375 replies to this topic

[starman876]

Well, I have fond memories of mine as I enjoyed it very much.  Enjoyed my 6" AP more, but then it was a lot more money and a triplet.    Now I just enjoy the scopes I still have that I can cary easily.  As you get older gravity increases.  

[Achernar]

Have heard so many good things and some  bad things about this scope.  The one I had was a wonderful scope and others have said the same thing,  There were two versions. the first did not allow for centering the optics the second Meade modified so the optics could be aligned,   Would like to hear from those who had a 178ED and what they thought of the scope.  This way we can tell just how good or bad the 178ED was.   Was it a small number that were bad or was it a very high percentage.  would like to get input from folks who actually had one.  

I once looked through one of these telescopes and enjoyed some truly great views of Mars and Saturn through it. Whatever shortcomings they had, I didn't notice, though it was a very large telescope that required a beefy mount to support it.

 

Taras

[Dave Novoselsky]

A  lot of chatter on the Meade 178 lately. Glad to see there are folks who really enjoyed the scope.

A much, much smaller proportion than those of us that got a bad taste from them and were happy to get rid of them.  I think that’s reflected in the relatively large number that pop up on the market today in comparison to other like aperture and true APOs as well as the ask prices in comparison to less problematic scopes of this type.  People dump garbage and keep what works properly.

[Dave Novoselsky]

I once looked through one of these telescopes and enjoyed some truly great views of Mars and Saturn through it. Whatever shortcomings they had, I didn't notice, though it was a very large telescope that required a beefy mount to support it.

 

Taras

You are correct, we all agree that they are “beefy” but also dog meat rather than Prime let alone Choice or even Grade A beef.

Edited by Dave Novoselsky, 08 February 2025 - 12:12 AM.

[Dave Novoselsky]

Well, I have fond memories of mine as I enjoyed it very much.  Enjoyed my 6" AP more, but then it was a lot more money and a triplet.    Now I just enjoy the scopes I still have that I can cary easily.  As you get older gravity increases.  

Yes, entropy happens.

[starman876]

A much, much smaller proportion than those of us that got a bad taste from them and were happy to get rid of them.  I think that’s reflected in the relatively large number that pop up on the market today in comparison to other like aperture and true APOs as well as the ask prices in comparison to less problematic scopes of this type.  People dump garbage and keep what works properly.

All I have heard so far is speculation no hard facts of numbers produced, number of happy folk and those who were not happy.  One thing I have noticed that some here love to complain.

[Dave Novoselsky]

Speculation??? Not hardly.

 

Okay. I had one, sent it back, Meade said it was fixed, returned it, still no good, sent a replacement, which was just as bad. If you search the Net you will find a flood of similar reports, culminating in Meade withdrawing the 178 from the market and refunding disappointed owners.  Yep, we were just a bunch of whiners, a whole lot of us.

 

Good enough or do you want egg in your bee? I respectfully suggest that acting as a belated fanboy for this disaster of an “APO” is hardly a service to this community.

 

And feel free to bash me for saying so. It won’t be a novel experience for me!

Edited by Dave Novoselsky, 08 February 2025 - 12:57 PM.

[banatop]

All I have heard so far is speculation no hard facts of numbers produced, number of happy folk and those who were not happy.  One thing I have noticed that some here love to complain.

And the numbers never will be produced, nor will the ability of some folks to repeat the same old stories over and over again be reduced. I think what we need here is a virtual Billy goat Gruff !
   
 

[Dave Novoselsky]

You know, why bother?  Go ahead folks, assume every astronomy product is perfect and any review that disagrees is nonsense.  Makes about 90 percent of the posts at CN, SGL, Ice in Space, etc  superfluous, including all that silly criticism of the first of Svbony’s perfect Maksutovs.

Edited by Dave Novoselsky, 08 February 2025 - 01:23 PM.

[banatop]

Disagreement: a situation in which people have different opinions, or an inability to agree.

 

Diatribe : an angry speech or piece of writing that severely criticizes something or someone.

 

Spot the difference..............

Edited by banatop, 08 February 2025 - 01:46 PM.

[Jeff B]

Disagreement: a situation in which people have different opinions, or an inability to agree.

 

Diatribe : an angry speech or piece of writing that severely criticizes something or someone.

 

Spot the difference..............

The second sentence is longer.

