Meade’s LX200 is the most widely used advanced amateur telescope on Earth, and for good reason. It combines the most sophisticated optical system available with rock-solid mechanical and electronic elements to create the most versatile astronomical system available.

Sitting atop an ultra-stable tripod and mount, the LX200-ACF combines an amazing array of features: Primary Mirror Lock to eliminate focus and mirror shift during long exposures; large, high-quality worm-gear drives in both axes to provide extraordinarily smooth movement, and Smart Drive, delivering Permanent Periodic Error Correction (critical for long exposure astrophotography).

The LX200-ACF also comes with the AutoStar II handbox controller which puts over 140,000 objects at your fingertips and delivers the fastest GoTo performance available. This simple to use handbox provides complete control over every aspect of the telescope’s operation. You can even control the system from an external computer with supplied or third party software.

Meade's ACF optical design eliminates the typical aberrations of all mirror optics. Thanks to ACF, the stars are also point-shaped right out to the edge of the image field, displaying no elongated comet-like distortions.

The image field is flatter than that of classic Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes.

ACF optical systems show their strengths especially in astrophotographic applications.

UHTC is a special multi-layer coating on the front correction plate provides up to 15% more light transmission.

The result -brighter star clusters, finer details in nebulae and more surface detail on planets!

Smart Mount improves the pointing accuracy of your telescope's GoTo-system. Despite careful efforts to reduce mount flexure and improve pointing accuracy, telescopes may still fail to precisely center objects. Smart mount allows your telescope to learn about, and then correct for any systematic pointing errors, regardless of the cause.

Smart Mount is recommended for use with permanently mounted telescopes.

As the telescope shows a magnified image of any astronomical object, an astronomical mount must be very precise. Even small deviations may interfere with longer exposure time images. But small fluctuations will always be present as the worm shaft, which is part of the drive, can never be absolutely perfect. These periodic fluctuations can be detected and compensated for by the computer control. The Smart Drive technology enables this ‘permanent periodic error correction’ (PPEC).

Nearly all functions of the telescope are accomplished with just a few pushes of AutoStar II’s buttons. Because the AutoStar II system uses flash (rewritable) memory, your system will be able to grow when new features and enhancements become available. Some of the major features of the AutoStar II system are:

• Automatically move the telescope to any of the more than 145,000 objects stored in the object library. For example objects of the Messier Catalog, NGC Catalog and 227 named Objects.
• Take a guided tour of the best celestial objects to view on any given night of the year.
• Access a glossary of astronomical terms.

The AutoStar II handbox has soft-touch keys designed to have a positive feel. The LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is backlit with red LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) for easy viewing in the dark. The backlit display, key arrangement, and sequential menu structure make AutoStar II extremely user friendly.

Alignment is particularly simple for this telescope. The signal from the integrated GPS receiver sends the computer controller the date, time and location. Level North Technology supplements this information with the actual orientation of the telescope. The telescope then automatically points to between one and three stars in succession (depending on the accuracy required). All you have to do is centre the stars in the eyepiece. This last step ensures the fine adjustment of the alignment.