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Wardr77

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Everything posted by Wardr77

  1. Take scope it off its tripod and heft it into the dining room. Squat down to get its base on the floor nearly splitting trousers in the process (12" SCT). Level the scope and put its chin on one of the dining room chairs, towel off any dew and put my coat over it to slow warming up process, often to " You look after that flipping thing better than me" commentary from my good lady. Bring in the other bits and tripod, wipe down tripod quite a bit as it dews up almost instantly when bringing into room after a cold winters night. Normally leave kit in dining room and pack away following day, or day after... or maybe the day after that, but definitely when the tortoise starts trying to mount it.
  2. Not sure if this has been highlighted before, but certainly worth a watch. You know the scope is big when its secondary is bigger than your 12" primary! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAfUBiWOjNc
  3. Hi thanks for this. I see Andrew Johansen is already on the case. When the fixed version is released is it simply the case of paying for the registration key and going through the update process? Also seems odd that some units have reverted to 1999 but mine/ meade has gone to 2099...
  4. Appears to be a GPS week number roll over issue that have affected number of older units possibly pre-2012. A bit of a discussion going on about this in the Celestron section of CN.
  5. Just last night scope would not align (LX90 ACF with GPS unit). Checked date and it read 29-Aug-2099, time was ok. When I changed the date all was ok and scope aligned fine. However in the past never had to add the date, the GPS unit always picked this up. Any one else experienced this problem? Thanks!
  6. Jim, someone else will be able to advise on the telrad, I've never used one. The other gadget on top of the scope with a wire coming out of it suggests that this scope may well be equipped with meade LNT (Level North technology)which means the scope will level and find north automatically as part of the alignment process. You will need to consult the manual or google how to use this feature, unfortunately I have no experience of this. Good luck!
  7. Be assured the LX90 is a great scope, you didn't say what scope you have whether its a newer GPS/ACF version or an older classic model but irrespective you should get great views of the night sky. In terms of alignment the process should be relatively simple and the following is just my process with the LX90 12 I have: 1. Set up the tripod and level it using a surface bubble, I actually use an app on my ipad for this which works well. 2. Mount scope on tripod and lift up the OTA (tube of scope) to the horizontal and level it using a spirit level 3. Using a compass point the front of the telescope towards north. 4. Tighten all the clutches up and switch it on! 5. The telescope will then ask you to perform an alignment and will auto select a couple of stars for you, these typically will be obvious bright stars and when you look along the axis of the tube you will see what the scope is pointing at. They won't always be in the EP FOV, so don't worry if they are not! Using the finderscope and the handcontroller move the selected star into the center of the FOV of the finder and if your finder is aligned with your scope they should be in your scope FOV. (If not you will need to align your finder with your scope.) Once in the scope FOV, centre the star and press enter. The scope will now slew to the next star and you simply repeat the process, once this is done and all is good the handcontroller will confirm that alignment is successfull and you are good to go. For future reference I would recommend that you purchase a star chart to familiarise yourself with some of the obvious stars and constellations, this does help with the basic navigation around the sky. You mentioned that you saw the moon but the views weren't good? I assume you adjusted the focus as much as you can to get the best possible view? If so the moon should have blown your socks off, the detail you can see on the surface of our satellite with a scope like this is quite impressive. If your views were blurred and disappointing then there could be several reasons .1 you put the scope outside and started looking immediately, not good, the optics need to be at thermal equilibrium; therefore these scopes require at least 1.5 hours to cool down outside before use. 2. The eyepiece was fogging up when you put your eye to it, breath etc (this is always an issue on cooler nights and I use a blowerbulb thing to get rid of it 3. Your collimation is off. i.e the secondary is not aligned with the primary, you can easily tell this by de-focussing on a star to see a doughnut shape, if the dark central hole is off centre then collimation is out and your views will be poor. There are tutorials on here / youtube that provides guides on how to fix this. Hope this Helps.
  8. I have been reading this with interest and I've every admiration for the perseverance and dedication shown on this project, it would have defeated me long ago! One question I have is how commercial telescope makers overcome mirror issues such as turned edges, central mounds/hollows etc. Is this dealt with on the basis of computer controlled grinding and polishing, where pressure, stroke and speed is governed very carefully to a specific program? Wishing you all the best for a succesful project completion!
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