First light with Meade 14" ACF - some questions

[Chris]

2 hours ago, gorann said:

 

Well, I found mine on a Norwegian second-hand site (finn.no that is selling everything) and it was only 30 000 NOK (about 3000 Euro / GBP) including a Homeyer Scope Cradle that probably helps a bit in making it very sturdy (but adds an extra 10 kg). It is an LX200R, so from the first production years (around 2006) before Meade were sued and had to change it from R (Ritchey-Chretien) to ACF. That probably means that it was manufactured in the US and not Mexico or China.

The standard C14 XLT is around 6.5k new, so your Meade was a good buy at 3k! 

[gorann]

5 hours ago, Lockie said:

The standard C14 XLT is around 6.5k new, so your Meade was a good buy at 3k! 

Yes, that was the beginning of it - I just could not resist buying it even if in the back of my mind I realised that I had to spend about as much or more into building and obsy (not counting the effort).....

[kirkster501]

By way of comparison, I bought mine (Meade LX200 ACF 14" F10) off a member from here for £2200 earlier this year.  I have spent another £600 on it for a Moonlite Crayford and a motorfocus unit.  Both superb.  They transform the scope.

[gorann]

1 minute ago, kirkster501 said:

By way of comparison, I bought mine (Meade LX200 ACF 14" F10) off a member from here for £2200 earlier this year.  I have spent another £600 on it for a Moonlite Crayford and a motorfocus unit.  Both superb.  They transform the scope.

Mine came with the Meade electronic focuser (sitting first in the image train). It seems like I may have some tilt problem so I may eventually replace it with something sturdier. But it feels rather solid and it has some adjustment screws for the ball bearings, so I may fiddle with those a bit. Should try to find some reading about the focuser.

https://www.meade.com/meade-zero-image-shift-electronic-micro-focuser.html

By the way, here is the result of a bit more processing

[kirkster501]

That is a superb result Gorann, well done.

[ollypenrice]

The image is going very well. I'd be interested so see what you could on it with the Esprit, though.

Olly

Edit: I have the Meade electronic focuser as well. It seems quite good to me, though a bit short on range. It fits bettween the fork with a diagonal, which is vital. I have a Moonlite SCT focuser as well but don't use because of this problem.

Edited August 29, 2019 by ollypenrice

[gorann]

21 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

The image is going very well. I'd be interested so see what you could on it with the Esprit, though.

Olly

Edit: I have the Meade electronic focuser as well. It seems quite good to me, though a bit short on range. It fits bettween the fork with a diagonal, which is vital. I have a Moonlite SCT focuser as well but don't use because of this problem.

Thanks Olly! Good idea, will be on the to do list for the autumn - if the sky permits...

[Chris]

1 hour ago, kirkster501 said:

I bought mine (Meade LX200 ACF 14" F10) off a member from here for £2200 earlier this year.

If you had access to the money, it would have been rude not to at that price! 

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, Lockie said:

If you had access to the money, it would have been rude not to at that price! 

Big SCTs have commanded low second hand prices since I started in this game in the mid nineties. At one time I thought it was because they were over-sold for AP but that has pretty well stopped with the rise of the small refractor. Steve can hardly go wrong at that price.

Olly

[kirkster501]

1 hour ago, Lockie said:

If you had access to the money, it would have been rude not to at that price! 

 

15 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Big SCTs have commanded low second hand prices since I started in this game in the mid nineties. At one time I thought it was because they were over-sold for AP but that has pretty well stopped with the rise of the small refractor. Steve can hardly go wrong at that price.

Olly

Agreed guys, these are £5800 scopes brand new and thats without the Crayford and motor focus.  I had the money and I went for it knowing the timing was not quite right but £2200 was a steal for a scope of this quality.  However, I have been struggling a bit with properly mounting it since, as Olly and Gorann will know, these ACF 14" scope are VERY heavy and have to be permanently mounted.  Still working at it on the permanent side-by-side arrangement with my TEC140 and associated gubbins and I have to try and make this work.  I'm almost there but not quite.  Otherwise I'd have to dedicate the MESU to the ACF alone and then I'd struggle what to mount my TEC on.  I don't have the room in my obs for two mounts.

I think they are such a niche scope, that are so hard to man handle, that the second hand market is limited, hence the used price not as high as you'd think.  That said, £2200 was a steal so I went for it.

Sorry for my ramblings...!

 

[gorann]

I noticed that the core appeared a bit blewn out and realized I had three 5 min exposures. So I used them as lum for the core and brought out a bit of structure there:

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by gorann

[gorann]

28 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

 

Agreed guys, these are £5800 scopes brand new and thats without the Crayford and motor focus.  I had the money and I went for it knowing the timing was not quite right but £2200 was a steal for a scope of this quality.  However, I have been struggling a bit with properly mounting it since, as Olly and Gorann will know, these ACF 14" scope are VERY heavy and have to be permanently mounted.  Still working at it on the permanent side-by-side arrangement with my TEC140 and associated gubbins and I have to try and make this work.  I'm almost there but not quite.  Otherwise I'd have to dedicate the MESU to the ACF alone and then I'd struggle what to mount my TEC on.  I don't have the room in my obs for two mounts.

I think they are such a niche scope, that are so hard to man handle, that the second hand market is limited, hence the used price not as high as you'd think.  That said, £2200 was a steal so I went for it.

Sorry for my ramblings...!

 

This was exactly what happened to me - the offer was just too good and after I saw the beast I was sold and the scope was bought.

Regarding the weight, I have made a little arrangement on my obsy ceiling so I can lift it safely (but only if I really have to).

Edited August 29, 2019 by gorann

[kirkster501]

Looks great. I made some progress this afternoon and I think I have the balance sorted out at last.

Here is my [permanent mounted] rig:  Forgive the mess at the moment I am having a reorganisation in there.

 

[ollypenrice]

1 hour ago, kirkster501 said:

Looks great. I made some progress this afternoon and I think I have the balance sorted out at last.

Here is my [permanent mounted] rig:  Forgive the mess at the moment I am having a reorganisation in there.

 

I think you may have fun with the nosepiece attachment on the SCT. On the other hand it's a shallow light cone so tilt shouldn't be a big issue. Suck it and see.

Olly

[gorann]

Impressive setup! As seen below I am all set for more NGC7331 for tonight, and it is supposed to be clear but there are still clouds around. However there is yet an hour until some darkness......

[kirkster501]

On 29/08/2019 at 19:43, ollypenrice said:

I think you may have fun with the nosepiece attachment on the SCT. On the other hand it's a shallow light cone so tilt shouldn't be a big issue. Suck it and see.

Olly

Not sure what you mean Olly?  No attachment at all, that is the drawtube of the focuser.  It is an electronic focuser because touching the scope at high magnifications with a Powermate at F30/F40 whilst trying to very fine focus on a planet is a no-no.  Jupiter dances around like a dice in a shaker otherwise.  The SCT is not a Deep sky imaging scope Olly , it is visual and for Lunar and Planet photography.  I may try that on [the very few] pristine nights but I did not buy it for deep sky AP.

[gorann]

Managed to grab 9 x 15 min of Lum last night with the ASI1600MMpro and 0.62x reducer. As suggested by Vald @vlaivI then binned 2x2 so I ended up with 0.85"/pixel which is quite OK. It made quite a difference, not the least on the smaller galaxies, and I think I will let this galaxy rest for a while now. Totally 5 hours with the RGB from a Canon 60Da and Lum from ASI1600.

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2019 by gorann