Meade 16" f/10 LX200 ACF Optical Tube Assembly

Meade 16" f/10 LX200 ACF Optical Tube Assembly

The Meade 16" f/10 LX200 ACF optical tube assembly offers large aperture in a very compact form. Designed to be portable and lightweight, and includes a Losmandy-style dovetail bar mounted to the bottom of the tube which allow attachment to any Losmandy compatible mount.

The Advanced Coma-Free (ACF) optical system features Ultra-High Transmission Coatings (UHTC), an oversized low-expansion Borosilicate primary mirror, a glass corrector plate, and beautiful diffraction limited optics. The ACF optical system has brought the highest level of optical performance well within the reach of amateur astronomers at an affordable price. Using this Meade exclusive design, ACF optics achieve aplanatic performance — with a flatter field, reduced astigmatism and of course no diffractions spikes impeding the view as with a reflector design.

Designed and Manufactured in North America, and the ACF primary, secondary and corrector plate glass blanks are manufactured in the USA exclusively for Meade.

The optical path and components of the ACF telescope design

Interested in astrophotography? Meade ACF telescopes, with their long native focal lengths, are great instruments for photographing planets and the Moon in high-resolution detail with a DSLR or astro camera. And the addition of the optional Meade ACF 0.68x Focal Reducer optimizes any ACF for deep space imaging. This thread-on accessory converts an f/10 ACF into a faster f/6.8 system and transforms an f/8 ACF into a speedy f/5.5 imaging beast! The reducer shortens the long exposure times needed to record faint deep-sky objects by half and expands the field of view by nearly 50%, allowing capture of larger objects in a single frame. Your Meade ACF will become a powerful astrograph capable of capturing jaw-dropping astrophotographs with your DSLR or astronomical CCD or CMOS camera!

All LX200 models feature a primary mirror locking mechanism, which effectively prevents movement of the primary mirror during long exposure astrophotography or visual observing. Turn the lock knob located just above the telescope's main focus knob and the progressive-tension primary lock completely cancels any residual image shift due to mirror movement during visual, photographic, or imaging applications.

Optical features include an 16" aperture, 4064mm focal length, and f/10 focal ratio. The internal single speed focuser provides fine control of focus and the UHTC coatings provide impressive views of brighter star clusters, more fine detail in nebulae, and greater surface features on planets. The optical tube weighs 67 lb (30.4kg).