Meade 102mm ED 5000 APO

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Does anyone have any experience with the Meade 102mm ED APO? Looks like a nice scope though I can't seem to find any reviews that are current. They are currently selling for $1799 locally. My application will comprise visual, piggyback photography with DSLR and maybe moving to prime focus.

Link to Mead site is here:

http://www.meade.com/product_pages/e...102/ed_102.php

Thanks in advance for comments.

Rodney

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

After considering my needs further I have actually decided to go ahead and order the 80mm 5000 ED Meade scope. I was attracted to the shorter focal length at F6 (rather than F7 for the 102mm) which suits where I am going with wide field photography.

I have just placed the order with Star Optics. I will post a review of the scope once I have taken delivery and had time to play with it some.

[pjphilli (Peter)]

Hi Rodney

I also have had a Meade 80mm ed apo f6 and over the past year have been using it with my Meade 400D DSLR. I find the optics are excellent for wide fovs with the 400D. You will get a bit of vignetting so use flat frame correction and of course dark frames.
A couple of small problems:
1. As my scope does not have a vernier on the Crayford focuser I found it a little severe to get fine focusing. So I clamped a 3in plastic jar lid on one of the 1 1/2 in knobs. This gives me an effective 2:1 "gearing" advantage and it is adequate for good focusing. With focusing I have found that using a Bahnitov mask on a bright alignment star provides excellent and quick focusing. I made my own by sizing the attached mask (designed for a sct but works fine on the refractor) outline on my printer to suit the 80mm, glueing the printout onto a thin piece of cardboard, cutting out using a sharp Stanley knife and then strengthening it with a thicker outer cardboard ring.
2. When you have focused properly you may be tempted to lock the focus with the locking screw. I have found that this moves the focuser
slightly off focus. I believe that this is a common problem with Crayford focusers (the cheaper ones I guess!).
3. If you are not going to use the lock then the movement of the focuser needs to be fairly stiff to prevent the Camera weight sliding it out of position. When I got my scope I found that this could not be done as the focuser movement could not be tightened to prevent movement by the camera. I got zero help from suppliers or Meade (send it back they said!). However, I soon found that there are a set of small Allen screws buried in the underside of the focuser and by careful adjustment of these I was able to fix the above problem.
4. I recently bought a Ritchen Chretien 200mm f8 scope to use the 400D on narrower fovs. However, I have had little chance to try it out because of the cloudy Sydney weather this summer. However, again I have found that the Bahtinov mask is ideal for quick and accurate focusing.
PS I do not consider my self an expert in the above matters but have come to them by just feeling my way! I hope they help you.
Cheers Peter

[pjphilli (Peter)]

Hi Rodney
Whoops - Of course I meant a Canon 400D DSLR - not a Meade! I started off with a Meade DSI2 ccd camera but outgrew its very narrow fov and inferior image resolution compared with the DSLR.
Cheers Peter

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

Thanks for that great feedback Peter. I am sure that this is going to save me a lot of time with my imaging adventures with this scope. I have a canon 550D DSLR which I recently purchased (and has encouraged me back into imaging).

In the first instance I am going to try piggyback photography taking widefield shots with my current lens which is the 18-200mm zoom. Probably not the best lens for astrophotography but it will be fun giving it a shot to see how it performs.

Rodney

[marki]

I have had the meade 80 for about 4 years now. It's a great little scope with good optics but the focuser is not the best. I replaced mine with a moonlite and at F6 that makes it a good wide field scope for AP.

Mark

[pjphilli (Peter)]

Hi Mark

That's interesting regarding replacing your 80mm Crayford focuser with a Moonlite type. I have been thinking about this but could not decide what would be suitable. Could you be more specific about the type number etc of the Moonlite. Was it very difficult to install (eg any machining etc)?

Cheers Peter

[marki]

Originally Posted by pjphilli

Hi Mark

That's interesting regarding replacing your 80mm Crayford focuser with a Moonlite type. I have been thinking about this but could not decide what would be suitable. Could you be more specific about the type number etc of the Moonlite. Was it very difficult to install (eg any machining etc)?

Cheers Peter

Hi Peter

It is a 2" crayford (in blue of course) with manual dual speed and focus lock. It also has the three thumbscrews with compression ring to lock the camera in place as the single thumbscrew option is not the best for AP. Best way is to send Ron an email and he will answer pretty quickly as to what you will require. As for installation it is a piece of cake. All you need to do is unscrew the original flange from the tube (dont forget to remove the locking grubscrews before trying to turn) and screw on the new flange with focuser and you're done, simple. I also had Ron make my focuser flange collimatable (he didn't agree but did it anyway ) as the only option for collimating these scopes appears to be the little silver screw on the original focuser spacer (the blue bit). I have had the lens cell off for cleaning and could not find any screws there to do it anyway. I need to add that I have never had to collimate the scope (everything just worked) but you never know. End result is pretty special and well worth the cash IMO.

Cheers

Mark

[pjphilli (Peter)]

Hi Mark

I have just returned from holidays and seen your reply thanks. I will look into this and may proceed as I think that the optics of the scope deserve a good focuser.

Cheers Peter