I realized recently that I’ve  been a Meade LXD55 Schmidt-Newtonian telescope owner for just shy of two decades now. Wow! “That’s hard to believe,” I thought. It got me to thinking about the telescope, and it dawned on me to write about the LXD55 scope & mount.

Meade’s LXD55 line of scopes, and maybe more importantly, the GOTO German equatorial mount (GEM) was all the talk back in late 2001 and 2002 when the company began advertising it in the usual magazines. However, Meade had an issue getting the units to market and in the hands of eager amateurs chomping at the bit to have a GOTO mount that wasn’t going to break the bank.

I’m not entirely sure why the promised release date was pushed back. Maybe it was manufacturing delays or there was something else afoot but only a smattering of scopes and mounts were initially released. What I painfully knew at that time was my order had not been filled and the delivery date kept getting pushed back. If I recall correctly, (this was 20 years ago) I think I ended up waiting an additional 6 agonizing months before my shiny new telescope finally shipped. Receiving the scope was another tragic story entirely which you can read about here.

The major interest in the LXD55 was not so much the telescopes themselves, of which there were several varieties including: achromatic refractors (AR), Schmidt-Newtonians (SN) and later a Schmidt-Cassegrain (SC). The real interest lay in the GOTO GEM mount.

The price point for the telescope including a GOTO computerized GEM mount was the huge draw. It was a mid-size mount comparable to the CG-5. There were already rumblings at this point that a 10″ scope on the LXD55 mount was going to be pushing the limits of the mount but that didn’t stop the masses from buying the cheapest model (the SN-6) just to get the LXD55 mount. Suddenly when the scopes started shipping from Meade, places like Cloudy Nights Classifieds and Astromart were flooded with LXD55 telescopes for sale MINUS the mount.

I read the specs for the mount and weighed the valid concerns regarding the heavy (30 lbs.) OTA on the mount but I was only planning on using the LXD55 visually so any concerns about the weight quickly evaporated for me. I, as it turned out, was one of the ones looking for the whole LXD55 enchilada.

Meade’s LXD55 SN-10 really shines when it’s paired with ultra-wide eyepieces. I have Meade’s Series 4000 14mm and 8.8mm Ultra-wide eyepieces that I employ on a regular basis. Observing faint objects like galaxies, nebulae and globular clusters are a pure joy with this scope. The fast f/4 optics allows a lot of light to spill in.  The darker the sky, the better the scope performs.

Using a 2″ University Optics 32mm König provides a visual porthole that allows me to suck in almost all of the Andromeda Galaxy and easily snag M32 and M110 in the same field.  With the same eyepiece and a massive field of view the Pleiades and other open clusters like the Double Cluster in Perseus are true pleasures to observe. Large nebulae including the Lagoon and Orion are breathtaking to view in the scope and typically leave party goers picking their jaws up off the ground as they walk away.

The LXD55 and it’s successor the LXD75 lines from Meade were strong sellers.  There was an LXD55 Yahoo Group that for years was very popular and a great resource for those new to the scope with questions.  There’s even a guide book dedicated to the LXD55/75 telescopes. As a result of all the popularity amateur’s tweaked and set out on what seemed like monumental journeys to upgrade and improve the Meade scopes and mounts.

From OTA tweaks like replacing collimation screws to adding cooling fans to the rear of the mirror cell to flocking and adding baffles in the OTA, to performing “clipectomy’s” where the hard rubber clips that hold the primary mirror in place were modified so as not to cover the business end of the primary mirror. If there was a way to tweak and improve rest assured it was explored.

There was a list equally as long and in fact a whole “HyperTune” kit  available for the mount. And I was no different. I got my hands dirty. I bought the DVD and HyperTuned my mount and performed the delicate clipectomy procedure. There was even a kit available to convert the mount to a belt drive. I didn’t go that far.

The scope holds it collimation fairly well but I tweak it with a laser typically before each use. The OTA for the SN-10 is heavy as I mentioned previously at 30 lbs. It’s tube is constructed of sheet metal that houses the aluminum mirror cell. The tube rings, dovetail bar and mount are made of cheap, soft Chinese metal. This obviously was the cheapest construction route possible at the time. Additional production costs were shaved with a spherical primary mirror that was paired with the corrector lens used in the Schmidt-Newtonian design. This meant that the more expensive parabolic primary mirror was not necessary.  I’ve pondered the idea of replacing the metal tube with carbon fiber but have never investigated what that would cost. Something tells me I’d probably be sinking enough money into doing that upgrade as I would by outright buying a new and better telescope.

There are several areas of the LXD55 that could have benefited vastly from upgraded components including the focuser. The stock  focusers were functional but by no means precise. Many owners upgraded the focusers in order to do astrophotography. The supplied 6x30mm finder scope was only good for causing neck pain. I slapped a Telrad Reflex Sight on the OTA and never looked back. The soft metal construction posed a problem in several ways including the dovetail bar used to affix the OTA to the mount. There were folks that actually had the bar break in use which I’m sure ended in catastrophic results. The soft metal was apparent in the mount as well and those who stripped down their mounts to do the HyperTune reported stripping set screw threads that held the worm gears to the mount. Not good! I can’t speak for the field tripod as I quickly upgraded to a portable machined aluminum pier but I can say that I don’t recall much discussion about the supplied tripod from Meade.

The scope has held up well through the years. I’ve cleaned the corrector plate a couple of times during that period. It is prone to collecting dust, tree sap and pollen as any catadioptric telescope with a corrector does that is used frequently. I HyperTuned the mount within the first year of receiving the telescope which made a big difference in tracking.  The mount tracks surprisingly well and I’ve had very good results regarding the LXD55 GOTO capabilities. Since I don’t use the mount photographically and only rough polar align I can say that the mount does a good job of hitting it’s intended target and holding it in the FOV once a successful alignment is completed.

I can say without hesitation that my initial investment of a little over $1000 for the 10″ LXD55 twenty years ago was a good one. Yes, the telescope and mount have their imperfections and shortcomings as evidenced by all the upgrading and tweaking previously discussed but for the price point that Meade was aiming for with this line, the scopes and mount have proven to be exceptional bargains. I’d go as far to say the LXD55 helped usher in a new and large crop of amateurs to the hobby. I know its delighted not only this owner on many occasions but droves of star party goers across the North Central Texas area as well. Happy birthday LXD55!

Clear skies,

Scott