Three years in the making, the Meade LX400 series of telescopes are the culmination of Meade's expertise in optics and instruments and are certainly worthy of professional consideration.
Using a similar basis of design as that in most of the world's observatories as well as the famous Hubble Space Telescope from NASA, they've actually eliminated the typical secondary mirror support structure inherent in this configuartion which causes diffraction spikes that degrade image contrast & resolution. The LX400s consist of a hyperbolic secondary and corrector lens/primary mirror combination that performs as one hyperbolic element.
The result of all this is an enormous field free of coma from edge to edge. Combined with its phenomenal mount and tracking capacity, astrophotographers using the latest imaging technology can capture tack-sharp images over wider areas, and visual observers can enjoy pinpointing stars across a larger expanse. The contrast is incredibly high, like that of an apochromatic refractor, and you'll also have the deep-sky capacity that only a large aperture such as this affords.
This version of the 16" LX400 arrives with the combination of the MAX equatorial mount and a sturdy tripod specific to the MAX itself.