Purchase Made. FL Comming Soon!

[Rols]

Well read for weeks and weeks and still followed my own heart even though the arguments stacked up against it, hope i'm happy in the end.

decided on an LX200 picked up and tried to mount a 10" and was never going to manage it on a cold night so went with the 8" (hurt a little as i really wanted the 10" before is see the bulk of it.)

picked myself up a standard set of EP's, just bought a phillips webcam to flash and another to convert for longer exposure! have grabbed a nikon D60 mount aswell so i can try both ways, been and downloaded a heap of free software for camera control and picture maniplulation and just waiting on the boxes to arrive, feel a little flat and wish i hadnt waited so long to buy as i missed the christmas special offer from Meade as there was no stock, but hey should have stopped dragging my heals.

shall be looking to add a guide scope asap so any advice on a nice guide/imaging scope that will sit well with this unit would be helpfull, dont want to buy one after the other so something worth having!!

well thats the newyear catch up from me, lets hope we get some good skies over the next few weeks as i'm itching to play... delivery Tuesday 18th

Rols

[oldfruit]

Hi Rols, wishing you good luck and clear skies for your new scope. Sounds like some nice kit. Be sure to post your first light impressions.

[Astro Imp]

Hi Rols,

Let's hope you get clear skies before too long.

Be interesting to hear your first reports.

Good luck.

Alan.

[JamesM]

My belief is that fork alt azimuth mounts are not suitable for long exposures unless the whole setup is placed on top of a wedge which sits between the tripod and the forked mount. This allows the RA tracking to move in an 'equatorial mount' like fashion rather than a 'stepped' fashion with the alt azimuth type mount. The difference will be very evident in an images produced.

As you are heading down the astrophotography road, may I suggest that you get hold of a copy of "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards (FLO £19.95) which will give you a comprehensive guide as to what you need, why you need it and how to use it, in order to produce the type of images that you want. It is a really well put together book that affords the reader a complete overview which is essential. Good imaging isn't cheap if you want good results and this book might in fact help you save money.

Clear skies

James

[nightfisher]

think you have made a great choice with the lx, good luck with it.....clear skies

[Rols]

@JBM1165 that was my first port of call when i went looking, i think it will be on a wedge in no time at all, but before i go down the route of making it bulky and clunky i think i will enjoy being able to get it in and out in 5-10 mins and not 30! should be in Norfolk for a weekend at the end of the month so i shall take it with me for a dark night out i hope.

[Rols]

well let down on delivery of the scope, dont suppose i should worry nothing else turned up either...i asked for tracking details and was told sorry not posted yet...great...

got my Phillips 880 flased to 900 series and fitted with a 1.25" nose piece (well all 4 of them done actually) think i shall mod one of them to the hilt that should keep me busy till arival. downloaded some camera software and latest version of registax, found a few others to play with aswell so more than enough to learn just need the scope to get started! hope its here and clear for the weekend cant wait for first light!!

Thinking of getting a variable polarizer any suggestions of brands that seem good for the money?

[malc-c]

well let down on delivery of the scope, dont suppose i should worry nothing else turned up either...i asked for tracking details and was told sorry not posted yet...great...

That's about par for most things these days, and it's not just Mead that's hard to get hold of. I've just placed an order for a C6-SGT and have been told that it could be late Feb early March before the importers / distributors have stocks... and having phoned around a dozen of the leading retailers discovered that stocks of telescopes have been dramaically reduced leaving retailers with back orders with Mead, Celestron and Skywatcher. Hate to dissapoint you, but one retailer stated he had a customer waiting for an LX200 since October, this was due to their offers being extended, and Mead getting their predictions wrong as to stocking levels. Add to that the BBC Astronomy live event and the sudden interest in astronomy resulted in stocks being depleated.

Still this delay gives me time to run in the power and data lines to the patio in readyness for the scope's delivery. Hope you soon get an ETA for the LX

[Rols]

the scope arrived today..chuffed to bits! just waiting for the PSU and dew shield have set it up and ironed out a bug or two already no first light till the weekend, have been playing with the phillips 880's and shoudl be able to mod one for the weekend if i can get the bits. looking forward to 'looking up'.

i missed the promo from meade (most dissapointed they didnt continue into january)

hope your scope gets brought forward.

[Dave-Ryan]

My first telescope was an LX200, in 2004, and I didn't regret it. I still wouldn't part with it today.

If you start adding guide scopes and/or a small imaging refractor you will need a balancing kit. After trying a couple I finally found this one from Scope Stuff. These are based in the USA but delivery is usually under 2 weeks. I initially ordered insufficiant weights so had to order more but they arrived just as quickly.

You might also want to consider the piggyback mounting system from the same place to mount your guide scope or small refractor.

If you need any help with this kind of set up I'd be willing to help all I can. As, I'm sure, will the rest of the guy's on here.

[Rols]

My first telescope was an LX200, in 2004, and I didn't regret it. I still wouldn't part with it today.

If you need any help with this kind of set up I'd be willing to help all I can. As, I'm sure, will the rest of the guy's on here.

Thanks for the info, and its always good to here positive feedback about your purchase! i shall be using it barebone for a while as i build the bank account back to a sensible level. got some bits to play with as far as the camera and webcam, i do have a question about the EQ mounts for them, whats the difference between the potions? wedge,super wedge? and i dont remember the other!

and what guide scope did you end up mounting on it?

Rols

[Dave-Ryan]

There are many wedges made by different manufacturers the best ones usually being the more expensive ones. You just need to make sure you get the right one for your scope/mount size.

I mounted a ED 80mm APO on mine using the scopestuff mounting system I mentioned in my other post. I never used this for guiding as I don't have a wedge. Without a wedge you can only do very short exposure astrophotography.

With a web cam or planetary imager you will easily be able to image the moon and planets without a wedge which will get you started in astrophotography and help you decide if you want to spend the extra on a wedge to get longer exposures for deep sky imaging.

Adding a small refractor piggybacked on top of your LX200 gives you the option of getting wide field views that are not possible with your long focal length SCT. This can also later be used as a guide scope and for getting those wide field shots of DSO's.