Meade f/10 14"/356mm ACF Catadioptric Optical Tube Assembly

The optical system uses a premium Schott Borofloat glass corrector plate. An oversize low-expansion borosilicate primary mirror provides brighter field edge illumination.  The system is fully UHTC (Ultra High Transmission Coatings) multicoated for 15% higher light transmission than standard single-layer optical coatings. 

The aluminum body of the 14" Meade has high-efficiency glare-stop baffling in the central baffle tube to improve contrast. A progressive tension primary mirror locking system locks the mirror firmly in place once a photographic focus has been achieved. This eliminates the possibility of the system changing focus while taking an image. Performance is guaranteed to be diffraction-limited. For more details, click on the “ACF optics” icon above.

This 14" Meade optical tube comes with a Losmandy-style "D-plate" dovetail that lets you mount the OTA on any German equatorial mount that has a Losmandy-style dovetail saddle plate. With a weight of 57 lbs, be sure that your mount has the payload capacity necessary to carry the scope, particularly if you have a full complement of visual and imaging accessories adding to the weight.      

 Most OTA buyers typically already have an assortment of star diagonals, eyepieces, finderscopes, etc. on hand, so no visual or other accessories are provided with the 14” Meade OTA, other than dust covers. This allows you to customize the optical tube as you see fit. The 14” Meade OTA has a standard 2”-24 thread Schmidt-Cassegrain rear cell of the type used for decades by Meade and Celestron. Accordingly, virtually any SCT accessories (thread-on star diagonals, visual backs, camera adapters, off-axis guiders, etc.) can be used with the Meade OTA. The front and rear cells are drilled and tapped with the same hole pattern as a fully-mounted 14” Meade scope, so a wide variety of finderscope brackets and accessory dovetail rails can be fitted to the OTA with ease.

While the large aperture of this 14” Meade optical tube will perform well under mildly light-polluted suburban skies, it is at a remote site with truly dark and steady skies that you’ll best be able to take full advantage of its superb coma-free optical performance and the extra light transmission of its UHTC optics. It’s not a scope that’s at its happiest staying in a heavily light-polluted city or suburban observing environment.

This big 14” Meade optical tube has enough premium Advanced Coma-Free performance to keep you busy observing and imaging for the rest of your life. If you need a top-quality optical tube, and a high payload capacity mount to carry it, this 14” Meade with Advanced Coma-Free optics and UHTC multicoatings may be the perfect OTA for you.