Meade Instruments 1205-05-03 LightBridge 12-Inch Truss Tube Dobsonian Telescope, Open Truss (Black)

As a newcomer to the hobby, I wanted a simple telescope that could bring to my eyes the most bang for the buck, something I can really feel connected to and rely upon for many years to come. This scope has all I need: It's got a large aperture, but is transportable in my Camry; it's easy to set up and takes maybe 5 minutes; its 2" eyepiece capability lets you get a wider field of view than a 1.25"; the 26 mm eyepiece itself is high quality (although I purchased an even better, 31 mm Televue lens with it); and I didn't have to buy another finder scope like I thought I might have to (this one works fine with a little adjustment and some error-correction). I personally enjoy the practice of finding DSO's without a computer, so unless you just want a point and shoot kind of scope (or if you want to take pictures), this basic model is perfect for exploring everything that's out there, just like Galileo did. I've used it several times now, once in the city with great viewing, but even better out in the desert!I also bought a 3-piece counterweight set to balance the heavy top-part. They work very well at keeping the scope steady, but at a more horizontal position I use the brace piece to keep it from moving.

I gave this four stars because it came with the focuser ready to fall off and the scope BADLY out of collimation. This is not my first scope but I did not have any collimation tools so I took it out of the box, followed the assembly instructions and started observing. Immediately I observed that the stars were not forming tack sharp points but rather spread out and oval shaped even in the dead center of the field and by cross referencing with three other eyepieces. Also Jupiter and Saturn were fuzzy, recognizable but fuzzy. I am in a rural place and with relatively dark skies and with no clouds I expected better. I am not trying to bash Mead and I was very careful with assembly, all the truss knobs were tight and the parts seated snugly and there was no rattling of any parts when lightly shaken. The collimation lock knobs were not tight which means that even if it was properly collimated at the factory it had no chance during shipping to keep that collimation. I followed a procedure to properly collimate the scope and from the start it was evident that not only was the primary mirror out of position but the secondary as well. Meade, you are an establishment in the amateur industry providing many interesting options for astronomical observation. Please live up to you claims. My observations cannot soley be attributed to shipping, the box was in excellent shape and clearly handled with care.

Great telescope! This 12-inch monster gives some really incredible views of the night sky. It takes a little over an hour to initially screw all the pieces together and get it set up. Complete set up and tear down can be done in less than five minutes, making transporting or moving this very easy. The only problem I keep running into is when I try to center an object in the eyepiece, the telescope will then "settle" as I take my hands off of it, making it so I have to anticipate where the telescope will move.A quick side note. Sometimes when using a high magnification eyepiece, it can be difficult to properly focus objects into view. Then again, that may be due to the sub-par eyepiece itself, rather than the telescope. So take these words with a pinch of salt.

Did some reading (The Dobsonian Telescope: A Practical Manual for Building Large Aperture Telescopes) and studied the reviews. This is the best deal for what I wanted. Anything larger then 12" would be to hard to take in and out every night. So far I've enjoyed this scope and have no buyer's regrets. If you buy one you may experience this problem; the collimation knobs stick causing the mirror cell to remain stationary as a knob is turned. Solved the problem by using Bees Wax on the adjusting screw threads, at the moment this is working. I also placed self sticking felt disks on the mirror cell adjustment stop knobs so I could identify them by touch from the collimation knobs.

Love it! Very good product at very reasonable price. Gets you into the "light bucket" range of scopes, but is easy to use. And without computer, you are forced to learn star hopping, which is lots of fun.

need more clear nights to fully use this item but so far it has been a great product--came well packed and and in good condition.

Excellent..