Attaching a camera to a Meade LX600 14" ACF?

[tooth_dr]

I have access to one of these telescopes, and I'm trying to sort out a camera for it.  The scope comes with a 1.25" adapter for eyepieces, but what is needed to connect a camera directly to it? Specifically I am looking to connect the ZWO 2600MC to it, which needs a 2" adapter?  I've little experience with an SCT, but hoping to become a lot more familiar with it.

 

Any pointers welcome, no matter how simple it may seem.

 

https://www.meade.com/lx600-acf-14-f-8.html

[Laurin Dave]

HI Adam

When I used my 10" Meade SCT for photography I used a 2" Baader Clicklock for Meade SCT..  assuming this fits the lx600 you'll also need an M42 to 2" nosepiece and maybe some spacers....   I have to say that my 20 year old SCT was plagued by mirror flop, coma and a poor focuser..  after much wasted money and effort I bought a refractor or three   .. Hopefully you'll have more success. 

Dave

[tooth_dr]

7 minutes ago, Laurin Dave said:

HI Adam

When I used my 10" Meade SCT for photography I used a 2" Baader Clicklock for Meade SCT..  assuming this fits the lx600 you'll also need an M42 to 2" nosepiece and maybe some spacers....   I have to say that my 20 year old SCT was plagued by mirror flop, coma and a poor focuser..  after much wasted money and effort I bought a refractor or three   .. Hopefully you'll have more success. 

Dave

Thanks Dave for the reply!  You really have tried a lot of stuff

The aim is to undertake live viewing/stacking of images, rather than proper deep sky imaging.  The camera should come with a 2" nosepiece, and this would fit into the baader clicklock.  What spacing is needed?  I was considering a FR too and I've been getting solid advice from Vlad @vlaiv on this. 

 

[Davey-T]

Hi Adam I have the same scope, also ZWO2600mc but haven't tried it on there.

On the reducer question I, and a few others on here use the AP one

https://www.365astronomy.com/Astro-Physics-CCDT67-0.67x-Reducer-2-for-GSO-RC.html

Dave

[Davey-T]

Bit of gumf about the AP reducer here

https://astrojolo.com/gears/acf-10-and-ccdt67-telecompressor/

Dave

Edited August 26, 2020 by Davey-T

[Laurin Dave]

27 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

  What spacing is needed?  I was considering a FR too and I've been getting solid advice from Vlad @vlaiv on this. 

 

Spacing would be reducer specific I imagine..  so not sure

[Davey-T]

46 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

What spacing is needed?

Quote from Lucas APT post.

Dave

 

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

Quote from Lucas APT post.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave.  What this is saying is that I can extend the backfocus length to more than the 85mm specified optimal distance and still achieve good results.

The backfocus of the 2600MC is 17.5mm.  Am I correct that I could add a couple of 35mm M48 extensions tubes https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/rvo-m48-extension-tubes-various-lengths-available.html between the reducer and the camera, and that would give me 87.5mm backfocus which should work well.

 

I've dropped FLO a message there and a few questions.

 

[Davey-T]

Not sure if it works the same with 14", were both using 10".

Didn't pay a whole lot of attention to spacing on mine, just screwed it all together and worked ok so left is as is.

Dave

 

[gorann]

I got that exact scope - a 14" Meade ACF. It allready has a flat image so no need for a flattener and no need to worry about chip distance - just focus it (if it is in focus it is flat). If you go for a reducer you need to get one that is not both a reducer and flattener (a flatterer will distort a flat image), and then you need to get to the specified chip distance. As far as I know there are only two options for reducers that are also not flatteners: the Astro-Physics one mentioned here and the Optec Lepus reducer. I have the latter but I mostly use the scope at native FL with a full frame APS Sony A7s. I bought that camera specifically for this scope since it has big 8.3 µm pixels to avoid extreme oversampling. With the ASI2600 (3.76 µm pixels) you would do super-extreme oversampling at 0.22 " / pixel. Even with a reducer it would be extreme oversampling. I recently bought an ASI2600 myself to use for short FL scopes and I have not looked into the possibilities of binning for long FL scopes, but maybe it is possible. About attaching the camera it would just be to find anything fitting to the T2 thread of your camera.

Edited August 26, 2020 by gorann

[tooth_dr]

11 minutes ago, gorann said:

I got that exact scope - a 14" Meade ACF. It allready has a flat image so no need for a flattener and no need to worry about chip distance - just focus it (if it is in focus it is flat). If you go for a reducer you need to get one that is not both a reducer and flattener (a flatterer will distort a flat image), and then you need to get to the specified chip distance. As far as I know there are only two options for reducers that are also not flatteners: the Astro-Physics one mentioned here and the Optec Lepus reducer. I have the latter but I mostly use the scope at native FL with a full frame APS Sony A7s. I bought that camera specifically for this scope since it has big 8.3 µm pixels to avoid extreme oversampling. With the ASI2600 (3.76 µm pixels) you would do super-extreme oversampling at 0.22 " / pixel. Even with a reducer it would be extreme oversampling. I recently bought an ASI2600 myself to use for short FL scopes and I have not looked into the possibilities of binning for long FL scopes, but maybe it is possible. About attaching the camera it would just be to find anything fitting to the T2 thread of your camera.

Thanks Goran for the informative answer. I was anticipating binning it at 3x3 or 4x4, with the 0.67x reducer, giving a reasonable 1.22 - 1.63”/px, and still a decent enough image size?

 

[gorann]

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Thanks Goran for the informative answer. I was anticipating binning it at 3x3 or 4x4, with the 0.67x reducer, giving a reasonable 1.22 - 1.63”/px, and still a decent enough image size?

 

Not sure how the binning works on a colour CMOS with a Bayer matrix. Will it still give you RGB data? Or maybe you could make a Lum image from the binned data to use on the unbinned RGB, I am also not sure how bad it is with oversampling.

[tooth_dr]

5 hours ago, gorann said:

Not sure how the binning works on a colour CMOS with a Bayer matrix. Will it still give you RGB data? Or maybe you could make a Lum image from the binned data to use on the unbinned RGB, I am also not sure how bad it is with oversampling.

This will be used for live viewing / EEVA, not processing in the conventional manner, so it would need to work as is.

Could anyone who owns one check if it does in fact bin properly at 3x3 please 🙏

[michael8554]

Here's what I don't get - why a new 3556mm FL scope and immediately look to reduce the focal length ?

The 12" is 3048mm FL and £3k cheaper !

Michael