Deforking lx90 again

[goldblade1983]

Okay

So have a motor unit fault on 8 inch lx90. Rather than spending 200 quid getting it repaired I'm fairly set on deforking it (again).

I have a losmunday plate for the lx90. I am either going to buy a 2nd st80 for guiding or possibly strap my wo gt81 on top so I can use either or for guiding and imaging. At first I will probably try my existing st80 (which I guide gt81 with).

Anyone got thoughts on that (especially whether my neq6 could handle the weight -I have extension bar and 10kgs of weight). Also would be useful to see people's astro attempts with a guided lx90 (it's focal length is 2000mm! )

could someone point me to a site that sells good quality bars for the 'top' of the lx90 to mount the guide scope whether that be an st80 or my wo gt81 (the former is lighter).

Finally I should explain that I don't have permanent set up so the eternal difficulty I have is setting up but I'm thinking it will be worth it if I can get good results with a guided lx90 for shooting galaxies. Ultimately I will probably replace the lx90 for a good quality astrophotography newt and then sell the lx90 and get a big dob for visual but that's a while away.

Thanks

Brian

[brancusi]

Hi Brian

I de-forked my LX90 earlier this year and put it atop a AZ-EQ6 and love that combination. My first light with the combination and ST-8E is actually a bit (well, a lot) rubbish and it's actually un-guided as I needed to rotate the camera to get a guide star on the guiding chip and couldn't be bothered, oh and the polar alignment was well off too ... so it's not exactly an image that will sell the idea to you!

I think anyone would say that guiding at 2m is tough and you may wish to consider a focal reducer in your image train? Meade do a f6.3 field flattener / reducer that will make the combination more forgiving and also likely a better scale for many DSO - but I like a challenge and so at present I'm working at 2m and hoping that the built in guide chip of the ST-8E will mean that I've eliminated any flexure concerns and should be able to guide reasonably well. I'm waiting for the clouds to clear before giving it another run at 2m now that I've sorted out various other software issues and am reasonably confident I can do a better polar align. 

We shall see.

As you know the OTA on the LX90 weighs in at 10Kg, but being pretty short, even with a camera hanging off the back, I'd personally have thought your NEQ6 will be fine - even with the st80 on top. Some may say use the lx90 to guide the wider st80 of course ...

Roger

PS. I'm pretty new to all this as - so other more experienced folks may give sounder advice!

[r3i]

I had a similar setup on an NEQ6 a number of years ago.  I used the ADM MDS bar on the top of the LX90 to hold a refractor.  These can be purchased from FLO: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-mini-dovetail-series-mds-kits/adm-mini-dovetail-guidescope-rings-meade-8-kit.html

I'd agree with Roger that investing in a focal reducer will give you more options.

[goldblade1983]

I have a focal reducer so happy days!

[Merlin66]

+1 for the ADM mini-rail sysytem