Meade LightSwitch

[Allan_L]

Has anyone purchased one of the new Meade Light Switch Imaging Telescopes yet?

I am curious as to how they perform?

I did a quick search and could not find any (other than "looking forward to release of" ).

Looks nice and light (no pun intended).
Anyone know if they are planning more releases (say bigger than the 6 inch at Bintel)?

cheers
al

[Blue Skies]

I thought they had only just released them in the US. I doubt anyone actually has one yet - but if they do, please speak up! I'm curious about these ones, too.

[seeker372011]

think its just vapour ware at the moment though they had units on display at NEAF

i'd say wait a while till real users get their hands on a unit and provide a report
edit
just saw over on cloudy nights that some people are expecting to see their scopes delivered this week..so not long to wait before user feedback

expected September delivery in Europe..

[seeker372011]

think its actually quite a heavy beast

[Don Pensack]

Small quantities have been shipped to retail customers from Meade. My company is still a long way away from filling our backorders.
So far, the problems have been minor and largely user-induced (by not reading the owner's manual).
We turned one on in the daytime and the scaope told us: "There are no stars visible--it's daytime!" LOL.
So far, the reports are that the scope actually works as advertised. We'll see what gets reported as the number of units shipped goes up.
I have no idea when the numbers of units shipped will fill up the pipeline and give dealers actual stock to sell. At the current rate of delivery, I would guess another 2-3 months.

[telecasterguru]

Mike at Bintel in Sydney turned one on for me on Saturday.
Indeed, it said there was nothing to view due to too much light but said it was ready for terrestrial viewing. It did do a satellite search and slewed around logging on. It did a lot of talking in an American accent.
It seems to me from the size of the mount that it was designed for an 8" OTA and from the look it wouldn't be too hard to fit one. Alignment would be an issue of course.
Appeared to be a nice neat compact unit and as an easy carry and set up unit sure did have a lot of pluses.
Obviously could not check out the optics and personally would prefer a larger aperture as I am used to my larger Newts.
I thought it had a lot of promise and probably is a rival for the Celestron series of similar mounted scopes but apparently without the alignment issues.
If they bring out a 14 or 16 on an GEM hmmmm....

Frank

[seeker372011]

first reports from the US say it performs as advertised..turn it on and it aligns itself....

[Chippy]

Certainly not vapourware. They look quite nice to me (saw one last weekend). The secondary obstruction is reported to be rather large though. An 8" version will almost certainly be released towards the end of the year. It will have the same mount but a heavier more stable tripod I believe.