Can I auot guide an LX90?

[Johnboy2011]

I was hoping to buy a second hand qhy5 or DSI and use PHD to autoguide my LX90 on a wedge. I just read a post saying that the scope may not accept ST4 commands.

Does anyone know if this is the case? Does that mean I could'nt autoguide with PHD?

Thanks,

John

[ollypenrice]

I have seen Tom O'Donoghue do so at my place so I know it can be done. I think he found he could not get the tracking good enough for DS through the long FL SCT but piggybacked a smaller WO refractor on it.

I'd give Telescope House a call. There may have been changes in the model specs over the years which they would know about.

Olly

[Johnboy2011]

Thanks Olly, I know I'm up against it! I've got a 6.3 reducer, do you think I'll be able to get maybe a minute or two with that?

[ollypenrice]

Well... my story is simply this; I bought a wedge, very expensive even second hand. It was a horrible thing, the Meade Superwedge. In trying to polar align, adjusting any one bolt changed all the others. It took many hours. When done I never got the guiding anywhere near good enough. I have met many people who found the same and, like me, gave up. I have also seen posts from some who succeeded and I don't doubt their word.

I think you might get a couple of minutes with a wedge, yes. But personally (I stress personally) I would think again before laying out cash on a potential blind alley. It is very telling to look at DS imaging boards on international forums. There are literally thousands and thousands of fork SCTs out there, but where are the images? One in a thousand? They can be marvellous when you see them, like Rob's Bubble or M51, but you don't see many.

Olly

[barkis]

There is a Module APM909 which plugs into an Auxilliary port on the LX90.

The 909 APM attaches to the rear-cell of the LX90 and connects by cable to the AUX port on the telescope's control panel. The APM includes auxiliary connectors for plug-in of such accessories as corded models of illuminated reticle eyepieces, the 1206 Electric Focuser, or a CCD autoguider.

The Autostar controller has to have the latest Firmware loaded, which I believe is EG43.

The Baader Synguider 2 Stand alone guide system, has also a dedicated Autostar port to facilitate the guiding of the LX90.

I know the APM 909 could not be imported from the US directly for some reason.

I would pay heed to Olly's thoughts on guiding the LX90. You may get some results with a 6.3 reducer, but no guarantees.

Ron.

[r3i]

I know the APM 909 could not be imported from the US directly for some reason.

I would pay heed to Olly's thoughts on guiding the LX90. You may get some results with a 6.3 reducer, but no guarantees.

Ron.

IIRC, the reason was due to the lead content in the solder used on the PCB. Not sure if Meade still make them at all but they come up occasionally for sale on the second hand market. There is a clone available here: Meade 909 clone: assembled and kit version, full specs, schematic, source

[Johnboy2011]

Ron/Olly,

Thanks for your advice, I'm surprised you hav'nt lost patience with me and my altaz mount yet!

Thanks also r3i, I contacted the guy in the states and he has already got back to me and seems very knowledgable and helpful. I'm sure he'll have a solution.

I am now sure I will go GEM but I want to get the most out of my kit before I upgrade, hopefully by buying second hand I won't waste too much money!

Regards,

John

[kk4df]

I was finally able to auto guide my LX90 using PHD software, the 505 serial cable, ASCOM 5.5 with Meade Classic driver, and patched 5Ce1 firmware in the Auto Star. It would not work until I loaded the firmware earlier today.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[ollypenrice]

I was finally able to auto guide my LX90 using PHD software, the 505 serial cable, ASCOM 5.5 with Meade Classic driver, and patched 5Ce1 firmware in the Auto Star. It would not work until I loaded the firmware earlier today.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Good one. How well did you get it to guide?

Olly

[kk4df]

Good one. How well did you get it to guide?

Olly

The real test will come in the coming weeks. I was just watching it in PHD lsat night for 10 to 15 minutes, and tracked pretty well. Pics coming.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[Johnboy2011]

Nice one! Looking forward to the pics!

John

[kk4df]

Second time out with the guidescope this past week. Shot a few pics of Lagoon Nebula.

4 exposures at 6 min each, Canon 500D mod with Hutech LPS-V4 nebula filter, stacked in DSS and enhanced in PS CS5, Meade LX90 polar-aligned with Orion ST80 guidescope, Phillips SPC900 webcam guiding with PHD software, updated firmware in LX90 for autoguiding.

This was my first successful attempt with autoguiding. I'm looking forward to much more, once the weather cools off.

[barkis]

That picture looks excellent, and a real boost to LX90/WEDGE users, who are bound to be heartened by what you have achieved here.

Did you introduce the Diff. spikes with software?

Excellent job, and well done.

Ron.

[Bazzaar]

Crikey! I think you could say that is working!

Barry

[Rob Severn]

Any help ?

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell

[kk4df]

That picture looks excellent, and a real boost to LX90/WEDGE users, who are bound to be heartened by what you have achieved here.

Did you introduce the Diff. spikes with software?

Excellent job, and well done.

Ron.

Yes, the spikes were introduced in Photoshop using the Astronomy Tools 1.6 actions.

I'm ready to get out again the LX90.

[yukonjake]

Well done - my rig is very similar to yours; updated the firmware (497 AutostarEP version 5Ce1 from LX90 group, files section on Yahoo). I cannot get scope to respond to N-S (declination) commands from PHD guiding program (yet go-to's from the handbox work beautifully). Tested without USB hub, no joy. Am going to test next without USB->Serial Port adapter and just run off another laptop with a serial port built in. I'm a bit unsure of ASCOM settings - do you set 'advanced pulse guiding' on? Any advice you could give would be appreciated!

[ollypenrice]

Good to see you getting results like this. It's hard to see the star quality at this screen res. but the chip is huge so even if you cropped the image you'd get a good field. (You seem to have a little distortion lower right, mainly.) In Ps there is a quick fix which you can save as an action and do in one click per star.

Magic wand to select star, then record this;

Select-modify-expand (try 4 pixels.)

Feather by 3 pixels.

Filter-blur-radial blur (spin, best quality.)

Deselect

Stop recording.

It's best to save the action to a keyboard shortcut so you just go magic wand, F3 or whatever. Very quick.

Olly

[kk4df]

Well done - my rig is very similar to yours; updated the firmware (497 AutostarEP version 5Ce1 from LX90 group, files section on Yahoo). I cannot get scope to respond to N-S (declination) commands from PHD guiding program (yet go-to's from the handbox work beautifully). Tested without USB hub, no joy. Am going to test next without USB->Serial Port adapter and just run off another laptop with a serial port built in. I'm a bit unsure of ASCOM settings - do you set 'advanced pulse guiding' on? Any advice you could give would be appreciated!

I am using the Meade Classic and Autostar I ASCOM driver (v5.0.2) with pulse guiding enabled.