The Sky and Telescope Review of the Meade LXD55 series scope
Richard Harris December 31, 2002
Note: Sky and Telescope words in Red

Introduction:
Let me start out by saying thank you to Sky and Telescope magazine for giving me a complimentary copy of their in-house review of the LXD55 scope for an 'overview' look.
They bring up some great points and give a slightly different perspective on the scopes that I think you would benefit from reading. You can get the full blown copy online from them right here..
I can't duplicate the entire review for you ,but I do have permission to 'quote' any part of it, so let's get started.

Moving on:
"Meade's LXD55 Schmidt-Newtonians", "Are these new entry-level telescopes as good under the stars as they appear to be on paper?" the review is called from Sky and Telescope.
The first couple of paragraphs of the review talk some about the history of Meade's Schmidt Newtonian design. Remember those older 6" and 8" SN models on those heavy EQ mounts in the 90's? It's basically pointing out all the differences in those older SN scopes - which costs upwards of $1000 in the late 80's and early 90's, and the new LXD55 telescopes, with a host of more features for about the same price range.
I agree with what they say here, being all things 'equal' the scopes really do appear to be an outstanding deal, but that "if people are expecting the LXD55 to be a bargain priced LX200, they will be disappointed".
They are saying what allot of people are finding out, especially those LX200 owners out there, that they are not of the LX200 quality. Still though - a nice setup.
Next they cover scope specs, weight and how it arrived to them. In the mid-year of 2002 they received an 8" LXD55 SN scope from Meade for testing. Later in the summer, they point out that they also acquired the 10" OTA for use with the LXD55 mount.
Here's what they point out off the bat, that they did and did-not like.
S&T Likes:
* "Quality Metal Construction with excellent fit and finish.
* Multi-purpose optical system with focuser and accessories for visual and photographic work.
* Autostar computerized pointing"

S&T Dislikes:
* "Finder bracket difficult to secure firmly with thumbscrews." -amen!
* "10-inch scope near the limit of the mount's capacity for long exposure astrophotography"

LXD55.com Add-ons in addition to those above:
LXD55.com Likes:
* It's a nice looking outfit!
* You get some bonus includes, such as a threaded camera adapter, and a good 26mm EP
* Polar finder included
* Threaded rings for piggy back camera adapter
* Hello? $99 eyepiece deal? Yea baby! This is a definite 'value-add', you get a slew of nice 4000 series Meade Eyepieces and a nice Meade case for $99 with the purchase of this scope. Enough said there.

LXD55.com Dislikes:
* Cheaper tripod. Not such a big deal on the 6"SN model, but the 8" and the 10" along with the longer AR5 and AR6 refractors would benefit greatly from a more Meade standard field tripod.
* Cheap mount design, utilizing teflon and plastic in the axis rotation points. This could have been greatly improved with the use of bearings. That along with 'heavy duty' grease, makes this a point of failure for some LXD55 scopes right out of the box. Given that there is too much tension on the mount for the motors to move it. It usually results in sending the mount back, or doing an overhaul with a lighter-duty or more lubricant grease.
* And lastly - Quality control. Go to the Newsgroups, go to the LXD55.com forums or User tips section, and you'll find person after person who has gotten their new scope , only to send it right back in for another one. Either something is broken, or something is missing, or something isn't working right - you name it and there is someone who has sent an LXD55 back to Meade for it. However, in Meade's defense, this is a new scope design. There are always first round production problems. Things are getting better, and hopefully in the next few months most of these problems will go away. Keep in mind the price (comparatively) and the success ratio of people who have gotten a good scope from the start!

Continuing
S&T digs right into with taking their LXD55 out of the box and telling you what all is included. Something else they point out here which is worth mentioning, is the rack and pinion focuser. They really like the smoothness and construction. Some people I've ran across HATE this from the start and search for a replacement, but I agree with S&T here. The Focuser is very adequate and built well. It's built for a 2" EP, but comes with a threaded adapter for 1.25" EP's. Do yourself a favor - buy a slide on adapter, the threaded one will get on your nerves if you switch from 2" to 1.25" EP's very often during a viewing session.
Overall, we are seeing the same picture most people are painting of the LXD55 scope. But what they cover next has been obvious to some people, but hardly talked about.
"Owners familiar with the German Equatorial mount and Meade's Autostar controller will be right at home with these instruments the first night out. But I suspect that the LXD55s will be the first 'real' telescope for a lot of people. As such, the overall operation of the German Equatorial mount and Autostar, as well as the subtleties involved with precision Go To pointing, may be a bit overwhelming at first."

