If only I could get my scope aligned...

.... then I could at last begin to enjoy astronomy!

Instead its been a frustrating year of one problem after another. You see I
have always been interested in astronomy and about a year ago, being finally
able to have the funds required, and following some careful research into
what telescope to buy, I purchased a used LX90 with LNT.

With all the hype about the goto being easy to set up and operate, I
expected that after a short period of reading and familiarising I would be
able to set the scope up within 10-15 minutes and enjoy the rest of the
session selecting objects on my Goto and expecting th scope to take me
there, except, that the reality was nothing of the kind...

Now my scope came with the standard Alt/Az mount and I hoped to get
familiarised first, do some simple photography and once I had accomplished
the recording of some reasonable photographs with a digital SLR and/or the
LPI camera, to move onto a more serious CCD photography. Unfortunately I
still haven't got past aligning the scope correctly....

The scope just doesn't seem to align properly. Firstly, forget the easy
method. The scope just seems to point anywhere at random.

Using the two star method on the other hand has led to some success but this
was still rather hit-and-miss. Athough I would often get confirmation of
alignment, at best it was extremely approximate and more than often it was
way off the mark, Whatever the case, when doing a goto, the selected object
was always out of the 26mm eyepiece range, usually by a few arcminutes but
sometimes it was nowhere near.

Often when trying to align the scope I get a confirmation that the alignment
succeeded but sometimes it fails and I have no idea why.

I have also had several other problems including:

- The Autstar cable failed and had to be replaced.
- On replacing the cable I then discovered that the Autostar handset failed
and I had to get a replacement.
- The LNT battery failed resulting in me having to enter the date and time
every time the scope was turned on. Again this had to be replaced.
- every now and then the power to the scope seems to fail and I have to turn
the scope on off and start the align all over. Maybe a faulty power
connector? The plug seems to sit tight on the connector and has been rewired
to make sure. The problem usually occurs during slewing though.

With the exception of the last item, I got all these fixed, calibrated the
sensors and trained the drive. I also bought a wedge. I set this up, took
some time to read up and understand how the alignment works and waited for
my first clear night which cam a couple of days ago.

I found that the alignment was much better on the EQ mount although the fist
tine I selected two stars, the alignment failed. I had selected Arcturus and
Sirius. I started again and tried with Sirius and Betelgeuse and this time
the align was successful. I then selected an object (the great orion nebula)
to go to , After slewing the scope, and for the very fist time since I have
used the scope, the Goto placed it right in the middle of the field of
view!

This was encouraging, however when I next selected Saturn, the scope slewed
round but was considerably off, pointing several arcminutes below the
celestial object which was a bit of a letdown. I then tried slewing to
another object and the power failed...

My post is probably a bit long winded but this has been a bit of a saga.
Maybe my alignment technique is flawed in some way or maybe its the goto.

Briefly my procedure for setting up is was follows:
a) prior to session and in daylight
- calibrate sensors (recently done following replacement of LNT battery as
recommended in the manual)
- set mount to Equatorial (done recently)
- train drives
b) actual observing session
- set up tripod
- attach the telescope
- manually polar align and adjust wedge
- check tripod level
- check polar alignment
- connect power supply and power on scope
- align using the two star method

I would like to persevere until I get this resolved but I must admit that
having spent so much time and money, I am now very close to giving up! If
this is the right forum I am hoping someone might help me identify the
problem. If not then if someone could point me at the correct form it would
be appreciated.

I'm told that to make the fine alignment adjustments neccessary for
astrophotography I will need an illuminated double cross-hair eyepiece. Can
someone advise on which eyepiece is best?

On 27 Dec, 17:38, "John Chajecki" wrote:
... then I could at last begin to enjoy astronomy!

Instead its been a frustrating year of one problem after another. You see I
have always been interested in astronomy and about a year ago, being finally
able to have the funds required, and following some careful research into
what telescope to buy, I purchased a used LX90 with LNT.

With all the hype about the goto being easy to set up and operate, I
expected that after a short period of reading and familiarising I would be
able to set the scope up within 10-15 minutes and enjoy the rest of the
session selecting objects on my Goto and expecting th scope to take me
there, except, that the reality was nothing of the kind...

Now my scope came with the standard Alt/Az mount and I hoped to get
familiarised first, do some simple photography and once I had accomplished
the recording of some reasonable photographs with a digital SLR and/or the
LPI camera, to move onto a more serious CCD photography. Unfortunately I
still haven't got past aligning the scope correctly....

The scope just doesn't seem to align properly. Firstly, forget the easy
method. The scope just seems to point anywhere at random.

