Meade Telescopes, 4.5 f/8 Equatorial, Eyepieces 4mm, 12.5mm, 25mm, 2x Barlow.

A new member of my astronomy club purchased this telescope several years ago and was having trouble with it, I usually don’t like any telescopes labeled XXXX by Meade as they are not the same quality as the Meade telescopes, and I still don’t after taking a look at this one.

The planets were fuzzy, very ill defined and dim, very dim, and as far as seeing anything else forget it, everything was a blur. The optics on this telescope are very poor quality.

Collimation was way out and after fixing the problem I found the views of the planets were a little better but not good enough that I would recommend the Polaris to anyone looking for a Meade telescope.

Not long ago at a star party I saw someone with the Stargazer by Meade. I thought after a few years they may have improved, but alas no. You still need to strain to see anything through it. Again I fixed the collimation which was way out.

But unfortunately this made little improvement to the views. Everything was dim just like the Polaris. I looked at Jupiter, and like the Polaris it was dim, fuzzy, and ill defined. This type of telescope is poor example of Meade.

 Meade Telescopes Recommendation

I would approach any telescope with the name XXXX by Meade with extreme caution. They are not the same quality as the Meade telescopes. Don’t waste good money as there are many other meade telescopes in this price range that are far better.