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Meade - 16 inch LX200-ACF Advanced Coma-Free with UHTC on EQ Pier with 3 Year Sky Assurance
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$ 14199.00
Reg.$ 20199.00
SAVE $ 6000.00 | |
| 1610-60-02EQ_SKY
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Click here for recommended accessories |
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The most widely used research telescope on earth now comes with the most advanced optical system
in space. Meade’s all new LX200-ACF brings Advanced Coma-Free optics within reach of aspiring
astronomers everywhere. Nearly every observatory reflector in the world is a Coma-Free, including
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Now you can own what the professionals own. The LX200-ACF includes
all the field-proven features of the LX200 including GPS, Primary Mirror Lock, Zero Image-Shift
Microfocuser, Oversized Primary Mirror, SmartDrive™, Smart Mount™, AutoStar® II and more. Plus,
the LX200-ACF comes with observatory-class optics crafted in Irvine, California, and a Series
5000 26mm 5-Element Plössl eyepiece. The new LX200-ACF. It’s the biggest news in astronomy since,
well, the LX200.The “advanced” in Advanced Coma-Free.
A traditional Ritchey-Chrétien (RC) is a type of reflector that delivers a coma-free, flat field
of view via hyperbolic primary and secondary mirrors. RC telescopes (from a variety of
manufacturers) are found in most of the world’s top observatories and NASA’s Hubble Space
Telescope. Because the mirrors in these telescopes have always been very expensive to make, few
amateur astronomers could enjoy them. Fortunately, Meade engineers developed a radical new
Advanced Coma-Free design by combining a hyperbolic secondary mirror with a
corrector-lens-and-spherical-primary-mirror combination that performs as one hyperbolic element.
This Advanced version of the traditional RC design produces a coma-free, flat field of view that
rivals traditional RC telescopes at a fraction of the cost. The design even eliminates
diffraction spikes and improves astigmatism, both of which are inherent in the traditional RC
design. When reviewing Meade’s LX400-ACF Advanced Coma-Free, Sky and Telescope magazine said, “
[It] does indeed perform like a Ritchey-Chrétien. The difference between the off-axis images
(compared to a Schmidt-Cassegrain) was dramatic to say the least.”
f/10 Advanced Coma-Free Optics: Building upon the classic RC design Meade has created a
design with the same coma free pinpoint star images and flatter field that discerning
astrophotographers and most professional observatories have come to expect from classic
Ritchey-Chrétien optics. Meade’s Advanced Coma-Free system also reduces the astigmatism and
eliminates diffractions spikes found in classical RCs. The LX200-ACF is the perfect platform for
the demanding researcher and imaging enthusiast with telescopes available in apertures of 8
inches, 10 inches, 12 inches, 14 inches, and 16 inches.
Meade Ultra-High Transmission Coatings (UHTC™) increases total light transmission and
image brightness by nearly 20% over Meade’s standard coatings. Objects such as stars, galaxies
and nebulae will appear significantly brighter.
Zero Image-Shift Microfocuser allows you to obtain precise image focus with no image
movement.
Primary Mirror Lock locks the mirror in place during long-exposure astrophotography.
Oversize Primary Mirror diameters are greater than their listed
aperture (e.g., the diameter of the 8” LX200-ACF is actually 8.25”).
This additional 1/4” yields a wide, fully illuminated field-of-view.
Smart Mount™ constantly refines pointing accuracy each time an object is centered and
updated. Compatible with both equatorial and altazimuth mounts.
Smart Drive™ provides permanent periodic error correction (PPEC) on both axes by learning and
averaging error over the course of one or more training periods, thereby minimizing guiding
corrections during long-exposure photographs. PPEC is available on both axes and functions in
both polar and altazimuth modes.
Sony®GPS Receiver Sensor automatically inputs precise time, date, and geographical
location to help quickly and precisely align the telescope.
AutoAlign™ – Telescopes with Meade’s new AutoAlign come pre-aligned.They are smart scopes
that know the night sky right out of the box. AutoAlign picks two fail-proof alignment stars for
you and places them right in your view-finder. Just center them to fine tune your alignment and
the wonders of the universe are at your fingertips.
AutoStar® II controller features “Hot Keys” for quick access to a 145,000 celestial object
database. AutoStar II can be updated with the latest software upgrades, guided tours and timely
objects like comets free at meade.com.
