6/14/01 I thought
the 10" would be a nice compromise between the 8" SCT that I was using for imaging and my 12.5" Astrosystems Dob. The best part would be that I could actually image with a bigger scope not to mention the GOTO ability which I thought would make Imaging easier. After reading
a lot of posts on SAA and looking over MAPUG I went out and bought the thing. I got sucked into believing that I could actually take good pictures using the Meade field derotator. After spend 5 night trying to get the thing to work (I ended up being able to get 100 second images at 2x2 binning but that was about it). Thank God the nice people at Woodland Hills Camera allowed me to swap my derotator for the super wedge. What an
immediate change! After only 2 nights getting used to polar aligning (using the iterative method) I can now
consistently get nice round stars 1x1 binning for 200 seconds. I am thinking I should easily get
up to 300 seconds no problem. Now if I can figure out how to get this thing focused correctly I'll be in great shape! For those of you wondering about the 10" LX200 it is a very nice scope! The optics are wonderful! Not quite as good as my Dob but close. It is a big scope! If you are used to an 8" its twice the size. Mounting this sucker on the super wedge is a chore! But well worth the effort! You can't beat the price either for what you get! It's very cool to be able to point and shoot without getting out of your seat! The GOTO works very well and is fun to use. You still can unlock the dec and alt bearing and cruise by hand for those nice warm calm nights observing. So far I really love it! The following are some of my first efforts.
7/25/01
After
working with this scope and the super
wedge for about 2 weeks now I can
honestly say that I really do love this
thing! By using the iterative
method of polar alignment I can get
pretty solid 3 minute unguided images
with a 15 minute setup time. Not
bad considering I am setting this sucker
up from scratch each time! I have
noticed that it seems to track better in
some parts of the sky than others.
I believe this is a balancing issue that
I will address in the coming weeks.
My images are slowly getting better!
I am also more impressed with the optics
everyday! We took it up to Mt.
Pinos and compared it against a German
7" f7 doublet refractor. My 10"
held its own very well! Not to
mention the vast size difference!
Anyways, here is a list of my equipment
as it stands now:
LX200 10"
f6.3 w/ Telrad Finder
Meade Super Wedge
Meade Field Tripod
Meade Electronic Focuser
Bob's Knobs for Collimation
Meade 6.3 Focal Reducer
Televue 2" Visual Back
SBIG ST7E w/
2" Nose Adapter
SBIG CFW8 (old Filters) & 2" IR Blocking
Filter
Hutech 2" CCD Sky Glow Filter
IBM 770 Thinkpad
Maxim DL/CCD v2.0 Software |
