An important optional feature to optimize the performance of your Meade telescope.

Image brightness in a telescope is crucially dependent on the reflectivity of the
telescope's mirrors and on the transmission of its lenses. Neither of these
processes, mirror-reflectivity or lens-transmission, is, however, perfect; light
loss occurs in each instance where light is reflected or transmitted. Uncoated
glass, for example, reflects about 4% of the light impacting it; in the case of an
uncoated lens 4% of the light is lost at entrance to and at exit from the lens, for
a total light loss of about 8%. 

Early reflecting telescopes of the 1700's and 1800's suffered greatly from mirrors of poor
reflectivity- reflection losses of 50% or more were not uncommon. Later, silvered mirrors improved
reflectivity, but at high cost and with poor durability. Modern optical coatings have succeeded in
reducing mirror-reflection and lens-transmission losses to acceptable levels at reasonable cost.

Meade Standard Coatings: The optical surfaces of all Meade telescopes include high-grade optical
coatings fully consistent in quality with the precision of the optical surfaces themselves. These
standard-equipment coatings include mirror surfaces of highly purified aluminum, vacuum-deposited at
high temperature and overcoated with silicon monoxide (SiO), and correcting lenses coated on both sides
for high light transmission with magnesium fluoride (MgF2). Meade standard mirror and lens coatings
equal or exceed the reflectivity and transmission, respectively, of virtually any optical coatings
currently offered in the commercial telescope industry.

The Meade UHTC Group: Technologies recently developed at the Meade Irvine coatings facility, however,
including installation of some of the largest and most advanced vacuum coating instrumentation
currently available, have permitted the vacuum-deposition of a series of exotic optical coatings
precisely tuned to optimize the visual, photographic, and CCD imaging performance of Meade telescopes.
These specialized, and extremely advantageous, coatings are offered here as the Meade Ultra-High
Transmission Coatings (UHTC) group, a coatings group available optionally on many Meade telescope
models.

In Meade catadioptric, or mirror-lens, telescopes (including the ETX-90EC, ETX-105EC and ETX-125EC;
LX10, LX90, and LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrains; and LXD55-Series Schmidt-Newtonians) before incoming
light is brought to a focus, it passes through, or is reflected by, four optical surfaces: the front
surface of the correcting lens, the rear surface of the correcting lens, the primary mirror, and the
secondary mirror. Each of these four surfaces results in some loss of light, with the level of loss
being dependent on the chemistry of each surface's optical coatings and on the wavelength of light.
(Standard aluminum mirror coatings, for example, typically have their highest reflectivity in the
yellow region of the visual spectrum, at a wavelength of about 580nm.)

Mirror Coatings: Meade ETX, Schmidt-Cassegrain, and Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes equipped with the
Ultra-High Transmission Coatings group include primary and secondary mirrors coated with aluminum
enhanced with a complex stack of multi-layer coatings of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and silicon dioxide
(SiO2). The thickness of each coating layer precisely controlled to within +/-1% of optimal thickness.
The result is a dramatic increase in mirror reflectivity across the entire visible spectrum; at the
important hydrogen-alpha wavelength of 656nm. - the predominant wavelength of emission nebulae -
reflectivity is increased from 89% to over 97%. 

Correcting Lens Coatings: Meade telescopes ordered with the UHTC group include, in addition, an exotic
and tightly-controlled series of coatings on both sides of the correcting lens or correcting plate,
coatings which include multiple layers of aluminum oxide (Al2O3), titanium dioxide (TiO2), and
magnesium fluoride (MgF2). Per-surface light transmission of the correcting lens is thereby increased
at the yellow wavelength of 580nm., for example, to 99.8%, versus a per-surface transmission of 98.7%
for the standard coating.

The importance of the UHTC group becomes apparent when comparing total telescope light transmission,
or throughput, caused by the multiplier, or compounding, effect of the four optical surfaces. With each
optical surface contributing significantly to telescope light throughput, the effect of all four
surfaces combined is indeed dramatic, as demonstrated by the graphs on the facing page, as well as by
the table of the brightest nebular emission lines. At the H-alpha wavelength of 656nm., total
transmission increases from 77% to 93%, an increase of 93/77 or 21% at all three nitrogen-III and
sulfur-II wavelengths of 655nm. and 673nm.- prominent lines in certain galactic nuclei and in supernova
remnanats such as the Crab Nebula- transmission increases by 21%; ; at the helium wavelengths of 588nm.
and 469nm. - strong emission lines in hot planetary nebulae - total telescope transmission increases by
18% and 19%, respectively; at the two nitrogen II lines of 655nm. and 658nm. and at the sulfur II line
of 673nm., transmission is increased by 21%. Averaged over the entire visible spectrum (450nm. to
700nm.), total light transmission to the telescope focus increases by about 20%.

Observing with the UHTC: Meade ETX, Schmidt-Cassegrain, and Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes equipped with
the UHTC present dramatically enhanced detail on the full range of celestial objects - from emission
and planetary nebulae such as M8, M20, and M57 to star clusters and galaxies such as M3, M13, and M101.
Observations of the Moon and planets, since they are observed in reflected (white) sunlight, benefit in
image brightness from the full spectrum of increased transmission. The overall effect of the UHTC is,
as it relates to image brightness, to increase the telescope's effective aperture. Image brightness
(i.e., the ability to see faint detail) of the Meade 10" LX200GPS is, for example, effectively
increased by about one full inch of aperture.


Emission Line
Wavelength (nm.)
Transmission: Standard Coatings
(%)
Transmission: UHTC Group (%)
Increase*
Hydrogen-alpha (Ha)
656
76.9
93.1
21%
Hydrogen-beta (Hb)
486
75.3
85.8
14%
Oxygen III
496
76.5
85.4
12%
Oxygen III
501
77
85.4
11%
Helium II
496
72.5
86.1
19%
Helium I
588
79.5
93.5
18%
Nitrogen II
655
77
93.2
21%
Nitrogen II
658
76.7
92.8
21%
Sulfer II
673
75.7
91.8
21%

* The % increase is obtained by dividing the UHTC-transmission (column 4) by the standard
coatings transmission (column 3).

Effects on CCD Imaging: While the human eye loses sensitivity to light beyond wavelengths of about
700nm., CCD imaging chips remain sensitive to about 750nm. and longer, wavelengths at which the
reflectivity of an aluminum coating is near its lowpoint. Importantly, however, the UHTC's total light
transmission at 750nm. is 83%, vs. 72% for standard coatings, an increase of 83/72, or 15%.