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Help Please! Mount for 14" LX200

Stryda

By Stryda
in Discussions - Mounts

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RobH

RobH

Posted
Posted

I doubt the G11 will be up to it....you're over the instrument capacity with the OTA alone, never mind what else goes on it.

A Losmandy Titan/ Celestron CGE Pro would be your minimum I would think, especially for imaging.

I had one of these scopes but with the meade fork mount.....a 3 person lift to get the whole thing onto a tripod/pier.

Stunning scope visually, and great for planets and smaller DSO's.

Cheers

Rob

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RobH

RobH

Posted
Posted
Wow that's a beast Rob!

Very envious :)

Don't have it anymore....I got completely fed up of having to spend about a week per image star fixing on my images due to the far from flat field....I do sometimes regret letting it go though.

TBH....unless you're prepared to spend a lot on a big mount, I think it'll be simply too big.

Don't know if you want a scope for visual or imaging, but if it's for imaging, have a look at the 10 inch GSO RC's on Ian Kings site.....an EQ6 will handle one of them OK, and they are easy to use focal reducers with.

Rob.

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pete_l

pete_l

Posted
Posted
Wow, it's huge. I didn't realise a Meade 14 is 50% heavier than a C14 (45lb).

May be a LX800

When I went to New Mexico Skies some years back their C14's were all mounted on Paramounts. If you are planning on a 14-inch class observatory and expect to use a 14-incher to its potential, I doubt you could get away with anything less.

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Peter Drew

Peter Drew

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Don't laugh, but honestly, if you are mainly interested in visual or just webcam imaging of the Moon and planets, I would seriously consider a Dobsonian type mount, particularly a tracking one. It would be far cheaper than any equatorial mount that would be suitable and as steady as any due to the short tube.

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RobH

RobH

Posted
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I agree completely Peter....for visual, a good dob is the best use of your money and you can get some serious aperture for what you will be paying for the meade OTA, which will be useless without many thousands spent on a mount to carry it.

Cheers

Rob

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John

John

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Don't have it anymore....I got completely fed up of having to spend about a week per image star fixing on my images due to the far from flat field....I do sometimes regret letting it go though....

We had some very nice views of Saturn through that scope at that event though Rob - it was the largest aperture scope I'd ever viewed through at that time so thanks for that :)

I helped a mate unpack one of those a few years back when Telescope House had a special deal on them. The OTA and forks came in one of the biggest boxes I've ever seen - it seemed to completely fill his conservatory :)

I also agree with Peter that for visual the dob approach is a much more managable way to go. I was eyeing up the 14" Skywatcher Flextube at an astro fair in the summer - it was a big scope but managable, especially if you can put some wheely bars on it.

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barkis

barkis

Posted
Posted

Peter just beat me to the suggestion I was going to make. Namely a Dobsonian structure. It shouldn't be too difficult to make a robust structure to cope with the weight. At least an Altazimuth will afford you some superb viewing. You could make a concrete plinth to build the Dob. section onto, and facilitate a nice comfortable viewing height for yourself. I have a 12" Meade, and although heavy, it has to be lightweight compared to the 14". Of course I saw RobH's at Lucksall SP, and it was massive compared to mine.

I hope you can find a solution, it would be a shame to miss out on what this instrument can deliver.

Damian Peach's Jupiter Image which won him Astrophotographer of the Year Award was captured with a 14" SCT. Not sure whether a Meade, or a Celestron.

Good Luck anyway.

Ron.

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RobH

RobH

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I do miss the high power views I had with that scope. The problem is that with an SCT you have to view at the bottom of the scope. A dob mount won't work with an SCT unless you have the whole thing on a big platform to get it up to head height.

Even then, it won't be easy.

However, the views that I've had of the moon for the brief setup period with the Edge 11, before it got turned into a big camera were the best I've evr had :)

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
Posted

I feel I can answer your question from recent experience; a Mesu#2 from Lucas Mesu. We have just installed one here to carry Yves' 14 inch Orion Optics ODK. It is an unusual friction drive mount, backlash free, and rated for a 90 kilogram payload. It carries the ODK very easily and can deliver imaging-accurate tracking remarkably easily. What is more it is about half the price of the next possible candidate.

If you are dead set on a 14 inch scope (and I'd think carefully about it) this is the mount I would choose.

YVES-M.jpg

If you are interested in the Mesu I strongly recommend that you contact me regarding where to buy it. Ignore what it says on the website.

Mesu-Optics, Mesu-Mount

Olly

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Stryda

Stryda

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Hmm, to be honest I think I may...very infortunately...have to give the 14inch a miss, the stand is just TOO expensive!...I think we're going to look at a 12 inch fully set up for both good visual and imaging. Just out of interest though Olly, what price is that Mesu stand? :)

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
Posted
Hmm, to be honest I think I may...very infortunately...have to give the 14inch a miss, the stand is just TOO expensive!...I think we're going to look at a 12 inch fully set up for both good visual and imaging. Just out of interest though Olly, what price is that Mesu stand? :)

Complete with Argo Navis and Servocat it is about 4.5k in Euros which really is a bargain. The PE is about 3 arcseconds peak to valley and the whocle construction very convincing.

Be aware that for imaging with a 12 inch scope you need a serious mount. In my view none of the proprietory SCT fork mounts can be considered even remotely serious. There are those who disagree but I know personally many people who have tried and failed, or tried and succeeded only after a terrible struggle, to get the tracking accuracy needed for long FL DS imaging. It isn't the weight that's the issue. At a long FL you need very very accurate tracking which does not resemble the 'plug and play' that you might get at FLs of 500 to 700mm. Even then it might not be as plug and play as you might wish!

Are you new to DS imaging? If you are, I'd suggest you think first about a small fast apo to learn the ropes and iron out the wrinkles.

There are lots of wrinkled ropes in astrophotography!

Olly

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Erwin Kats

Erwin Kats

Posted
Posted

You have to look out with the mesu.

A sct can have mirror shift, i know lx200 has a mirror lock, but does this take all the shift away?

The mesu mount and other same looking mounts wich are using pointing files for polar alingment will include the mirror shift as an error wich will be in the file.

So even tubeflexure , focuser flexure will all be bad for the overall setup.

Offcourse visual use will be "less" demanding

Maybe some one experiences with g53f ?

http://www.astronomy.hu/ENG/g53f_eng.html

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Stryda

Stryda

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Umm...I've done a bit of imaging with my 8" lx10, using a Canon 5d, so know some of the ropes, so to speak, and I've got some alright images of DSO's planetary and lunar etc...but the tracking on that mount was awful. The problem is I do astronomy with my dad, and he wants a nice big scope for visual of the planets but I want a scope with a decent enough mount to allow for good DSO imaging. So..we're kinda stuck on what to go for (any suggestions greatly appreciated). Also, I wouldn't mind a CCD camera too :)...

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Plantins

Plantins

Posted
Posted

If it's an SCT your looking for you won't go far wrong with one of the Celestron Edge HD scopes. Great for visual and astrophotography. I have the 8" and it gives stunning views visually.

A C8 or C9.25 Edge would sit nicely on an EQ6 pro, start going to the larger tubes and you'll need a serious mount that'll cost serious ££££.

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