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re saxon
Hi Ian
i have a saxon 200mm MC so perhaps you can extrapolate here. Here's a "mini review"
I bought the OTA only. My other scope is a meade SN10.
I consider the SN10 and saxon scopes similar in build and quality--they are good but not perfect.
I have no experience with the EQ mount but from reading is similar to the LXD55 mount I have. The 200mm saxon scope is quite heavy especially at the rear end and on the lxd 55 I cannot balance it in declination (without having to resort to extra weights--which I did for a short time but that put excess strain on the cradle plate and I stripped some threads!). I'd imagine the 150mm would be easier to balance. Im learning more and more how important a good mount is so consider this fact when buying a scope although obviosuly we all have a budget to run to.
The scope came packed reasonably well. The included instructions I would consider near worthless. Meade's instructions are excellent.
The mirror and corrector plate seem well made. The mirror cell however mildly "rocks" (significant enough to affect imaging/observing) on the OTA --so temporarily I have had to to "fasten" it to the OTA with some tape. I haven't had the guts to pull it apart as I don't have a mental picture of how it is assembled internally.My plan B is to silicon it. (Yes I could take it back but I like to sort out these things and my experience with the SN10 is that unfortunately in this price range things are never perfect!).
Collimation was easy with allens head screws well hidden by some rubber caps.
The diagonal seems well built but I noticed that I could not achieve perfect collimation through it. I pulled apart the backing and the mirror "looks cheap" and sat on a foam piece whose adhesive backing had not even been removed. I have no reference here to judge the diagonal but it is probably average.
Focussing is soemthing I'm getting used to (having a SN10 and small refractor previously)--image shift & finding the focus is an issue ( I seem sometimes to turn the focussing knob for ages before getting focus---somehow not as intuitive as focussing on a refractor/reflector) but again I have no reference to what I should expect.
I'm unsure whether the back threads on the rear cell are compatible with
other meade/celestron products--I'll soon find out having brought an adaptor to exclude the diaganol from the optical axis!
HAving said all this I brought the OTA becuase I wanted a long focal length scope for planetary imaging.I have been happy so far in this regards and there is still room for imporvement (see jupiter pics with saxon under solar system pics--earlier this month)
I guess you need to ask yourself what is it you want the scope for and hence does its specs do justice to this need (but don't expect perfect!)
ron
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