Meade 16 inch f/8 LX850 ACF OTA - Optical Tube Assembly

Top optics at a moderate price

Meade´s Advanced Coma-Free System - powerful and high-precision - is within the reach of all ambitious amateur astronomers, astrophotographers and CCD photographers! It provides perfectly sharp star images, at the highest professional observatory level, over the entire field of view.

The distinctive feature of a coma-free system is, as the name says, the complete absence of coma, an optical aberration in which starlight is distorted and pulled into comet-like tails outside the central part of the image. Whether for observing or photography, the ACF Cassegrain optics from Meade is way ahead of conventional mass produced telescopes. It offers fantastic image quality, previously only available from Ritchey Chrétien telescopes and other exotic systems costing several times as much as the Meade system.

The telescopes of the LX850 line have faster f/8 optics for shorter exposure times.
High-contrast baffling insures crisp imaging,
precise focusing is achieved by a newly designed zero image shift Crayford main mirror focuser with 1:7 dual speed transmission.

Strong fixings:
A precision machined Losmandy-style dovetail rail mated to the tube with wide-stance radius blocks provides rock-steady mounting, a vixen style saddle plate is used to mount the finder scope.