MADE IN THE USA – All LX200-ACF telescopes are made in the USA at Meade’s state-of-the-art
design and manufacturing facility in Irvine, California.
| Optical Design | Advanced Ritchey-Chrétien |
| Clear Aperture | 406.4mm (16”) |
| Focal Length Focal Ratio | 4064mm; f/10 |
| Maximum Practical Visual Power | 950X (14”) |
| Telescope Mounting | heavy-duty fork type; double-tine |
| Primary Mirror Lock | included (progressive tension) All models |
| Zero Image-Shift Micro Focuser | included (4-speed) All models |
| GPS, True-level and North sensors | included (16-channel GPS receiver) All
models |
| Pointing Precision, High Precision Mode | 1-arc min. All models |
| Autostar® II Hand Controller | included (147,541 object database) All
models |
| Batteries (user-supplied) | none |
| Battery Life (approx.) | n/a |
| Slew Speeds: | RA and Dec: 0.01x to1.0x sidereal, variable in0.01x increments; 2x,
8x, 16x, 64x, 128x sidereal; 1°/sec. to 8°/sec., variable in 0.1° increments All
models |
| Tracking Rates | sidereal, lunar, or custom-selected from 2000 incremental rates
All models |
| Primary, Secondary Mirrors | Pyrex® glass |
| Correcting Plate/Lens | BK7 optical glass |
| Total Net Telescope Weight | 318 lbs. (with Field Tripod) |
| Telescope Shipping Weight (approx.) | 360 lbs. |
| Field Tripod Height all models: | 40” to 50” variable |
| UHTC | Yes |
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An important optional feature to optimize the performance of your Meade
telescope.
Image brightness in a telescope is crucially dependent on the reflectivity of
the telescope’s mirrors and on the transmission of its lenses. Neither of
these processes, mirror-reflectivity or lens-transmission, is, however,
perfect; light loss occurs in each instance where light is reflected or
transmitted. Uncoated glass, for example, reflects about 4% of the light
impacting it; in the case of an uncoated lens 4% of the light is lost at
entrance to and at exit from the lens, for a total light loss of about 8%. |
Early reflecting telescopes of the 1700’s and 1800’s suffered greatly from mirrors of poor
reflectivity- reflection losses of 50% or more were not uncommon. Later, silvered mirrors
improved reflectivity, but at high cost and with poor durability. Modern optical coatings have
succeeded in reducing mirror-reflection and lens-transmission losses to acceptable levels at
reasonable cost.
Meade Standard Coatings: The optical surfaces of all Meade telescopes include high-grade optical
coatings fully consistent in quality with the precision of the optical surfaces themselves. These
standard-equipment coatings include mirror surfaces of highly purified aluminum, vacuum-deposited
at high temperature and overcoated with silicon monoxide (SiO), and correcting lenses coated on
both sides for high light transmission with magnesium fluoride (MgF2). Meade standard mirror and
lens coatings equal or exceed the reflectivity and transmission, respectively, of virtually any
optical coatings currently offered in the commercial telescope industry.
The Meade UHTC Group: Technologies recently developed at the Meade Irvine coatings facility,
however, including installation of some of the largest and most advanced vacuum coating
instrumentation currently available, have permitted the vacuum-deposition of a series of exotic
optical coatings precisely tuned to optimize the visual, photographic, and CCD imaging
performance of Meade telescopes. These specialized, and extremely advantageous, coatings are
offered here as the Meade Ultra-High Transmission Coatings (UHTC) group, a coatings group
available optionally on many Meade telescope models.
In Meade catadioptric, or mirror-lens, telescopes (including the ETX-90EC, ETX-105EC and
ETX-125EC; LX10, LX90, and LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrains; and LXD55-Series Schmidt-Newtonians)
before incoming light is brought to a focus, it passes through, or is reflected by, four optical
surfaces: the front surface of the correcting lens, the rear surface of the correcting lens, the
primary mirror, and the secondary mirror. Each of these four surfaces results in some loss of
light, with the level of loss being dependent on the chemistry of each surface’s optical coatings
and on the wavelength of light. (Standard aluminum mirror coatings, for example, typically have
their highest reflectivity in the yellow region of the visual spectrum, at a wavelength of about
580nm.)
Mirror Coatings: Meade ETX, Schmidt-Cassegrain, and Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes equipped with
the Ultra-High Transmission Coatings group include primary and secondary mirrors coated with
aluminum enhanced with a complex stack of multi-layer coatings of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and
silicon dioxide (SiO2). The thickness of each coating layer precisely controlled to within +/-1%
of optimal thickness. The result is a dramatic increase in mirror reflectivity across the entire
visible spectrum; at the important hydrogen-alpha wavelength of 656nm. - the predominant
wavelength of emission nebulae - reflectivity is increased from 89% to over 97%.
