f/8 Newtonian, 5×24 Viewfinder, Eyepiece 25mm Plossl.

I purchased this scope for my son, this is a great starter telescope. Out of all the meade telescopes I have a real soft spot for the Dobsonian, with their low price and large aperture. The scope arrived and for our first night out with the new scope we had clear sky.

I did a star test and found the scope to be slightly over corrected which was easily fixed. We viewed the planets, Jupiter and Saturn which were clear and crisp, and could just make 3 cloud bands on Jupiter.

There was no fuzziness and Saturn’s ring system looked great. We looked at most of the brighter objects in the milky way with satisfying results.

If you want a telescope for deep sky viewing I would suggest you take a look at the 8″ Dobsonian Meade telescope, the extra aperture will give you good views and the 8″ is not so large that it is hard to handle.

 The optics are good on these Meade telescopes and for an extra $50 you can get a good accessory package from meade which has a much better viewfinder and a 9.7 mm series 4000 plossl which is Meade’s highest quality eyepiece.

 There are a few minor problems. The drawtube protrudes into the optical path, and the skinny tube can be unsteady in the wind. The focuser knob sits too close to the tube. But if you can put up with its faults, you get a lot of telescope for your money.

Meade Telescopes Recommendation

 Yes it does have a few problems, but for the money this is a great starter telescope and I’ve seen good reviews from others on    these meade telescopes.

If you’re on a budget take a look at the Dobsonian family of telescopes. The Discovery Store sell Dobsonian plus many other good meade telescopes.