The Meades are a good generalist scope. As Fred said, I wouldn't rely on them for very long exposure astrophotography (the mount's not really accurate enough for that), however taking subs of 10-20 minutes and stacking them is going to produce some pretty spec piccies. However, I wouldn't fault them for that, and whilst you can get better scopes for imaging, you're going to need the "doe ray me" to get one. Thing is, you're going to pay big bucks to get similar coma free FoV's from guys like Planewave and RCOS, where I can fork out $3700 for an 8" and get exactly the same optical performance (or near the same). Admittedly you're not going to get the big piccies out of an 8" like you can out of a bigger scope, but a 12-16" Meade is going to be one sweet scope. Now they build 20" Meades.
Visually, the Meades are a treat....the stars are pinpoint and bright right out to the edge of your FoV and nebs look crisp and defined. I'm very happy with my 8" ACF. It's not an "uber scope" and can do everything, including serving drinks
, but it does what I want it to....and in the end that's what we all expect from our scopes.