Meade LX80 mount - Any comments?

[saturnV]

This appears to be one of the few German Equatorial mounts withing my budget (max. £1000). Please can anyone give me comments both positive & negative or even a full unbiased review?! I'm erring towards the NEQ6 at the moment as it's been around a few years (like me!) and it appears to have been tried and trusted by many...

Also as the whole point of removing my LX90 from its Alt-Az fork was to liberate it from Meade mechanical shackles, I'm reluctant to put it back on another Meade mount - unless I hear really positive reviews that is. In my limited experience the LX90 8" optics seem good & I want to give the 'scope a chance to perform to its full potential and try some imaging on a better platform.

Cheers,

Tim

[saturnV]

whoops - spelling mistake - that should read 'within my budget' !!

[r3i]

There was a recent thread on the LX80 mount here: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/168106-lx-80-anyone/

There is also another recent thread by someone who is also planning to de-fork their LX90 OTA: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/169774-equatorial-mount-recommendations/

I also had an 8" LX90 which I de-forked and mounted on an NEQ6 - it was easy job to do.

[J_M_Franklin]

Twas I seeking the advice of the knowledgeable and some very good advice I received too. i have decided I will go with the Skywatcher mount in the new year, i am not happy with Meade Mechanicals and their customer service is shocking...if you can find it that is.

I have decided I will get one of the new ALT EQ 6 mounts that come in around the £1500 mark, but the lesser mounts (not lesser in quality) that are around the £1000 mark are certainly good from what i have both been told, and now had my hands on thanks to someone with a couple of them...

I don't mean to knock Meade unfairly, their kit used to be rock solid, but since they made the move to manufacture in China their QA seems to have suffered, which is odd because the Skywatchers and several others are manufactured in China and they are superb and high quality.

The only mount I have had my hands on recently from Meade that is worthy of the name associated with the optics was an LXD75, and that was a good quality mount, I cannot comment personally on the others.

[saturnV]

There was a recent thread on the LX80 mount here: http://stargazerslou...6-lx-80-anyone/

There is also another recent thread by someone who is also planning to de-fork their LX90 OTA: http://stargazerslou...ecommendations/

I also had an 8" LX90 which I de-forked and mounted on an NEQ6 - it was easy job to do.

Thanks Mike, that kind of confirms my suspicions and will probably go for NEQ6 - as long as it includes a free weightlifting course

Tim

[saturnV]

Twas I seeking the advice of the knowledgeable and some very good advice I received too. i have decided I will go with the Skywatcher mount in the new year, i am not happy with Meade Mechanicals and their customer service is shocking...if you can find it that is.

I have decided I will get one of the new ALT EQ 6 mounts that come in around the £1500 mark, but the lesser mounts (not lesser in quality) that are around the £1000 mark are certainly good from what i have both been told, and now had my hands on thanks to someone with a couple of them...

I don't mean to knock Meade unfairly, their kit used to be rock solid, but since they made the move to manufacture in China their QA seems to have suffered, which is odd because the Skywatchers and several others are manufactured in China and they are superb and high quality.

The only mount I have had my hands on recently from Meade that is worthy of the name associated with the optics was an LXD75, and that was a good quality mount, I cannot comment personally on the others.

Agreed, I had numerous faults with the Meade mount when I first bought it but Telescope House were very helpful - I've never had direct contact with Meade personally though. Still find the Auto setup (it has the LNT module so is meant to be foolproof) is hit and miss - some nights the GOTO and tracking work well, others not at all! At any rate it is useless trying to guide at F40 (i.e. with 4 x Telemate Barlow for planetary imaging). the image dances around all over the PC window and even when centred it drifts off within seconds... I did buy a wedge then decided setting that up and transporting it was a lot more hassle than getting a purpose built GEM. Besides at least then you can remove the OTA from the mount and you don't have the weight of the forks & drive in addition as with the LX90 mount...

