Last year I really wanted a meade 8'' Schmidt-Newtonian. (I like to sit on my butt when observing and Newts accommodate that.) Turns out the quality of the mount was crappy and most sites recommended a $150 "hypertune" which involved polishing the gears and replacing the standard sticky grease with some low vis lithium grease.

This year, meade is sh*t canning the LXD55 in favor of the new LXD75 with improved mount. Hopefully they have improve the quality of the mount. Won't know until later because they haven't shipped any (I think).

The optics are supposed to be very good and the scope on the whole, is suppose to be a very good value. The same aperture in an LX200 (with longer f ratio) will run you twice as much.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to write a review soon ;)