On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 22:06:24 +0100, "chris CLARK"
wrote:

Hi ,
I was just wondering how good an Lx90 really is

Well, I've had mine for nearly a year and can think of nothing but
praise for it, it's as good as I expected and more. I'd buy the same
today if I didn't have one, or this one got damaged or stolen. I've
used it far more than I thought I would, mainly because:

- It's easy to set up and break down.
- It's easy to find stuff quickly using the Autostar.

A mate of mine bought a more fiddly, non-Autostar reflector, and is in
the same situation as me (busy job, family responsibilities, etc.). He
rarely uses it, perhaps once every couple of months; my LX90 is out
nearly every clear night, if only for half an hour (if I've remembered
to put it out in the garage to cool down beforehand).

What can you see? Planets are pretty good:
- Jupiter, its cloudbelts and moons
- Saturn and its rings, on a good night you can see the Cassini
division
- Mars with its polar cap are good at the moment

But what impressed me the most has been deep-sky, in particular the
Ring and Dumbell nebulas are excellent at the moment, and Orion will
be back in a couple of months time.

I've used mine for some basic astrophotography, holding a camcorder up
to the lens, the results aren't brilliant but are he
http://www.fatcat.clara.co.uk/astro/

Only negative thing I can think of is storing it, both the scope and
tripod are pretty big for todays small houses but hey, that's the
price you pay.

Darrell