Meade to make big product announcement on 3rd of January.

Dave - the thing that struck me was that Meade engineers decided the RC design was the way to go. Optical guidance systems have been making RC's for years!! Mind you, check out their prices.

Oh for the 40" (1 metre) scope (you'd need a lotto win for that - a cool $765,000 - yes, that *is* a comma). Then there's the half acre you'd need for the observatory, the research grade Finger Lakes camera. But I bet the wedge is included!

Mind you, I'd guess OGS will be a little worried over competition. Their 16" starts at just over $43,000. But then you get a Paramount with that - which costs the same as the entire Meade outfit.

The Meade ad shows the 12" OTA on the mount - I really do think a 16 incher would make hard work for the mount pictured. Imagine that it has to support your OTA and a few pounds of eyepiece or camera plus guidescope...

I'd say Celestron might now be rushing through whatever blueprints they have to hand.

As far as 'er indoors goes, I told here I was spending 10 grand on a mount and she was very undestanding. Anyway, I can't linger, I have to make her a cuppa just before I do the washing and ironing...

Dave

Lads,
Meade do sell OTAs if you ask for them, I really cant see that fork in the picture holding a 16" or 14" OTA,
I'd imagine that the OTA for this scope is not available seperately as there is electronics at the base of the tube, so you'll have wires and so on running from the tube down through the forks etc.. I just seems more integrated then LX200 OTAs.
If I were getting one, there is no way in hell I'd be getting it on this side of the atlantic, I'd be getting it over in the US.

The 14" LX200 was a small bit tempting for me to upgrade to, but this blows it completely out of the water, but patience is a virtue.
Its best to wait atleast a year and see what happens, look up reviews and see whats fixed/changed.

The fork and drive are my main concern, there are 6 worm gear motors in this beast !!.

I'd say Celestron might now be rushing through whatever blueprints they have to hand.

Doubt it, they seem to have bet on the C20 astrograph at $40,000. Looks a nice scope, if you like 20" scopes. They claim " Celestron’s Modified Corrected Dall-Kirkham design exceeds the off-axis performance of even the Ritchey-Chrétien design." but they would wouldnt they I think we'll have to wait until someone gets these to test before drawing conclusions.

Meade seem to have pulled the rug from under them Imho by producing a scope that although is only available up to 16" seems to be more functional, and as usual with Meade, looks a hell of a lot better! Any one who was thinking of purchasing the C20 will be giving the new meade line a serious look.

Suppose they could replace the Nextar GPS range with a Dall-Kirkham design scope...

Speaking of Dall-Kirkham and Ritchey-Chrétien, can anyone point me to a site which describes these optical systems?

Cheers,
~Al

Also noticed that the superwedge is 'optional'! Come on its about as un-neccessary as the primary mirror considering the scope is advertised as 'observatory-level
telescope for the serious astronomer and astrophotographer'

Another 'optional':

RCX400 scopes operate from eight C-cells neatly stored inside the fork arms. Alternately, telescope powering may be effected from an automobile cigarette lighter plug (using the optional #607 Power Cord) or from a standard home outlet (using the new optional AC Adapter).

Like anyone is going to power a scope that auto focuses and collimates, has a built in dew heater and uses 6 motors from C-cell batteries!

Cheers,
~Al

Apparently the dew heater is only some sort of resistor wire and it lies next to the corrector plate, so apparently it requires little power, but I just cant see batteries running this scope for any length of time.

check out pics at
www.optcorp.com/meade/optrcxexclusive.aspx

and for a detailed run down of the RCX400,
www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat...d/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

And for those looking for a F2.2 schmidt camera,
www.meade.com/catalog/lx/12_lx200sc.html
make sure you bring a ladder :shock:

You can make an effective dew heater from 6 X 25ohm resistors wired in series connected to a 12 volt battery supply...

...just in case anyone wanted to know!

Seanie.