LX90 Begginer help

[Gregger]

Hi

Just took hold of one of these

Anyone know if its possible to track at sidereal rate without using full auto align procedure?

For example, a quick session on Jupiter this evening doesnt need me to auto align on 2 stars but mearly be able to sidereal track

Also, "training" the scope says do this in dayligt. How can this be done without using 2 str alighnment

Thanks in advance

[Capricorn]

You train in daylight as it is used to measure the drive.

Take the scope out, set it up level, aim the scope at something distantish. When training the scope will slew away from the object, you have to then move the scope back to the object. Have heard that it is best not to overshoot and reverse. Best to move back to the original object from one direction only.

When the object is back in the centre press OK, or whatever.

I think then that the scope will slew in the other plane and stop, you repeat the exercise to get back to the object. Press OK again.

Like other Meade mounts I have no idea if you can just set the scope to the initial start but not align. I normally tell the scope to do the easy align but don't bother to centre anything, just accept where the scope points and hit OK. Means you do the alignment but it is not acurate but is over with quick. The mount/scope will then track reasonably.

One day I will read the instructions, as I suspect you can just level and North the scope then carry on.

[Gregger]

One day I will read the instructions,

LOL

I cant see it in there

It says for "training" to do it after initialisation which seems odd if your meant to be aligning stars first

[Capricorn]

Initialisation is entering all the data for you and your location.

Alignment comes afterwards.

If you can do Initialisation but not Alignment I am not sure, as I am pretty sure I have tried to not do the alignment and have always had to go through it.

Appendix C says do Initialisation then press Mode to get to the Setup option then select Setup Telescope.

Not sure why Initialisation has to be done first since Training uses targets on the ground to perform it.

Training is for the drives and motors, sort of how many teeth make up 120 degrees. Don't need a star just a start point on the ground. You centre this point, scope rotates away what is has as a fixed amount, you move back and the scope determines how much input means how many degrees. You can use a house chimney, you do not want a star as that will move while you are training the drives so they get an invalid reading.

You are training the drives, not observing or anyhing so alignment is immaterial, As you align at night - dark, you need to see the stationaly object and do not want the scope tracking.

You have to do both horizontal AND vertical.

[Paul-F]

If all I want is visual tracking (usually for a planet) than I simply point northish (at least within 1 degree!) and level the scope by eye followed by a 1 star align picking a star that is near where I want to look and just accept where it points if it looks to be anyway reasonable ....

Had to reset mine recently and then train the motors (on a distant chimney!) and calibrate the LNT sensors .. now it consistantly puts the goto target somewhere well within a 17mm ethos ep which is fine by me. I have a crosshair 6.3mm ep for where centering a star/target is required which I find makes a difference.

[michael8554]

I used to do what you want on my ETX125 with Autostar, perhaps the LX90 is the same?

When you first power up the 125 the RA drive is off ie in Terrestrial mode.

When you have done the date/time/2 star align and Autostar reports "successful" it switches itself to Astronomical mode and the RA drive starts tracking.

To just point at Jupiter, after power up I went immediately to the Astronomical/Terrestrial menu item and selected Astronomical, and the RA drive comes on at tracking rate.

Regarding training, you really need a high power crosshair eyepiece, otherwise you're just guessing when it's centred.