Meade LX850-ACF Optical Tube Assembly

Standard Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes often suffer from coma, which causes stars at the edge of the field of view to look distorted or comet-shaped. The ACF design eliminates this aberration, ensuring your stars remain sharp and pinpoint from the center all the way to the corners of your image.

No, this is an optical tube assembly (OTA) only. You will need to provide your own heavy-duty equatorial mount capable of supporting the 63-pound weight of the telescope.

In many telescopes, the primary mirror can shift slightly during long exposures as the telescope tracks across the sky, which ruins image sharpness. The primary mirror lock mechanically secures the mirror in place, preventing this shift and ensuring your focus remains rock-solid throughout your session.

Yes, the internal dual-speed Crayford-style focuser is designed specifically for precision. The dual-speed mechanism allows for both coarse adjustments to find focus and fine adjustments to lock in critical sharpness, which is essential for high-resolution planetary and deep-sky imaging.

This OTA is equipped with a Losmandy-style dovetail mounting rail. You should ensure your equatorial mount is compatible with this standard, heavy-duty rail system to guarantee a secure and stable connection.

As temperatures drop throughout the night, standard glass can contract, causing your focus to drift. The low-expansion material minimizes these thermal shifts, meaning you spend less time refocusing and more time capturing consistent, high-quality images.