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Meade LS Series Telescopes
First Light Report - June 2nd, 2009
Our first shipment of the new ETX-LS 6 arrived on June 1st, and we were eager to give it a test drive. Local sky conditions on June 2nd provided the opportunity to challenge the automatic alignment under less than ideal circumstances. A cloud bank was rolling in from the southeast, and the transparency in other areas of the sky was far from ideal. We started the automatic alignment process at 9 PM when the moon, Arcturus and Vega were visible, but not much else. The LS selected Arcturus as its first alignment star, slewed to that general area and began taking CCD images. After evaluating those images the scope slowly corrected its position, bringing Arcturus near the center of the standard 26mm Plossl eyepiece. The LS then automatically selected Eltanin as its second alignment star. This star was just barely visible at the time, yet the telescope found it and successfully completed the alignment. Yes indeed, the automatic alignment works as advertised! Read more.
Meade takes out all the hassles and puts in all the fun with the all-new ETX–LS featuring LightSwitch technology. All start-up alignment functions are performed with just a flip of the switch. The revolutionary LightSwitch technology automatically delivers telescope location, time, date, orientation and alignment with the sky — all with a single touch. And thanks to Meade’s exclusive Advanced Coma-Free™ optics, you see it all in stunning Ritchey-Chrétien-like clarity. And with the Astronomer Inside™ comprehensive multi-media content, you experience the universe in a way you never have before. In short, the ETX-LS incorporates everything you’ve come to expect from Meade, the undisputed leader in telescope innovation.
Light Switch Technology for Easy, Automatic Self -Alignment
Meade’s patented automatic self-alignment system — just one touch and it does all of the work for you. No stars to center. No bearings to take. No time or location to enter. Just flip the switch, and the Integrated Sensor Module in combination with the ECLIPS™(Electronically Controlled Locate Identify Position System) CCD imager delivers all the information necessary to automatically align your ETX-LS telescope for fast, accurate, hassle-free viewing. All at the flip of a switch.
Meade's Astronomer Inside
Take a multi-media guided tour of the universe, or select your favorite object and the ETX-LS’ Astronomer Inside gives you fun and informative audio descriptions of over 500 objects while you view them in the eyepiece — or experience the whole dazzling multi-media presentation on an attached video monitor — complete with audio, video, still images and text.
Advanced Coma-Free Optics (ACF)
Meade’s proprietary, Advanced Coma-Free optics deliver superior performance to competing Schmidt-Cassegrain designs. Distortion-free clarity. Sharp as- a-tack resolution. ACF’s state-of-the-art optics are so good, you’ll see more objects than you’ve ever thought possible. Just compare ACF to Ritchey-Chrétien systems selling for $10,000 or more, and ACF’s quality will absolutely astound you.
AutoStar III Computer - Total Control
The easy-to-use hand-held controller lets you select from a huge object database, with over 100,000 celestial objects. Just select an object and push the GoTo button and the telescope will automatically put your object in the eyepiece. The AutoStar III also gives you complete control of the Astronomer Inside multimedia features only available from Meade.
Built-in Imaging?
This appears to be one of those marketing claims that Meade could end up wishing they hadn't made. There are two parts to this story, so read on. Available Meade literature indicates that the built-in ECLIPS CCD lets you capture images of your favorite celestial wonders and display them in real-time on your own monitor. From what we can see this imager does not operate through the telescope optics; it needs a wide field of view in order to find the alignment stars. A recent article in the March issue of Sky & Telescope claims that the camera had a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels with an eight degree field of view. This means that the resulting image scale would have to be quite small.
Another claim in the Meade advertising is that you can use one of Meade's Deep Sky Imagers without the need for a supporting PC in the field. That would imply that the supporting software can be hosted by the telescope itself, but you would probably need an external monitor of some type in order to focus the image. We are going to reserve judgment on these claims until further information or a working demo model arrives from Meade
