I already offered 480.
So when I saw the ad at LIDL i had to get one no matter what OTA is mounted on top of it. But the 6" newton is way better than the 5" skywatcher 130pm I bought a year ago . The focuser is much better. And you can remove a distance tube for mounting a camera body (DSRL) via T2 ring.The mount is already worth 500 new, and if you get a solid 6" newtonian with it, who can complain?!

So all in all for this money this is a _FANTASTIC_ piece of equipment.

I have the scope at the door so I only have to carry it outside with no hassle. But I wouldn't want to carry this in one pice up and down steps or through several rooms either.

I'm delighted. I just bought a piggyback mount and a Canon 400D and T adapter. I'll upload my first deep sky picture once the equipment arrives

Kalli

what of forgot to mention. to get even better alignment and slewing accuracy I went to yahoo maps or google maps and looked up my observation point. The maps will give you the exact latitude and logitude of this position. All this you can feed into the autostar to set up your site. bang on

FishD

Kalli wrote: »

Hi FishD,
I'll upload my first deep sky picture once the equipment arrives

Great endorsement there Kalli,

I'm feeling more pleased with my purchase. Looking forward to see your first pics. Feel free to PM me.

porridge

Kalli wrote: »

Hi FishD,

i got more time now playing around with it.
I got the alignment going now as well. The secret was to train the motor and then in the site setup, once you selected Dublin to press "go to". The thing will rotate a bit.
On the alignment i had it then pretty much to polar star and when it went to first alignment star capella it was nearly bang on already. From then it all went fine.
I bought a set of eyepieces and had some left from my older scope. On a newtonian you usually say 50 times aperture in inch. for this 300x max. It can do way more but it will get dark and blurry. with the focal length of 762mm. With the nights we had I only had a look at moon, a few nebulas and clusters. But so far all good.

The biggest thing about the scope is the mount (LXD75). before I saw the scope at LIDL I was planning to buy this exact mount because i'm interested in astrophotography. Someone was bidding higher for a used one on eBay (it went for 520Euro!) and I already offered 480.
So when I saw the ad at LIDL i had to get one no matter what OTA is mounted on top of it. But the 6" newton is way better than the 5" skywatcher 130pm I bought a year ago . The focuser is much better. And you can remove a distance tube for mounting a camera body (DSRL) via T2 ring.The mount is already worth 500 new, and if you get a solid 6" newtonian with it, who can complain?!

So all in all for this money this is a _FANTASTIC_ piece of equipment.

I have the scope at the door so I only have to carry it outside with no hassle. But I wouldn't want to carry this in one pice up and down steps or through several rooms either.

I'm delighted. I just bought a piggyback mount and a Canon 400D and T adapter. I'll upload my first deep sky picture once the equipment arrives

Hi I am having a dam time trying to align my LXd75 which I also got at lidle, when doing easy align the two stars it selects are always well off, reading your post you seemed to have a similar problem but managed to fix it , could you detail around the site selection bit a little ?, I have selected dublin but it doesnt seem to work.

thanks

mike

Kalli

it's been a long time :-)
but I think dublin is preconfigured.
i basically had to go to the setup then site, select dublin.
the misery with this was that you have to hit "goto" afterwards. that i didn't know

once that is done I think the scope spun around a good bit.
Then I aligned the thing to polar star and when i did the 2 star alignment the thign actually went somewhere close to the objects so I could center them for alignment.

But yes at the start it wouldn't go anywhere near the alignment stars

tell me what you do and how far you get. will get that sorted

Kalli

forgot ... i pronmised. that was the first time i tried orion. hasn't got much better since but the weather didn't help ;-) that was end of january