The Meade telescope in the advertising is called a textbook-perfect telescope. The Meade 102ED refracting telescope is truly the ideal instrument for the dedicated amateur. So when a member of my club gave me the opportunity to test his Meade telescope while he was on holidays, I jumped at the chance.

This is a good looking telescope all dressed in white, with its huge focuser and finder, you just can’t wait to get this telescope outside. This Meade telescope comes with the LXD650 mount with micrometric azimuth and elevation controls. It has an excellent computer drive system and 64,359 objects programmed into its library.

The first thing you will notice when you look through the telescope is how dark the sky appears. It is so dark that the objects almost look 3 dimensional. The deep sky views have been breathtaking.

I viewed M51, the Trifid Nebula-NGC 6514, and the Ring Nebula-NGC 6720, which were sharp, clear, and with good structure and also some color visible. The planets were clear and sharp. You could see excellent cloud structure on Jupiter. I was so impressed that I viewed Jupiter over the next 2 nights. The great spot was simply amazing to view through this Meade telescope. Saturn’s ring system is beautiful and you could see the greenish blue color of Uranus.

I viewed M81 and M82 and they looked excellent with a great deal of structure to them. I found no Spherical aberrations or astigmatism, which has been reported to be a problem with some of the 102ED Meade telescopes.

If you’re into CCD imaging or astrophotography this telescope is perfect, it has four sealed ball bearings, which give you precision of movement needed for photography and the control panel includes a connection for CCD devices. These Meade telescopes are built for the serious amateur.

Product Description

• Aperture – 4″
• F = 1370mm f/9 Achromatic Refractor
• 1697 Computer Drive System
• 64,359-Object Built-in Library
• Giant rack-and-pinion focuser
• 8×50 Viewfinder
• Dew Shield
• Eyepiece – 26mm series 4000 Plossl
• LXD 750 equatorial mount with micrometric azimuth and elevation controls, and with worm gear manual slow-motion controls

Recommendation

This is a serious telescope for a serious astronomer. It is worth the money for such spectacular views of the heavens. I highly recommend the 102ED Meade telescope.