2021 Meade LightBridge 16"

[simonharrison]

Hi all

Following on from my thread back in Feb:

So towards end of Feb I did buy the 16" lightbridge directly from Meade. There wasn't a lot of choice for me as Skywatchers were completely out of stock and the prices had risen enormously, and second hand wasn't an option because of lockdown. So I pulled the trigger and now I've been used it for not far off 4 months I thought I'd share my experience of it, as I know when I researched the purchase a lot of the information about the lightbridge on forums etc goes back years and maybe some up to date info might help some new purchasers. So without further ado...

Observing

So far I've used it purely for visual. I was concerned about the size a little, but it's actually a great size, near zenith I can view standing up normally, and lower down I have an old gas strut kitchen stool that I adjust the height of for viewing. The weight though - well I knew it was 80kg - but BOY is it heavy... the base isn't too bad but I can't carry OTA more than five to ten metres away from the shed! The wheel barrow comes in very handy for the few occasions I need to take it down the end of the garden for a better view.

Over the few months since it arrived I've had great views of Orion, Andromeda, Uranus (bluey green!), Mars (not so much detail, too far away), the Crab nebula (faint), Owl, all sorts of star clusters, M81 and M82, Leo triplet and NGC 3593, M51 whirlpool (can see the arms), sunflower galaxy, and of course the moon, which is just incredible to view. I also viewed Jupiter and Saturn a couple of nights ago - North and south equatorial belts on Jupiter and other belts visible above and below them. Jupiter's moon as discs instead of points. Saturn's cassini division very clear despite a bit of cloud.

All my views so far have been without any kind of shroud, in bortle 4 skies. I don't have any streetlights but there are some (non-intrusive) security lights from nearby neighbours. Also, I didn't even collimate the telescope for the first month as I couldn't decide which tools to buy!

I bought a magnetic Wixey off Amazon which really helps finding objects. The tiny laser pointer included on the scope isn't as bad a people say, it's very small and light and easy to adjust. With that and the Wixey I've managed just fine finding objects. I may look at a telrad and/or finder at some point though.

The azimuth movement of the scope is buttery smooth and is really nice to use. The altitude is not as good, a bit more sticky, but it's OK.

I keep the scope outside in a large shed, which helps keep its temp cool.. It comes with a fan and battery pack and I'll stick this on for a while before I start viewing.

The scope comes with a plastic "bin lid" which fits snugly over the mirror. I'd read that it used to come with some cap which came loose during shipping and scratched some people's mirrors but that no longer appears to be the case. No other dust caps come with it though so I use plastic sheeting to cover it when not in use.

Collimation

I've found the scope easy to collimate and use a Hotech laser most of the time (also have collimation cap and a Cheshire). I read lots about the scope not holding collimation too well and I have found this with mine, especially when slewing down to high or low altitude - with Hotech laser on you can really see the laser point move due to mirror shift. However there are some things I found which helped enormously:

• tightening up all the screws attaching the spider vanes to the upper tube assembly
• tightening up all screws on the OTA body such as those on the metal 'lip' edges
• tightening up the screws on the focusser - before I did this the focusser wobbled a little when all the way out
• tightened the primary collimation knobs all the way in so the screws on which the mirror sits are fully compressed, and then collimated from there. This means the mirror is held more tightly by the screws
• mark the struts, and use the same struts in the same positions. Even better, I now never detach the struts from the mirror part of the OTA.

Doing all the above made an enormous difference to the mirror shift.  It still shifts but only a little and only at the extreme ends of altitudes. If switching from high to low alt target I'll tend to quickly recollimate anyway.

Eyepieces

Back in Feb lenses were in very very short supply (still might be). I eventually managed to source three 2" Explore Scientific lenses:

ES 82 deg - 24mm

ES 100 deg - 14mm

ES 100 deg - 9mm

2" Altair Lightwave 2x focal extender

I adore the wide views of the 100 deg eyepieces. It's like floating in space! However, they are heavy and if combined with the focal extender the scope pulls down and I need to use the altitude brake, which is flimsy and doesn't work very well, and also makes nudging the altitude much stickier. I've ordered a couple of 300g taxi magnets from ebay to help with balancing.

Jury's out on the altair extender - I had trouble making out details on Mars in March using it. There's only 1 thumbscrew to tighten a lens in, which seems inadequate. I might try the Explore Scientific extender.

Future purchases

I have an equatorial platform coming tomorrow that's built by David Lukehurst (UK scope maker). I was going to make one but I was fairly convinced my own DIY would turn out to be crap!

I also plan to buy:

• Astrozap shroud. Can't get these anywhere for love nor money. All my obervations the scope & trusses have been 'naked' so I'm hoping this will make a nice difference when I get it. i might need to DIY one if stock doesn't come in soon.
• I have no filters currently. Plan to get an Astronomik OIII and an H-alpha.
• I did try my Canon 5d mark II DSLR on a T ring on the end of the Altair 2x focal extender but I still couldn't reach focus with it. When the eq platform comes I'm looking into trying planetary photography so I'll be looking for a ZWO camera - any tips on which gratefully received - might make a separate thread on this.

Overall

I'm very happy with the scope. Yes it's super heavy, but the views are impressive and I've not even realised the potential of it yet (eg no shroud!). The price from Meade was £1700 and when you compare that the the newly revised Skywatcher prices (£2199 for the equivalent 16" or £2999 for the GOTO version) I think it comes up as good value for money in comparison. So if your back can take it, or you can keep it mounted somewhere permanently, it's a great scope for the dosh.

 

Cheers, Simon

 

[simonharrison]

Couple of snaps. Orion and moon taken just by holding my phone up to the eyepiece.

[simonharrison]

Addendum - I just checked the price and it's gone up since I bought it to now a bit under £2k, unfortunately...

[John]

Very interesting report

I had the Meade 12 inch Lightbridge for a while. It was a nice scope but for me even that was too heavy. Glad I didn't go for the 16 inch !

I found a light shroud very effective at keeping stray light out of the light path and this increased the contrast on deep sky objects quite noticeably.

I had similar issues re: "nose droop" with heavy eyepieces in use so I put one of these sliding counterweight systems on the lower tube assembly and that worked well:

It is actually designed for the large SCT's but fitted quite easily to the Lightbridge.

 

[simonharrison]

Thanks that looks better than some taxi magnets! What's the make / where can I get it?

cheers

[John]

1 hour ago, simonharrison said:

Thanks that looks better than some taxi magnets! What's the make / where can I get it?

cheers

It's a Meade item. Probably best bought used to keep the price down.

 

[Stu]

Very nice looking scope!

80kg! 😱😱 I certainly couldn’t manage that with my back, so would need to be wheeled everywhere. Good price for the aperture though if you can handle the weight.

[Paul73]

Great write up. Glad that you are enjoying your new scope.

It may be heavy, but that beats having a bendy scope!

You’ll find the light shroud a subtle but definite improvement. I got one for my 10” flextube Skywatcher and was pleased with the increased contrast.

Paul

 

[johninderby]

Used to have a 16” LB. The light shroud does help. Also covered the truss tubes with woven black heat shrink as at the time the scope came with silver truss tubes. Was a heavy lump to move around though and was replaced with an Orion Optics UK scope.

Edited June 8, 2021 by johninderby