LX-800 Update

Yeah for that price I would expect at least 4 arcsec PE and a very smooth curve that can be easily guided out. I actually didn't know that the PE was so high. I guess that would make imaging with any of the OTAs that the mount comes with essentially a futile effort. Hopefully they can improve the tracking.

Thing I don't like about Meade is that they have taken the astronomy industry and consumers on a joy ride for over a year now with the announcement of LX800, LX80, and other lines while they really hadn't done any homework. Publishing glittery ads in magazines for over a year while the real story is something else is hypocritical to say the least. Such are not the tactics of a company longing to survive. Meade has lot of work to do to rebuild their tarnished reputation let alone deliver what they promised (in this case LX800); else writing is on the wall.

Does anyone have a schematic of how the focuser works on the LX800. Trying to think thru what changes/adjustments that they made.

I know that the focuser controls the location of the primary, and that they have incorporated a crayford design which they have used to eliminate image shift/mirror flop.

Tony

I don't think anybody had one long enough to take one apart!

I had mine for a few weeks, but never took it out of the box, because of the recall. They picked it up in June and I have been without ever since.

Tony

I don't think anybody had one long enough to take one apart!

Bad Uncle!

I've noticed that a lot of times the folks in customer service don't have all the facts. I've read some posts here on CN that confused me so I checked in with the people working on my telescope and was told the information was not correct. I am not sure what the deal is with the focuser. When I had mine I was impressed with the focuser and had no problems. Zero image shift while focusing at high magnification. Maybe they found an issue that needs addressing. They need the OTA's right because they go on the LX600's too. So even if the LX600 mounts are great, the last thing Meade is going to need is a problem with the OTA's going on them.

If I find anything out I'll let y'all know.

June to November/Decemmber sure seems like a long time to have to wait for a mount to be returned. That is the loss of a whole season. This would be a tragedy to me as an astrophotographer.
Blueman

June to November/Decemmber sure seems like a long time to have to wait for a mount to be returned. That is the loss of a whole season. This would be a tragedy to me as an astrophotographer.
Blueman

Really! Then it must be a tragedy that you did not buy your AP900 earlier.

I agree!! Loosing a season because of that would make me really upset!

Should have bought it two years earlier!
Blueman

June to November/Decemmber sure seems like a long time to have to wait for a mount to be returned. That is the loss of a whole season. This would be a tragedy to me as an astrophotographer.
Blueman

Really! Then it must be a tragedy that you did not buy your AP900 earlier.

Gang,

Just talked to Meade about my 14" LX-800. It has been at Meade for the recall since June, and according to the rep. this is what has been completed on my scope so far:

1. Replaced the worm
2. Increase the bearing size on both the RA and DEC
3. Made focuser adjustments
4. Improved the saddle plate(not sure if it was replaced or modified)

He says that these were thing done to my specific scope, they have a system that tracks each individual scope in the recall.

All they are working on now is the refinement of the firmware for the mount and starlock. He would not give me a firm date for completion, but, did suggest that it would be back to me by the end of the month. I have been given dates before that have come and gone, so, take with a grain of salt.

I told him that I would demand to speak with and executive if the scope is not ready by December 1st.

Tony

No way you will get it back by December 1st. We are now in the holiday season and Meade is also heading to Arizona next weekend. I honestly believe that IF they honestly plan to return peoples mounts to them in working condtion, they will see them after the new year.

If you want to give them a deadline of satisfaction, tell them you want your repaired mount returned by November 23rd, 2012 or a full refund by that same time. Then if they decide on a refund you can take advantage of Celestron's sale on CGE-PRO systems, which lasts through November, and go that route instead. With the savings you can buy a focal reducer (which Meade hasn't even been working on) a guide camera and a guide scope.

It may have been an issue since the 70s, but in the last ten years Meade has been really hosing up their product launches, especially on their highest-end equipment. The RCX-400, the LX80 and the LX800 have all been rushed out the door less than half baked. Considering how badly the LX800 launch has been botched, I can't see myself ever taking a risk on a high end Meade product because early adopters go through the wringer with every major product rollout.

If Meade doesn't get their poop in a group, they won't be able to survive very long. I've always preferred Celestron products, but the competition between the two companies is critical for pushing innovation forward. If Meade goes under because of poorly managed product launches, I hate to think what the broader implications will be for the industry.

Sadly we saw a quarterly press release from Meade on their sales and income results about a month ago. Given that the company lost over half of its value in the last 2 months (something that I warned about) that would points to continuing bad sales and income numbers.

I too would like to see Meade turn this around. Are they selling anything other than accessories and the odd "loose" OTA these days? How can you stay in business doing that?

It's unfortunate they won't just sell the OTAs. Maybe it would help them pull in some funds until the mount issue can be clarified.