Correcting Lens Coatings: Meade telescopes ordered with the UHTC group include, in addition, an
exotic and tightly-controlled series of coatings on both sides of the correcting lens or
correcting plate, coatings which include multiple layers of aluminum oxide (Al2O3), titanium
dioxide (TiO2), and magnesium fluoride (MgF2). Per-surface light transmission of the correcting
lens is thereby increased at the yellow wavelength of 580nm., for example, to 99.8%, versus a
per-surface transmission of 98.7% for the standard coating.
The importance of the UHTC group becomes apparent when comparing total telescope light
transmission, or throughput, caused by the multiplier, or compounding, effect of the four optical
surfaces. With each optical surface contributing significantly to telescope light throughput, the
effect of all four surfaces combined is indeed dramatic, as demonstrated by the graphs on the
facing page, as well as by the table of the brightest nebular emission lines. At the H-alpha
wavelength of 656nm., total transmission increases from 77% to 93%, an increase of 93/77 or 21%
at all three nitrogen-III and sulfur-II wavelengths of 655nm. and 673nm.- prominent lines in
certain galactic nuclei and in supernova remnanats such as the Crab Nebula- transmission
increases by 21%; ; at the helium wavelengths of 588nm. and 469nm. - strong emission lines in hot
planetary nebulae - total telescope transmission increases by 18% and 19%, respectively; at the
two nitrogen II lines of 655nm. and 658nm. and at the sulfur II line of 673nm., transmission is
increased by 21%. Averaged over the entire visible spectrum (450nm. to 700nm.), total light
transmission to the telescope focus increases by about 20%.
Observing with the UHTC: Meade ETX, Schmidt-Cassegrain, and Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes equipped
with the UHTC present dramatically enhanced detail on the full range of celestial objects - from
emission and planetary nebulae such as M8, M20, and M57 to star clusters and galaxies such as M3,
M13, and M101. Observations of the Moon and planets, since they are observed in reflected (white)
sunlight, benefit in image brightness from the full spectrum of increased transmission. The
overall effect of the UHTC is, as it relates to image brightness, to increase the telescope’s
effective aperture. Image brightness (i.e., the ability to see faint detail) of the Meade 10”
LX200GPS is, for example, effectively increased by about one full inch of aperture.
| Emission Line | Wavelength (nm.) | Transmission: Standard Coatings
(%) | Transmission: UHTC Group (%) | Increase* |
| Hydrogen-alpha (Ha) | 656 | 76.9 | 93.1 | 21% |
| Hydrogen-beta (Hß) | 486 | 75.3 | 85.8 | 14% |
| Oxygen III | 496 | 76.5 | 85.4 | 12% |
| Oxygen III | 501 | 77 | 85.4 | 11% |
| Helium II | 496 | 72.5 | 86.1 | 19% |
| Helium I | 588 | 79.5 | 93.5 | 18% |
| Nitrogen II | 655 | 77 | 93.2 | 21% |
| Nitrogen II | 658 | 76.7 | 92.8 | 21% |
| Sulfer II | 673 | 75.7 | 91.8 | 21% |
* The % increase is obtained by dividing the UHTC-transmission (column 4) by the
standard coatings transmission (column 3).
Effects on CCD Imaging: While the human eye loses sensitivity to light beyond wavelengths of
about 700nm., CCD imaging chips remain sensitive to about 750nm. and longer, wavelengths at which
the reflectivity of an aluminum coating is near its lowpoint. Importantly, however, the UHTC’s
total light transmission at 750nm. is 83%, vs. 72% for standard coatings, an increase of 83/72,
or 15%.
| Suggested Optional Accessories |
| Meade - SPECIAL Series 4000 Eyepiece and Filter Set
WITH PURCHASE OF TELESCOPE ONLY
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$ 199.00
Reg.$ 449.00
SAVE $ 250.00 | |
| 07169-199
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| Meade - Series 5000 Plossl Eyepiece Set
Includes: 5.5mm, 14mm, 20mm, 32mm w/ Case
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$ 349.00
Reg.$ 549.00
SAVE $ 200.00 | |
| 07673
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| Meade - Series 5000 Super Wide Angle Eyepiece Set
Includes:16mm, 24mm, 34mm w/ Case
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$ 599.00
Reg.$ 1149.00
SAVE $ 550.00 | |
| 07675
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| Meade - Series 5000 Ultra Wide Angle Eyepiece Set
Includes: 6.7mm, 18mm, 30mm w/ Case
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$ 749.00
Reg.$ 1149.00
SAVE $ 400.00 | |
| 07674
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| | JMI - Carrying Case for Meade LX 10 inch
for Meade LX50 10", LX90 10", LX90GPS 10", LX100 10", LX200 10" (non-GPS), LX200GPS 10", LX200R 10"
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$ 504.00
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