A tale of 3 RCX400's - SOMEONE FROM MEADE PLEASE READ MY STORY

First, I really believe that the RCX400 scope is the best designed scope out there. And I will not stop until I get one of these scopes in working order. I am only writing this to share my experience with others, as I find it unbelievable that I could have so much bad luck with a scope.

It all started in May when I ordered a 10" RCX400 from a major online telescope store. When it arrived in late May I set it up in my basement and played with it for an hour or so. Boy, what a nice scope this is. Somewhere along the way I noticed some scratching on the telescope tube near the 8x50 finder scope. Since I paid a lot of money for the scope, I figured I'd return it for an unscratched one and also upgrade to the 12" version. So that's what I did.

The telescope store paid for return shipping and promptly sent me a 12" RCX scope. I was sure excited when it arrived and opened it immediately. To my surprise I found a note taped to the accessories box that read "This scope is defective and I am returning it for a refund" and gave the person's name and contact information. Suddenly my worst fears were realized, the scope I had been waiting for was a broke right out of the box! So I contacted the store and they paid to have it shipped back, and of course gave me the usual apologies that they were moving warehouses and they had a bunch of new people. Ok I said calmly, I will give you one more chance. I told them that I wanted a scope sent direct from Meade so I didn't get another defective scope. And they agreed to that and Meade shipped me a beautiful 12" scope via UPS 3 Day select, for which I was very grateful.

I set up the scope in my basement and played with it a bit, upgrading the firmware to the latest i version. Half way through the upgrade my laptop froze and I lost the firmware in the scope. The scope would no longer turn on and function. Oh great, I said! Luckily I found a note on the autostar II cd that told how to recover from this by turning the scope on and entering 999. This puts the scope in download mode so the autostar update utility can download the firmware. So I downloaded again and everything worked so I went to bed happy.

I was so excited that the next night with it being clear, I would haul the heavy scope out to my deck and place it on my Skyshed pier. I also hauled all of my equipment outside including my laptop, monitor, mallincam, and a bunch of other stuff. After about 20 minutes of set up, I turned the scope on and started the alt/azm alignment process. Wow, was I in for a shock. The scope started moving toward the home position and stopped immediately. The autostar II controller said that it was leveling or finding true north, but the scope didn't move at all. So I cancelled out of the alignment mode and tried to move the scope in declination. To my shock, the scope wouldn't budge. I tried the whole thing over again with the same results. At this point I was panicked, being an individual that is prone to anxiety; I nearly had a panic attack. I then realized that the declination knob was stuck and that the shaft leading to the gears was bent. So I jiggled it a little and the scope started moving. At this point I decided to try the alignment over again. This time, the autostar went searching for the home position and stopped immediately again before it found it and went to finding true north and tried to level. Then all of the sudden the scope started slewing toward the zenith and it tried to go past it, but I pushed a button on Autostar to stop it.

At this point, I was frantic, after spending so much money on the scope and time waiting for replacements I decided to tear everything down and take the scope back inside. Once I got inside, the 8x50 finder fell out of its bracket and hit the concrete basement floor. At this point I was in shock! I examined the bracket and saw that one of the plastic screws holding the finder broke off and the whole thing came loose. Ok, so now I am thinking what should I do? For some reason I decided to open the tube cover and look at the inside of the scope, since I hadn’t done that yet. To my amazement I found what looked to be a human hair attached to the inside wall of the scope. Sure, it probably won’t affect the view, but what was it doing there? I then noticed a 2” line on the mirror. It didn’t really look like a scratch but it was definitely visible using just room lighting.

Well at this point I did a little research on the autostar leveling and run away slew problem and found that a wire might be loose in the left fork. So I unscrewed the plastic cover to peek inside and everything seemed in order, so I decided with all of these problems to yet once again ship this back to Meade. I was hoping they would take pity on me and rush me a new scope right away, but I was told that it would take 3 to 4 weeks for repair. I suppose I could ask for a refund from the original store and maybe that is what I should do, but as of tonight I am planning on shipping it to Meade for repair.

I was thinking today that whenever you go to buy a car, you expect the car to drive you home that same day. No one in their right mind would sign the paperwork and be told their car would not be ready for 3 weeks. Why should a $7000 telescope be any different?

I guess the whole purpose of this post is to let Meade know my story and that I have not been too happy lately. Don’t get me wrong, everyone has been real nice about this whole thing and the Meade person I spoke to today was very nice, but I wan’t a working scope today, not next month. I’ve been working hard on my Deepsky software for over 10 years now and haven’t been doing any observing during that time. It sure would be nice to get out to observe with my new RCX400.

I’ve made the decision to stay the course with this scope as I really think it is a great scope. I will get it fixed and will eventually do some observing. I just wish the turnaround time for having a new scope arrive DOA was quicker than 3 to 4 weeks. And I wish I didn’t have to go through the first 2 scopes too.
Steven S Tuma