Telescopes (Meade ETX 70 & Skylux) in Lidl Monday 22nd N

Ps……to me this is still a supermarket selling telescopes that’s why im still calling it a junk scope. Whatever brand is stamped on it.

A 'junk scope' is not defined by the outlet it's sold through. If Lidl started selling Televue or Tak scopes, we couldn't start calling them 'junk' just because Lidl are selling them!

The classification 'junk scope' came about because historically outlets like chemists, department stores, and places like Argos sold scopes which were guaranteed to disappoint a beginner to the hobby. And they also tended to hype up the abilities of the scope. So, you'd often see things like "400x magnification! See Saturn's rings!" on a 60mm refractor with a plastic lens and crappy tripod.

I suspect people here are recommending the ETX not because of its suitability for beginners, but because of its price. Can't go far wrong for €169, and Meade is a respectable brand. Once you start spending real money on the hobby, €169 would just about get you a couple of good eyepieces...

In honesty, most beginners who haven't learned to observe properly will probably end up disappointed with the ETX70. But that is because their initial expectations are so high. Remember the first time you pointed a scope at andromeda and all you saw was a grey smudge? - Or that blurry red dot that was supposed to be Mars? They're going to be expecting Hubble images from a 70mm scope.

That's why an 8" dob is the typical recommendation for a beginner. It's the scope they will learn the most from, and gives reasonable views of nebula and galaxies. And it's not too expensive (but still a lot more expensive than the Lidl ETX)

So, the decision for the beginner is, do you want to spend €169 now, just to get your hands on a scope, and don't expect *too* much from it (but hey, impress your friends with the GOTO functionality) - Or, do you want to save your money and buy an 8" dob or something with decent aperture further down the line?

John.

John, once you really REALLY start spending money in this hobby, €169 would get you half a decent eyepiece, a threaded adapter, a counterweight or a year's supply of tablets to make that headache go away!

Personally I started with an 8" Newtonian/GE (non-Goto) with few problems - other than its fast and needs careful collimation.

Orion - I think that the advice of not buying from a non-astronomy shop is good advice. However, in this day and age there is always the possibility that non-astronomical shops will stock items of value and quality. If I ever came across such an offer, I would do the research and then decide. I wouldn't knock it just because Trotter's Independent Trading Company is selling it. But I would pay particular care about making the decision.

You are of course entitled to your opinion of *never* buying from the likes of Lidl, Aldi etc on principle. And I applaud you for taking this position. Others however are prepared to take an educated risk and part with their hard earned dosh. And it seems to me rom these posts, that most prospective purchasers from IFAS are experienced observers and see the ETX as a nice addition to their arsenal of kit - portable and cheap.

It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of posts come out from Monday onwards regarding the Lidl-purchased ETX's and Skylux's.

Cheers

Dave

Lidl doing Tak? :shock: Can't wait!

Hi all.

Ok all I give in……Its obvious I seem to be the only one here that has negative views about the reason behind selling this particular scope cheap. And why we are the only ones in the world has this offer as far as I know. Ive nothing against lidls…..I just want to know how it managed to get there and why?

It also seems the name meade as won you all over…..haven’t any of you wondered why its so cheap if it is the real McCoy then fair enough its my loss. No doubt it will be found out Monday what the scope will be like. But no one has really answered my question….how did lidls manage to get stock of these scopes and sell them cheap? Surely to god astronomy shops would have got priority first to sell them.

If you had a stock of meade telescopes who would you give them to……..I don’t think it would be a supermarket now would it. I know its cheap that’s not the problem, the fact that its sold in a supermarket is a problem to me. Most of you will buy it Monday against advice from the pros, about not buying from department stores and so on…….now where is the logic in that?

I wouldn’t care if they sold LX90s…….if a proper telescope shop cant sell them at a knockdown price then in my view there is something suspicious of the items. Ive heard people saying don’t buy a scope from ebay they cannot be trusted, they sell hundreds of brand name scopes cheap……but here you are all going to a supermarket for one……it doesn’t make sense dose it.

Look…….im not trying to stop people from buying this scope im merely saying what the so called pros have been saying for years……don’t buy from department stores. This is what I meant earlier in one of my posts say one thing and do another. that’s why I think its giving the wrong impression to the beginners were told not to buy from so called stores but there you are doing it yourselves. Who are they gonna listen to now. If anything it will be more confusing for them…first sign of a scope in any store they will most likely buy it because supermarkets sell them now.

I will go now ive bored you all enough.


Orion

Orion,
I can perfectly understand your logic. This is rip-off ireland after all. Nobody goes out of their way to provide a good deal for the customer. Mabey you will be proven right by Monday evening. Personally, I hope not as I plan on getting one as a travel scope, however you may well be right. We genuinely do understand where you're coming from on all this. However, to date, both Aldi and Lidl have sold lots of products in their sales at very reasonable prices and the quality seeems fine. Hopefully they'll be the exception to the rule and the same level of quality will continue. Besides, if they are bad, we'll only have ourselves to blame cause we should have known better.
*Crossing my fingers and toes*

And why we are the only ones in the world has this offer as far as I know.

Is it because we don't have a Meade supplier?

Or do we?

I wonder

Conor

Three quick points in a thread which has become much longer than I expected and for the wrong reasons (no offence to anyone) ...

(1) since some/most of us are experienced amateur astronomers, we can always open the package at the LIDL outlet and take a closer look. For the gentleman who doubts these are Meade's, what better way than to inspect the box on Monday and go as far as looking at the scope with the Meade label?

(2) if for any reason either scope proves to be a lemon or "junk", why not just return it? I know that LIDL (at least in Greece) are very accomodating when it comes to returns!

(3) I am almost certain Meade is DUMPING stock dirt cheap because they have modified their ETX line. For starters, each of the "new" ETX scopes has the OTA covered with a photo. For example, I think M42 is "wrapped" around one of the ETX products etc.

Anthony.