LXD-55/75 Telescopes

Tracking

der — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:22:24 GMT

Hi all. Just came back from a week's vacation in the northern tier of Pennsylvania in a place called Tamarack about 15 miles from Cherry Springs State Park. Get this we had 4 count them 4 nights of clear sky's to observe and do some needed catch up on astrophotography. Pennsylvania is one of those places that has few clear sky's so you want to take full advantage when they come along ,my observations went into the late evening to mid morning hours.

I believe I had a problem with tracking as when I came to the site I did a reset and plugged in a new zip code being about 100 miles from my home site in Port Matilda PA. on my LXD 55 8" Meade reflector scope with Autostar as my primary tracking tool. I also at times over the 4 days tried using the tracking program you get with the software provided with Autostar Suite. My camera set up was Meade's DSI monochrome unit

The first night out was able to go to a globular cluster and noticed as I was getting ready to take some images that the object starting drifting across the screen and after a short while would be completly off the screen. Did a few corrections to get the image back on but kept watching the objects drift across the screen. The next day I started looking into my instruction manual thinking I would be able to solve my tracking problem. Night 2 and 3 had the same results with a little bit of frustration setting in as nothing seemed to work for me.

I would appreciate some of advice/direction in how to get the scope tacking properly. Possibly a checklist or a sequence of items to determine that I have tracking capabilities. The instruction manual does not give much on troubleshooting. In advance thank you for your assistance.

Dave Reasinger

Port Matilda PA.

Guiding

TheDecepticon — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:12:27 GMT

Howdy. I was going to try out my old LXD55 SN10 for a bit of astrophotography work & all has been going well including drift alignment. I have very little drift(but there is some in alt) which occurs over 30-40 mins as tracked in the eyepiece with a barlow and an out of focus star(approx 209x), as I have no illuminated reticle and visual observing is wonderful as it seems to track very well and smoothly, however, when I try to guide with Envisage, I always seem to get one axis that doesn't want to behave. It always wants to send one axis off very fast, faster than any drift you would see in the sensor plane. When you release it from guide, it then settles back down again. I have the mount adjusted pretty well and it has been stripped and smoothed out and well greased, I have reversed my directional buttons, I have tried the correction gain etc. I know it is actually trying to do it by what I can see on the screen. Im running software that is a bit old(3.3e, I think) but it is at least 3 star alignment routine, which gives the 55 way more accuracy. Do I need to upgrade my software or try to use a guide scope( I have an 80/f5) and PHD guiding as I have a GPUSB and an extension cable. Id really like to get this working as a 4 minute exposure on M42 really shows heaps of detail, but I get star trails like its unguided.
Thanks.

LXD55 10 SN Polar Scope

Bellringer — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:33:03 GMT

Hi, hope someone can answer a really stupid question but which bit if the reticle do I align to Polaris. Is it the cross hairs or the circle below. I live in the UK at 53N 3.0W.

Fred.

Slop in RA and DEC on LXD75 mount.

ejknight — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:06:31 GMT

Does anyone have a tried and true method to tighten up the RA and dec in the LXD75 mount?

Upon inspecting I found that my RA gears look as if they aren't even touching. This makes for a bad night since i use a Celestron 9.25 SCT on the mount for splitting doubles and last Saturday night I notices a BUNCH of slop while slewing.

Cheers

Repair myself Mount LXD75 Declination Motor

Saturn55 — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:23:22 GMT

Excused my bad English . I wanted to tell the solution to you of my problem on the LXD75. I have acquired the mount 20 November 2006 and after only 15 days the motor in declination went collimation of 10-15g degrees outside. I have sended to the FOCAS (company official of assistance and repair telescope Meade in Italy and the mount me and' returned with the same defect making me to pay 40 euros. The FOCAS has said the montatura works good !! L((((( Instead today I have opened it montatura and have inasmuch as on the wheel of the encoder there was a glue lump that closed three little windows. I have removed with Benzine and one pin. Now it works all ok. I enclose photo

Troubles with italian Meade representatives

Saturn55 — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 23:02:13 GMT

Hello,
I'd like to show you an email I've just sent to Meade, regarding my
troubles with italian Meade representatives:

Dear Sirs,
I'd like to have your attention on what occurred to me with regard of
the product LXD75 with Newton 6" that I bought in 20 october 2006 in Italy(Staroptics Shop).

I got in contact with your representatives in Italy, since I was
interesting on this product LXD75 with Newton 6".

Unfortunately the quality of service and assistance I received was really poor and inconsistent(Dealer Locator "FOCAS" Florence IT).

Due to this unqualified approach I decided not buying your equipment anymore.

I strongly believe that your team in Italy is not doing the right things
to help the business of Meade Corp. in my country.

I will be glad to send you some documentation to prove the poor
assistance I've received, despite the fact that my product was purchased
only 2 months before and therefore under full warranty.

I will be at your disposal for any further contact.

Sincerely,

Focuser Suggestions for SN-8AT?

brenth — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 13:18:42 GMT

I recently purchased an SN-8AT and DSI. The standard rack and pinion focuser appears very coarse for astrophotography. Does anyone have a success story for any of the following with this telescope/camera combination?:

1) A helical focuser

2) An electric focuser

3) An improved drop-in focuser

I would like to minimize any cutting or drilling modifications to the telescope.

Thanks,

Brent

Polar scope alignment issues

ejknight — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 22:11:04 GMT

So I finally have my new LXD-75 5" refractor and today attempted to get the polar alignment scope adjusted to perfection. I am at my wits end because I cannot get this bloody thing to keep the object centered and stable Every time I move the mount in RA the object seems to be off center even though I have gone through the cemtering a dozen times. Any tricks as to doing this? The fllowing procedure (which Meade has no knowledge of ) is the way I have been attempting to do this:

Setup the mount without the OTA, without the counter weight, and without the shaft.
Point the mount towards a ground based target, far away.
Rotate the Ra axis to one side and the Dec axis so you can see through the polar scope.
Center the target on the cross hair of the polar finder using the altitude and azimuth adjustment knobs.
Rotate the Ra axis to the opposite side.
Adjust the finder using the three hex screws. Adjustjsting only half way back to the original location.
Re-center the target again, using the altitude and azimuth knobs.
Rotate the Ra axis to the opposite side, adjust again if necessary, and center the target.

LXD 75 mount Poor Goto's and Tracking Brand new Solved

kizrus — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 07:09:22 GMT

FYI

I bought a new LXD75 in June 06 and all of the Gear allens came loose after about 6 nights
out..

More importantly there were 4 larger allen holes one for each gear 3/32 that were empty .
I purchsased 4 and used them for the flat of the shaft to tighten too. Things
should be much better now. Will also add a little Blue Loctite .

Greg