MeadeLover

I’ve watched these posts for a while and I understand the pain of those struggling with LX90 accurate Polar Alignment. Here is my method. It assumes a few things. The fact is that Meade mounts (not optics) are not that well engineered, particularly the dreaded wedge! Alt/Az adjustments are crude to say the least. Pay attention to making these as smooth as possible. WD40 used sparingly is a wonderful ingredient. My LX90 has GPS. All the data gathered from GPS can be entered manually. Just takes longer. The thing that totally screws up PA is cone error ie the OTA is not aligned with forks. This done accurately eliminates 50% of your problems. Then do as follows:- 3 things to do after balance, BALANCE:- a) Align OTA with fork mount b) Align fork mount with celestial pole c) Align computer database with sky. 1. Make sure sidereal tracking is turned off. 2. Except for step 7 use only alt and az adjusters. 3. Align Polaris at 0hr R.A. with cross hairs. 4. Rotate forks to 18hr HA (90 deg anti clockwise) 5. Adjust altitude to alt cross hair 6. Rotate back to 0hr 7. Slew with handset in dec only to cross hairs 8. Repeat for additional accuracy. 9. Turn off handset. OTA is now aligned with forks. Spirit level alignment of tube and forks does not work. Optics not necessarily in line with tube. 1. Turn on handset 2. Select one star alignment after GPS initialisation. 3. Adjust Polaris position with alt and az adjusters. 4. Confirm with Enter. 5. Adjust alignment of star with handset. Telescope should now be polar aligned. Select easy alignment . Suitable stars will be selected. Alignment error will show at end of alignment. If errors are large >5’ start again! Computer is now aligned with scope. NB - always finish slew manoeuvres with right button and up button to avoid backlash problems. Hope this helps - once done you can expect 5 min subs without a guider.