Meade 5" Achromatic Refractor on LXD-75 mount

[sooty]

Anyone have any thoughts on the above scope please?

[RichieP]

I don't have it mounted on an LXD75 but I can comment on the Meade AR5 OTA

Pros:

- At F9.3, CA is quite reasonable. Common opinion seems to be that the AR5 is the sweet spot in the Meade achromatic refractor range for this.

- Pretty good optics - I get nice diffraction rings on a star test.

- Tube is well made and solid.

- Decent finderscope

Cons:

- Lens cell is plastic and does not allow collimation (my AR5 is an older model, perhaps this no no longer the case.)

- Dewshield is way too short. Astrozap make a solid replacement one but it doesn't seem to available in the UK. The flexible Astrozap shield, however, fits nicely around the existing shield to give you the right length.

- R&P focusser is reasonably good, but the only replacement crayford focusser that I have seen is the Moonlight one (which costs as much as the OTA itself!). Contast this with the equivalent Skywatcher model, where several options are available.