Advice on an older Meade

[Ausrock (Chris)]

A friend knows of a Meade LX6 10", supposedly in good condition with all it's original bits and pieces. The owners are thinking of getting rid of it but they are wanting me to make an offer as they aren't sure of it's value, so...............I'm hoping someone here can give me some clues about the LX6 scopes and an idea of fair value.

Cheers

[Zincberg (Andrew)]

From my limited knowledge, the LX6 is pretty similar to the lx200.
2nd hand value is so hard, particularly if you dont want to risk offending the person asking you to make an offer.
Look at prices for 2nd hand 10' lx200's then take off a bit for the fact that its an old model.

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

I don;t think the software is upgradeable so if it dies, you're left with an OTA and not much else -
Take that into consideration.

[casstony]

I'd offer no more than $1000. The scope would be 20 years old or so and the optical quality was a bit hit and miss at that time, though the individual parts still retain a certain value. The tripod and wedge are worth a few hundred and even if the ota is sub-par it would still give reasonable low/mid power views.

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

I had to do something similar a few years ago with an early 2080 model, circa mid 1980's. I was put onto the Telescope Blue Book and worked out the scope was probably worth a couple of hundred at most. Sadly those scopes haven't really kept their value, so don't pay too much. And sadly the Telescope Blue Book hasn't been updated since 2007! You should also have on hand what a new replacement similar model would cost these days and keep that in mind. You might find they paid a mint for their model back in the day, but the equivalent today is a lot cheaper.

[Ausrock (Chris)]

Thanks for the replies ....much appreciated.

I believe the owners of the 'scope are hoping for approx., $1000 BUT as there's no way I can get to see it AND considering both the comments here and the questionable reputation the LX6 optics had I think I'll leave it alone.

Cheers

[OICURMT]

A couple of things to note...

1) The LX6 was pre-2000, thus will suffer from the Y2K bug when trying to locate solar system objects.
2) The LX6 is a native f/6.3 not f/10


Astromart had one sold in 2006 for U$700... http://www.astromart.com/classifieds...fied_id=473413

You might want to read Uncle Rod's SCT guide... http://skywatch.brainiac.com/used/used_sct.pdf

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

I had and used an 10" LX5/6 for many years.
the Lx6 had a handcontroller which could "integrate" with the digital readouts - which I retrofitted to a base Lx5 unit.
They worked well, for the era, but nowadays there are much better solutions ie Lx200 etc
The Lx6 OTA came in both the f10 and f6.3 versions.
I had the 10" f6.3 for three or four years, mounted on a NEQ6pro mount.
It was a very good performer, but did need very critical collimation...
I enjoyed it very much.
I sold both the 8" LX75 OTA and the 10" (f6.3) OTA last year and went to my very first ( in over forty years of amateur astronomy!!) Celestron..a C9.25
I'm very happy with this one - it's a keeper!!
So,
If it is definately a Lx6 (larger handcontroller and f6.3 optics)
then I'd definately want to do at least a Ronchi test on the optics and accept that digital readouts/ GOTO are not part of the action.
HTH

[Barrykgerdes]

The LX6 was Meades first digital control scope released in 1988. It virtually became obsolete in 1992 on the release of the LX200. It had encoders (an extras kit I think) and a microprocessor in the base that could read them. I don't know about the Y2k bug but it is probable. The LX200 avoided this because luckily you could get the correct date if you started from 00.

I have an LX6 base (-OTA) on the bench but it used a Sky vector and the Meade processor may not work. I must test it sometime. I don't have the Sky vector other than the encoders (4096) but they are compatable with the Argo Navis as a direct plug in.

Barry

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Hi Chris , if you google ,
"Uncle Rods used CAT buyers guide , 9th edition (2008)
Rod Mollise."
there is the most comprensive scmitt cassagrain telescope reviews ever put together in one place .
Over 140 pages of all CAT's ever made , between 2 and 5 pages on evey model ever made by every manufacturer .
The LX6 is there on page 33. its all you need to know . is there.
Good luck its an awsome read, you will enjoy.
I have been through it many times.
Brian.

[Ausrock (Chris)]

Brian,

Thanks for the pointer

As far as the LX6 is concerned, it's history/sanity prevailed..........I have a C9.25 sitting here waiting on some bits and pieces and the EQ6 I'm buying

Chris