Thanks for your advice, Tim

[Davey-T]

I don't mean to knock Meade unfairly, their kit used to be rock solid, but since they made the move to manufacture in China their QA seems to have suffered, which is odd because the Skywatchers and several others are manufactured in China and they are superb and high quality.

Think theyv'e moved to Mexico now and opened a whole new can of worms .

Dave

[Astro_Baby]

There have been a few threads on the LX80 on other forums. From what I have seen I would run a mile......if you want an EQ with GoTo for under a grand there is the HEQ5 which would be just under a grand new or the EQ6 sells second user for around £700 both are reliable and solid mounts with only a few known, and easily fixed issue AND tons of online support available.

They may not look as glossy as the LX80 but they both work well. The big buzz with the LX80 was its supposed payload which now appears to be vastly overrated.

The skywatcher stiff has also been supported for ages with new software available with upgrades and tweaks, the way things are going at Meade would make me very cautious about any of their kit. Shame as I always aspired once to own a large Meade scope but not these days.

[saturnV]

Yes that seems to be the general opinion - thanks for your reply I'm probably going for the NEQ6 at £959 which is the best price I've seen - will need to get tube rings or dovetail extra of course... Maybe I'll wait until Astrofest and see what a bit of bargaining will do ;-)

[cantharis]

which is odd because the Skywatchers and several others are manufactured in China and they are superb and high quality.

Every Chinese made mount I have ever had has been vastly improved by a strip down, remove the awful adhesive-like glop they put in them, relube with a decent grease, and careful rebuilding.

[Rezn8]

I have a LX80 on my floor. Nice solid mount, good features ( leg height adjustment screws, ect ) . Problem I have with Meade is that all their first few firmware versions are very buggy. For a dual OTA setup, this could be a good mount to use. Maybe when the sky clears I will give it a go.

[r3i]

Problem I have with Meade is that all their first few firmware versions are very buggy.

Don't think this is just a Meade thing - SkyWatcher have released a firmware update for their new mount: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/170669-skywatcher-az-eq6-gt-firmware-update-and-instructions/. Guess it's a case of the products hitting the real world with real people using them.

Whilst I can imagine buggy firmware on new mounts is quite irritating and disappointing (we all want our shiny new toys to work wonderfully from the start), at least they can be sorted out without having the hassle of carting the equipment back to the vendor.

[saturnV]

Whilst I can imagine buggy firmware on new mounts is quite irritating and disappointing (we all want our shiny new toys to work wonderfully from the start), at least they can be sorted out without having the hassle of carting the equipment back to the vendor.

Agreed, the trouble is firmware faults can often appear to be genuine hardware malfunctions; e.g. when you press the up arrow and the mount doesn't move - in my experience with Autostar this has been: a) Cable / connector fault (usually just loose) from hanset to mount; handset itself (they don't seem to like sub-zero temps!); c) firmware. Always check that firmware is flashed to latest version of course

[Mkofski]

I'm an LX80 owner in the US and have been very happy with it after about 4 months. The largest payload I've used in Eq mode is 20 pounds (about 9 Kg I think). I would say that for the cost, if you don't want more than 9 Kg in Eq mode or 15 Kg in AltAz AND you don't want to do astrophotography it is a good mount. I'd rather have the new Skywatcher AltAz mount but it cost 3 times what I paid for the LX80. That was a deal killer for me. If the LX80 never works for AP, I'll look into an IEQ30 or 45. My biggest problem with the LX80 to date is how much it weighs! Damping time in Eq mode is from 2 to 6 seconds depending on the OTA. The 6 seconds was with a 180mm f15 Mak with a 12mm EP.

[Mkofski]

There is a very positive thread on astronomyforum.net now...

http://www.astronomyforum.net/telescope-mounts-forum/150502-lx80-multi-mount-first-light-report-review-mount-equatorial-mode-visual.html

[saturnV]

My biggest problem with the LX80 to date is how much it weighs!

Is it that heavy then? I thought it is similar to an EQ6; but that's not light either!

Tim