Meade 14" LX200GPS, Facing North or facing South?

[PaulHD]

Hi all,

Having acquired a second hand  Meade 14" LX200GPS system I am now in the process of mounting it to the Meade tripod that came with the telescope.

There is some confusion in which direction the control panel is to face. 

The instruction booklet I find vague and open to interpretation also some posts, not on this site, say facing South while others say North !!

Can anyone help put this to bed for me?

Maybe I should add that I live in the North of the UK..

Thanks in advance,

Paul

[bosun21]

The telescope should point south if used with a wedge. 

https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/how-do-you-align-using-a-fork-mounted-scope-with-a-wedge

If not using a wedge then I would point it north although the telescope will still be required to do it's normal alignment set up.

PS: Why did you post this in the reviews section?

Edited September 26 by bosun21

[Cleetus]

Control Panel facing south. No need to let it do the dance, level north etc- just do a two star alignment.

Edited September 29 by Cleetus

[Bignerdguy]

The OTA should face what ever direction the pole is in your sky, but flat and level, and the control panel would face opposite that.  So, for example, i live in the Dallas Texas area and the north pole is visible from here.  So i would point the OTA flat and level facing north and the control panel facing south when attaching it to the tripod without a wedge.  if i am using a wedge, the panel points down and the OTA should point at the pole itself.

[michael8554]

From the Instruction Manual, for Alt/Az.

Page 37/38.

3. Set Home Position

d. Move the base of the telescope so that the computer control panel (13, Fig 1) approximately faces south.

 

For Equatorial Wedge Mounting, the control panel points north.

And when the marks on the RA ring are set correctly, the OTA Home Position from where the Meade PA and Alignment routines are started is "upside down" with the finder under the OTA:

Michael

[Peter Drew]

We faced the same dilemma with our Meade 16", it did not seem to make sense to have the control panel on the opposite side of the telescope to where you stand mostly viewing in a southern direction when in alt-az configuration.     🙃

[Cleetus]

6 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

We faced the same dilemma with our Meade 16", it did not seem to make sense to have the control panel on the opposite side of the telescope to where you stand mostly viewing in a southern direction when in alt-az configuration.     🙃

Never thought about it much to be honest. Mine was permanently set up so it was on very rare occasions I actually went through the set up process. 

When I did have to I would not switch on until I had loosened Dec and RA, centred Polaris and then move the tube down to roughly parallel to the ground. Tighten the RA and Dec drives, switch on and just do a two star alignment. Always got very good goto's. After the session I would PARK and the telescope went to its HOME position ready to continue the next clear night. I know of some people who would use spirit levels to ensure the tube was precisely horizontal. No need to do this.

All the stuff it wanted to do before alignment like finding level and home I didn't bother with. Worked a treat for twenty years or so.