I think they just thumped some people, not intentionally though. What I mean is these scopes are not 'above' anyone, but they are a more advanced design and newbie telescope owners will usually get frustrated first before getting any good first time results. That circle usually prompts calls to Meade, or posts to Internet newgroups, just so people can point out the obvious to them.

S&T go's on to say "Here's my advise for first-time users. Take a hint from the way the instruction manual is organized. When you start out, don't worry about learning Autostar's details - the hand control's basics, covered on pages 9 and 10 of the manual, are more than enough at the outset.
Set up the scope and familiarize yourself wi ht the parts during the daytime. The only adjustment you need to make at this time it roughly setting the elevation of the polar axis using the scale on the equatorial head (it should be set to your latitude).
When dusk falls, take the scope outside and position it with the upper end of the polar axis aimed northward (or southward if you're in the Southern Hemisphere)."

I couldn't have said it better myself.
Again, I won't duplicate the complete review here, but they continue on with some excellent advise for newbie telescope owners and some more good advise for experienced telescope owners.

The optics:
Next thing they go over, is the SN optical design and the quality of the LXD55 optics. Overall, they feel like everyone else does here, in that the optical design and image quality is superb! They talk some about chromatic aberrations and the 'fight' with fast optics such as these scope contend with. They also talk some about the larger secondary obstruction, and what kinds of EP's can deal with this. Good reading here.
Collimation, they say is a synch. I say - they are wrong. Given they are working with an 8" model when they are 'reaching' back to set, - the 10" model is darn near impossible without two people, er' unless you have long arms!

The Mount
They start off this section with kudos to Meade for building an attractive and robust mount - I agree. They also say it slews around easily with a 60 lbs 10" OTA on top. I would disagree with that. It's not an 'easy' task for this mount. It is do-able, but not easily. Listen to this video for proof there.
They do continue on to say though, "The mount is well matched to the load of the 8-inch scope", and mention that vibration pads help out quite a bit. "The 10-inch scope is at the upper limit of the mounts capacity, with damping approaching 6 to 7 seconds", without the vibration pads. I agree with them. But even with vibration pads, the damping is still about 5 seconds. The vibration pads sell from Meade for $49.95.
Continuing on, with the mentioning of GOTO slewing, which as most know is one of the biggest selling points of this scope.
They say, "In past Test Reports we've given Autostar very high marks, and there's nothing here that changes our opinion. But there are a few Autostar caveats that go with using the LXD55 mount."
They start mention of aligning the scope, and how important a good alignment is for accurate GOTO slewing. I guess they got a good one from the factory, because they go on to say that they purposely aimed the mount 'off axis' during a typical setup and the AutoStar was forgiving enough to still allow accurate slews. "Tracking, however was compromised, and the objects drifted out of the field of view after a few minutes."
When not doing a good enough polar alignment, this is absolutely true, and since Autostar will compensate for this (and really doesn't use this) when doing a two-star alignment, GOTO slews should still be accurate.
They make mention of the manual giving detailed instructions for polar alignment using the built in polar axis scope, but as most know - the manual is somewhat limited. For previous owners of GEM scopes it makes more sense, but if you are new to Astronomy and this is your first telescope, then it's going to be more difficult. The most confusing part for most is which stars to use for alignment!

Conclusion
S&T finish of their review with talking about the photographic usage of the LXD55 scope series.
Here's what they have to say:
"For 'snap-shot' imaging of the Moon and planets, especially with today's digital camera's, they are very solid performer, though the focal length is a bit short for high-magnification planetary imaging.
When is comes to long-exposure deep-sky photography, the answer is more complex and centers mainly around the mount."
They compare theLXD55 mount to the Vixen GP-DX mount, which is a nice compliment in my book. And yet again, they mention the price of the entire package. It's cheap! Compared to the Vixen mount it's half the price and you get a 6" scope with the lowest priced LXD55 offered.
The say that there is another common feature of the Vixen and LXD55 mounts -being neither offer plug-and-play Auto Guider compatibly. That's not entirely true, keep an eye on SAC imaging, and LXD55.com for more information there ;)

Final Words
S&T give the LXD55 scope a thumbs up, for overall price and performance. In their words, "They are indeed and extraordinary value in today's market, as well as being all around fine telescopes."

Thanks again to S&T for the opertunity to review their thoughts of an extraordinary scope.