With the state of Meade at this time, if I had an LX-800, I would ask for a refund. It is possible that they may not make it through this bad time. It is also possible that they will drop the product suddenly as they have in the past, leaving people with a mount that has no support.
Later, if they found the problems and corrected them, then I would consider buying another LX-800, maybe. But right now I think this is not a good thing for the consumer to be involved in just too risky.
Blueman

With the state of Meade at this time, if I had an LX-800, I would ask for a refund. It is possible that they may not make it through this bad time. It is also possible that they will drop the product suddenly as they have in the past, leaving people with a mount that has no support.
Later, if they found the problems and corrected them, then I would consider buying another LX-800, maybe. But right now I think this is not a good thing for the consumer to be involved in just too risky.
Blueman

I won't comment on the return the LX800's suggestion. But Meade's last financial statement has to have everyone at least put one eyebrow up. They are burning through cash like crazy (about $500,000 per month), the have a huge back log of inventory, and sales are about half of they were this time last year. In the last 6 months they went from having almost $4,000,000 cash on hand, to less than $700,000...

Either they are getting ready for a massive Christmas rush or...

With the state of Meade at this time, if I had an LX-800, I would ask for a refund. It is possible that they may not make it through this bad time. It is also possible that they will drop the product suddenly as they have in the past, leaving people with a mount that has no support.
Later, if they found the problems and corrected them, then I would consider buying another LX-800, maybe. But right now I think this is not a good thing for the consumer to be involved in just too risky.
Blueman

I won't comment on the return the LX800's suggestion. But Meade's last financial statement has to have everyone at least put one eyebrow up. They are burning through cash like crazy (about $500,000 per month), the have a huge back log of inventory, and sales are about half of they were this time last year. In the last 6 months they went from having almost $4,000,000 cash on hand, to less than $700,000...

Either they are getting ready for a massive Christmas rush or...

The reduced sales are from having (foolishly) announced the LX800 and 600 before they were ready, thus drying up sales of the LX200 and LX90. The extra inventory likely includes all the returned LX800s. Remember, one of those is like 50 Costco-refractors in cost. Thus, the inventory doesn't concern me as much as the cash flow issue.

Bottom line, they need to execute on the LX800 and LX600, and do so expeditiously. If they had done so on time, they'd probably be in a far better condition right now.

Well, that and the fact that the LX800 don't work and the 80 didn't live up to ints advance billing...

I think they bit off a bit more than they could chew. Sad to see a once great company reduced like this. They are the people that introduced me to astronomy witha refractor back in the 70s.

This is sad news for Meade. I currently own two Meade scopes, an 8" LX200R and a 12" LX200 ACF and they are very very fine instruments.

Synta bought out Celestron a few years ago, who would buy out Meade if they file for bankruptcy? Is there a large enough astronomically related company that would want their products or is this the end of the line for Meade?

Bill

This is sad news for Meade. I currently own two Meade scopes, an 8" LX200R and a 12" LX200 ACF and they are very very fine instruments.

Synta bought out Celestron a few years ago, who would buy out Meade if they file for bankruptcy? Is there a large enough astronomically related company that would want their products?

Bill

I won't comment on the return the LX800's suggestion. But Meade's last financial statement has to have everyone at least put one eyebrow up. They are burning through cash like crazy (about $500,000 per month), the have a huge back log of inventory, and sales are about half of they were this time last year. In the last 6 months they went from having almost $4,000,000 cash on hand, to less than $700,000...

Either they are getting ready for a massive Christmas rush or...

The reduced sales are from having (foolishly) announced the LX800 and 600 before they were ready, thus drying up sales of the LX200 and LX90. The extra inventory likely includes all the returned LX800s. Remember, one of those is like 50 Costco-refractors in cost. Thus, the inventory doesn't concern me as much as the cash flow issue.

Bottom line, they need to execute on the LX800 and LX600, and do so expeditiously. If they had done so on time, they'd probably be in a far better condition right now.

I hope you are right about the reduced sales being mostly due to the problems with the 800 and the 600 still being "massaged"... Their financial statements only blame 31% of their problems to the LX800/600... Another 27% of the sales problem is tagged with decline of entry level (Costco/Walmart) "toy" level products... That leaves 42% of problems that we are left to consider.. I think that much of their problems stem from the brutally mangled LX80 release... Anyone considering that mount, would likely take the 30 seconds to do an internet search as to what people are saying.. and most of those comments aren't pretty.

The financial statements are not clear if the sales revenue from the LX80's are Net or Gross. If they are gross, that means they have only sold about 20-40 LX80's a month in the last 6 months.. While that is 20-40 more per month than 600's or 800's that is still a remarkably low number for a brand new product that had a ton of hype and even more anticipation.

I wish I had a dollar for every post I have read over the years predicting Meade's dismiss, I would be rolling in it by now Funny thing is they just keep hanging around.

Synta bought out Celestron a few years ago, who would buy out Meade if they file for bankruptcy? Is there a large enough astronomically related company that would want their products?

There's no reason to suspect that given that situation, Synta wouldn't explore buying Meade. It's like how Frito-Lay own just about every major brand of snack food.

I wish I had a dollar for every post I have read over the years predicting Meade's dismiss, I would be rolling in it by now Funny thing is they just keep hanging around.

Almost exactly 2 months ago, Mantis707, after implying that I didn't know jack about trading shares, and even less about reading Meade's Financial Statements bet me that $3.45 was the "buy buy buy" share price for Meade. Well if you'd shorted 5000 shares in Mid September (like I suggested them... The post is still there ) you would have made enough to buy a fairly nice AP mount (or 2 LX800's if they ever sell them again) by now.

Rolling in it? Not exactly, but basically a 60% return in only 2 months is nothing to be sneezed at.