The advent of high optical performance is at your fingertips with the Meade 16" LX 400-ACF UHTC OTA telescope. Meade's engineers have developed this highly sophisticated observatory-grade instrument with technologically advanced mechanics and electronics never before offered to professional astronomers by other manufacturers. Meade's LX400 series of telescopes is the direct result of years of incremental acquisition of optical expertise and wisdom.
These cutting edge technologies consist of a hyperbolic secondary corrector lens/primary mirror combination that performs as one hyperbolic element. Meade eliminates the typical secondary mirror support structure which causes diffraction spikes resulting in degradation of image contrast and resolution. It utilizes instead a precision polished and figured front corrector lens which minimizes inherent astigmatism.
In order to further improve the optical efficiency, Meade uses the aplanatic design found in most of the world's observatories and the famous Hubble Space Telescope. These innovations result in an enormous coma free edge-to-edge field of view and produce incredibly high contrast as if it were an apochromatic refractor. These improvements allow astrophotographers to use the latest imaging technology to capture tack sharp images over a wider field.