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:

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:

This is a great scope for the price. I live in the city and it beats my 8"SCT, even with the extreme light pollution. Also, it is easy to setup with practice.
This is the perfect cure for "aperture fever".

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

As an avid amateur astronomer I like the big view this scope offers. It has great optics. I have seen this summer 7 galaxies, many nebulae, many open clusters, clusters, saturn, jupiter, and double stars. The veil nebulae was awesome, the ring nebulae was awesome, and other. For the price you can afford this versus other more expensive scopes with similar optics. I keep it assembled in garage on Jimi Wheeliebar. It moves easily with Jimi Wheeliebar.

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

Got this thing and it is a trip I will say that. It is BIG, Hard to move. Needs Wheels. But for the price you can not beet it. You will need a bit of help getting it set up. And You will need to get some wheels for it, if you want to move it around. UPS brings it to my house, only to find they put part of it on one truck. The other part on some other truck. Truck two comes about 45 min later.Now I have it all. Three Big box's. I look at all the things with it and the book on how to put it all together. At first it looks like it may be a bit hard.But in one Hr I had it done and set up. And I took my time. It really is not hard to put together. Now if the weather would clear up I can try this thing out. I did get some new Lenses for it. Got the Meade Series 4000 set and a Moon filter.And looking for a Zoom Lenses for it. This is going to be real gass....