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Meade LX90 ACF 8inch UHTC

Horus

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Horus

Horus

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Can anyone tell me if you can attach a DSLR camera to this telescope as I'm serially thinking of getting it if you can .

Nowhere in the literature does it mention Astrophotography

Rich

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CGolder

CGolder

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the meade lx90 is basically a alt az mount so you will have the same problems with long exposure. you could but a wedge but they are expensive and the lx90 has some periodic error, more so then i would expect with a eq mount

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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You can, but a focal reducer would be a good idea since f10 and 2 metre focal length is going to take some guiding over very long subs. Also recommended would be a balance weight system (this is critical) and a Crayford focuser since the standard system is so vague. You might consider a small refractor piggybacked. You will need a guidescope anyway and may find, as many do, that using the 'guidescope' for imaging and the big one for guiding would be more productive. I found this on an LX200, as did a friend on his LX90.

Olly

Edit, Re CGolder's point above, I was assuming you had a wedge. If you don't I would think long and hard before investing in an SCT for imaging. Personally I wish I had simply started over with a different system. This is what I ended up doing, like so many others.

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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What did you end with Olly ?

I image with a small and a large refractor on GEMs. The small is a Takahashi FSQ85 and the large a TEC140. These are great but you don't need to spend that much because the cheaper instruments are not, honestly, a million miles behind the best these days.

I have two EQ sixes and a Takahashi EM200 mount. Again the EQ sixes are good if you don't try to use very long focal lengths on them. I have an iOptron IEQ45 coming on test as well, which should be very interesting.

I promise you that that I would not have been quite so indulgent but for the fact that these are the tools of my trade, so to speak! I still have the LX200 deforked and used for planetary activities on the GEMs. I wish I had kept it for visual on the fork.

Olly

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  • 2 weeks later...
r3i

r3i

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Having owned an LX90 and moved the OTA onto a GEM to do DSO imaging, I must concur with Olly & Billy's opinions.

The LX90 was designed to be a visual platform. Some folks have managed to do DSO imaging with theirs but I think you have be very precise with alignment & balance and to have a very rigid wedge.

My DSO efforts with my LX90 were never great. Perhaps it was just me but when I got the OTA onto my EQ6, things just started to work.

The other problem with the LX90 is the limited clearance available on the fork mounting. It is all too easy for your imaging gear to crash into the fork base when aiming at a high declination object.

The LX90 is a great platform for visual and is certainly capable of lunar & planetary imaging. But for DSO imaging you really need to look at either the LX200 range on a beefy wedge (stiffer forks, better gearing, more clearance) or as has already been stated, a GEM with a suitable load capacity. If I hadn't got the imaging bug and stayed purely visual, I'm sure I'd be still quite happy with the LX90.

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russ

russ

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Did I mention it was the 10" ?

Just a warning.

The LX90 10" was one of the biggest mistakes i ever made. I owned it for three months, of which it only worked for 4 days... and that was the 4 days before i sold it.

The dec motor packed up, got that sorted and the handcontroller packed up. But then the handcontroller cable packed up and finally the align north module stopped working. After 3 months i finally got it to work successfully but i had completely reached the end of my tether by that point.

And in my opinion the 10" ota was simply too much for the fork arms. I only planned to image planets but it turned out to be no more stable than the old LX6 10" i owned 8 years previous. Slightest breeze and the image was all over the place. Very frustrating.

The optics were first class though ..... A+ Perhaps the best SCT optics i've ever owned. That was the most frustrating thing really. I couldn't afford to buy an EQ6 for the tube and sell the remainder. It would have been a cracking setup with the EQ6.

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russ

russ

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I have the lx90 10 inch and its cracking for visual, wouldnt fancy trying to image with it, but very happy with is for visual only

Mine was top draw visually, absolutely no complaints.

Had i not had the electrical problems, i'm sure i would have kept it longer.

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CGolder

CGolder

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I fortunately haven't had as many problems as you, i have had a blown controller, but managed to get a replacement quite cheap.. i don't expect the forks to last forever and expect in the future to need to replace with a more robust EQ mount. ill enjoy alt az while it lasts :)

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