Meade LightBridge 16 Inch Truss Tube Dobsonian Telescope

Comments about Meade LightBridge 16-Inch Truss - Tube Dobsonian Telescope - Deluxe:

I have found that this scope captures so much light, you'll think you've turned on a light bulb when looking at Jupiter. The view of dim nebula is excellent, showing great detail. And, when disassembled, this scope (after making a new base) easily fits into my Hyundai Elantra making it truly transportable.You will easily spend another $200 upgrading this scope. (See below.) But, with the price offered compared to other scopes of this size, you cannot beat the price for performance.The main components are ready for use [...] Some items you may want to consider upgrading before first use:Standard eyepiece:While this suffers some coma when you look away from the center of the eyepiece, the field of view is phenomenal and makes finding objects as simple as point in the right direction, then adjust to center. Now, I need to find a 2" EP with a shorter focal length so I don't have to swap the adapter in and out. I have quickly made this my primary eyepiece.Mirror:Star testing indicates multiple concentric circles with no aberrations or astigmatism of either mirror. The secondary outer surface is very visible in the eyepiece, paint it black.Scope Construction:Built to take the wear and tear of disassembly and travel! But, everything is white and shiny. In particular, the UTA and LTA rings should be black. The truss supports are shiny aluminum. With a little moon, or city lights, this creates a lot of stray light. Paint them black and cover the struts with pipe insulation. Secondary adjustment screws are difficult to operate. Primary mirror is heavy and will shift when moving scope from vertical to horizontal enough to move collimation laser return beam by 1-4 mm at the eyepiece even with stop screws tightened down. Possibly heavier springs are needed since I have these tightened almost to max. This is a truss tube design: To minimize dew and scattered light, buy or make a shroud. This will likely also require a counterweight to rebalance the scope. Using the little bearing clamp instead of counterweights will likely damage the aluminum altitude bearing with use.Viewfinder:The reticule can be adjusted in brightness, but even the lowest setting is too bright for use at night as it washes out the view. After the first night of use, I replaced this with a Telrad.Rocker Base: Way too big, overly heavy, and not moisture resistant. (Some edges are not treated.) Had to trash the base before I did anything with the scope as it would not fit through the door, or into my car with it's 32 inch diameter. New base, home-built, is over 20 lbs lighter and fits in my car while still completely stable. Metal cylinder bearings for azimuth make this extremely easy to spin despite tightening. May become a problem with some wind.

Comments about Meade LightBridge 16-Inch Truss - Tube Dobsonian Telescope - Deluxe:

I have alway's used telescopes.com for all my astronomy equipment need's so I had zero concern's about making this larger purchase. I enjoy building my own telescope's also but couldn't even find a 16 inch mirror for the price of this entire telescope. The 16" LightBridge has all the high quality accessories that I would alway'shave to buy used when constructing a telescope. [...] The mirror in this scope is great, even before a collimation I viewed Jupiter and was amazed at the contrast, and the double cluster was beautiful. In some area'sof the sky, everything looked like an open cluster. I am totally pleased with my new telescope.

Comments about Meade LightBridge 16-Inch Truss - Tube Dobsonian Telescope - Deluxe:

Best bang for the buck. I looked through scopes that were many thousands of dollars more and there was very little difference if any. I bought the 10" LX200 ACF and was so unimpressed I took it right back. This 16" is much better and especially with the 2" Naglers.

Comments about Meade LightBridge 16-Inch Truss - Tube Dobsonian Telescope - Deluxe:

Sixteen inches! Need I say more, I will. Easy to use in all aspects: Assembly, Dis-assembly, Transport, and Operation. Made my own cart using coaster wheels under a round table top, for rolling scope in and out of garage. Don't sell your eyes short to save a few bucks, I have 2 other reflectors, a 4.5", and a 10" and BOY! what a difference the 16" makes. In Telescopes, BIGGER IS BETTER! Happy Star Hoping!

Comments about Meade LightBridge 16-Inch Truss - Tube Dobsonian Telescope - Deluxe:

Surprisingly the tube assembly is a bit lighter, though more bulky, than my 10 inch lx200. Recommend for the experienced amateur in order to find things, though the fov is so large, it's not hard to star hop. for pure scientific power the LX series ACF is far superior, but for sheer joyful visual astronomy with basically zero set up, you can't go wrong with nearly half meter aperture! Get a 2" meade 5000 series super or ultra wide (26 to 34mm ideal) the view is worth every cent. The primary fan is a critical feature, thermal soak is an issue with any large primary. the fan brings the mirror to thermal equilibrium quickly, and it's neat to watch before your eyes the thermal induced astigmatism just go away in about 15 min.