Meade 178 ED Apo

5.0 Meade 178 (7") APO Refractor w/750 Mount

Superb Optics, Solid mount, Excellent tracking and goto capability, Priced right at $5,000 with mount.

Mount is heavy for stability - if you can call that a con?

I’ve used this telescope for several years and the images are superb. I’ve used this instrument up to 450x!! On nights of steady seeing. Mars' polar caps jumped out as well as the dark markings on the surface. Saturn’s rings are well defined with amazing detail along with glimpses of the difficult crepe ring. The belts and festoons of Jupiter are outstanding and the difference in color detail is remarkable. The Great Red Spot is EASY! The phases of Venus were plainly visible without any astigmatism or false coloring. Mercury was an easy target during the daytime using the 750 mount. The 750 mount is ROCK steady with no vibration. In fact slapping the mount sharply produced complete damping in less than one second. We (several astronomy club members and attendees) at a public star party did a quality image comparison between the 7” Meade 178 APO and a 6” Astro Physics APO refractor, SIDE BY SIDE, swapping the same eyepieces on the same targets (including star clusters, nebulas and galaxies). The range of observers was from the outright beginner to very seasoned observer. Some of the observers were Planetarium Operators with considerable observing experience. Observed results--- NO DIFFERENCE PERIOD!!! I would highly recommend this refractor for anyone who wants a top of the line refractor (used $5,000 if you can find one). The nearest size telescope aperture (6”) would cost over $10,000 without a mount.