Meade 6" f5 Newt?

[garymck]

Hi,
looking at the Meade 6" f5 Newt OTA that Bintel has for $399 as the basis of a compact astrograph.

Has anyone any experience of them and can comment on the optical quality?

Proposing to fit a crayford focuser , and larger diagonal, as well as use my Baader MPCC.

Need a lowend solution to use as a temporary scope as I just had a major accident with my 10" newt that destroyed the tube (optics fotunately OK - but need a complete rebuild that will take ages, unless someone knows a source of cheap metal tubes).

Is the OTA a rebadged GSO? can get the tube $100 cheaper from Andrews.....

cheers
Gary

[Starkler]

I dont beleive its a GSO.
Janoskiss might chime in here, but I recall he bought an ota from someone who split an lxd75 package and he wasnt impressed with the optical quality at all.
The gso might be a better bet.

[janoskiss]

I bought Stu's lxd75 6" f/5 newt, which he got only because could not buy the mount on its own. It has a spherical mirror and appalling performance. Feedback from 6" lxd75 newt owners in the States suggests that some of these 6" f/5 meades are good and have a parabolic mirror. Mine is a shocker with textbook spherical aberration star test.

[garymck]

Meade replaced the spherical mirrors in the US after an uproar there. You could fix it by flexing the mirror to a parabola. If interested I can give you the details. I need to know the exact diameter of the mirror, and it's thickness.
cheers
Gary

[janoskiss]

Thanks Gary. Interesting about being able to flex the mirror to the correct shape. I might PM you for details when I manage to drag out the scope and measure the mirror thickness.