[banatop]

Wrong : the first sentence is shorter....

[starman876]

You know, why bother?  Go ahead folks, assume every astronomy product is perfect and any review that disagrees is nonsense.  Makes about 90 percent of the posts at CN, SGL, Ice in Space, etc  superfluous, including all that silly criticism of the first of Svbony’s perfect Maksutovs.

What would we do if there was nothing to complain about.  

[starman876]

Speculation??? Not hardly.

 

Okay. I had one, sent it back, Meade said it was fixed, returned it, still no good, sent a replacement, which was just as bad. If you search the Net you will find a flood of similar reports, culminating in Meade withdrawing the 178 from the market and refunding disappointed owners.  Yep, we were just a bunch of whiners, a whole lot of us.

 

Good enough or do you want egg in your bee? I respectfully suggest that acting as a belated fanboy for this disaster of an “APO” is hardly a service to this community.

 

And feel free to bash me for saying so. It won’t be a novel experience for me!

Still , no numbers, no cold hard facts.  A flood compared to what.   Somewhere there has to be some data.  When it comes to hearing about bad scopes you will also find a lot of good comments.    It is a fact of humans that they will lock onto the bad of anything and amplify it two fold or more. 

[Dave Novoselsky]

Obviously nothing other than your own preconceived opinions will suffice to satisfy you so have fun trolling for the sheep of this world.  I’m done with you.

[starman876]

Obviously nothing other than your own preconceived opinions will suffice to satisfy you so have fun trolling for the sheep of this world.  I’m done with you.

well that's good.  Have a great weekend

[saemark30]

The Meade 152ED was available to me a long time ago so I went to look through it.

It produced some funky triangular shaped stars and a bit of CA on Jupiter.

This was before the cell fix was available and I walked away perplexed by what I saw.

[Dave Novoselsky]

The Meade 152ED was available to me a long time ago so I went to look through it.

It produced some funky triangular shaped stars and a bit of CA on Jupiter.

This was before the cell fix was available and I walked away perplexed by what I saw.

Prove it! Where’s your video proof? Where’s your affidavit? Shame on you, unfairly smearing the 178  based on an unsubstantiated attack on a lesser member of the Meade family of perfect refractors! .(Giggle, giggle.)

Edited by Dave Novoselsky, 08 February 2025 - 03:06 PM.

[starman876]

Prove it! Where’s your video proof? Where’s your affidavit? Shame on you, unfairly smearing the 178  based on an unsubstantiated attack on a lesser member of the Meade family of perfect refractors! .(Giggle, giggle.)

glad to see you are on the bandwagon.   The dark side has to be an horrible place to live.  

[Dave Novoselsky]

No, it’s a blast.  Just sit around, pull wings off flys, club baby harp seals, tweak sanctimonious trolls.  You know, having fun!

[Kitfox]

I have neither numbers nor test data, but I do remember when this big guy was on the market. No scope I remember before or since had so much negative buzz. And this was back in the dial-up, aol days. This one died a noisy death, even then. 
 

I think Chas admitted the glass may have been quite good, but the issues with collimation dwarfed the Vixen VSD100 and Tak FSQ130 diatribes (or is it disagreement, I need to read that again…)

 

Sorry, I tend to edge up against terms of service.  But I mean well 

[Martin]

I went to excelsis telescope reviews. Out of the 19 reviews of the 178ED, 3 were negative and 16 were positive. Now there were problems with the centering, but some owners were able to master the centering and then loved the scopes, or they sent them back to Meade for the repair/fix.  If I would have purchased one of these new and paid the full price, I would be upset if I would have to send it back to Meade several times for centering or whatever. But on the used market these scopes can provide you with a great deal and if you can tweak it some it can be a great telescope. 

 

Martin 

[Airship]

One person’s problem is another’s opportunity, and I do luvs a good opportunity.

[starman876]

That's what I kind of figured.   There have been a lot of threads on the 178ed over the years.   When I looked at them there was both good and bad reviews.   The good was from people that actually had one and liked the scope.   The bad was from a few who actually had one and had issues, but most of the bad comments were from people who just had heard there were issues and kept repeating those comments over and over.  I did read in a couple of other posts that Meade never released production numbers of their scope.  So, it may be that we might never know.  89

[Dave Novoselsky]

One person’s problem is another’s opportunity, and I do luvs a good opportunity.

And those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Have fun,