Using the two star method on the other hand has led to some success but this
was still rather hit-and-miss. Athough I would often get confirmation of
alignment, at best it was extremely approximate and more than often it was
way off the mark, Whatever the case, when doing a goto, the selected object
was always out of the 26mm eyepiece range, usually by a few arcminutes but
sometimes it was nowhere near.

Often when trying to align the scope I get a confirmation that the alignment
succeeded but sometimes it fails and I have no idea why.

I have also had several other problems including:

- The Autstar cable failed and had to be replaced.
- On replacing the cable I then discovered that the Autostar handset failed
and I had to get a replacement.
- The LNT battery failed resulting in me having to enter the date and time
every time the scope was turned on. Again this had to be replaced.
- every now and then the power to the scope seems to fail and I have to turn
the scope on off and start the align all over. Maybe a faulty power
connector? The plug seems to sit tight on the connector and has been rewired
to make sure. The problem usually occurs during slewing though.

With the exception of the last item, I got all these fixed, calibrated the
sensors and trained the drive. I also bought a wedge. I set this up, took
some time to read up and understand how the alignment works and waited for
my first clear night which cam a couple of days ago.

I found that the alignment was much better on the EQ mount although the fist
tine I selected two stars, the alignment failed. I had selected Arcturus and
Sirius. I started again and tried with Sirius and Betelgeuse and this time
the align was successful. I then selected an object (the great orion nebula)
to go to , After slewing the scope, and for the very fist time since I have
used the scope, the Goto placed it right in the middle of the field of
view!

This was encouraging, however when I next selected Saturn, the scope slewed
round but was considerably off, pointing several arcminutes below the
celestial object which was a bit of a letdown. I then tried slewing to
another object and the power failed...

My post is probably a bit long winded but this has been a bit of a saga.
Maybe my alignment technique is flawed in some way or maybe its the goto.

Briefly my procedure for setting up is was follows:
a) prior to session and in daylight
- calibrate sensors (recently done following replacement of LNT battery as
recommended in the manual)
- set mount to Equatorial (done recently)
- train drives
b) actual observing session
- set up tripod
- attach the telescope
- manually polar align and adjust wedge
- check tripod level
- check polar alignment
- connect power supply and power on scope
- align using the two star method

I would like to persevere until I get this resolved but I must admit that
having spent so much time and money, I am now very close to giving up! If
this is the right forum I am hoping someone might help me identify the
problem. If not then if someone could point me at the correct form it would
be appreciated.

I'm told that to make the fine alignment adjustments neccessary for
astrophotography I will need an illuminated double cross-hair eyepiece. Can
someone advise on which eyepiece is best?

Hi John,
It seems to me that you are trying to chew too much at the same
time.
Take it in steps to master your scope visually first. Go through the
setup procedure with a fine tooth comb. Write it down in detail as
you are performing it so that you can come back to it if you get
stuck.
You may have been unlucky in getting the kind of hardware failures you
have come across.
Whatever the source you purchase your instrument from, go to your
local astronomical society where existing members will help you
resolve your present difficulty.
Imaging is certainly an interesting activity at the telescope but only
when you have mastered the setting up and the visual aspect of
observing.
Forgive me for toning down your enthusiasm for quick progress but, I
have seen it all before.
I hope you get it all sorted soon.
Pierre -MK-UK-

On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:38:44 +0000, "John Chajecki"
wrote:

... then I could at last begin to enjoy astronomy!

Instead its been a frustrating year of one problem after another. You see I
have always been interested in astronomy and about a year ago, being finally
able to have the funds required, and following some careful research into
what telescope to buy, I purchased a used LX90 with LNT.

With all the hype about the goto being easy to set up and operate, I
expected that after a short period of reading and familiarising I would be
able to set the scope up within 10-15 minutes and enjoy the rest of the
session selecting objects on my Goto and expecting th scope to take me
there, except, that the reality was nothing of the kind...

Hi John,
I also have an LX90 and had similar problems when first using it. The
two things that got it sorted for me we

1) I had a duff drive motor which was replaced under warranty (and an
intermittant handset cable like you). I could not detect that the
drive was faulty apart from it being really difficult to achieve
alignment.

2) I got used to doing the drive training really well; it is
imperative that you only use one direction when approaching your
terrestial target, if you overshoot, start the training procedure all
over again.

With both of these points attanded to, my 'scope points very well at
my evening's target (usually a planet) and often puts it straight in
the field of view of a 10mm eyepiece.

I would receommend that you return to alt-az mode as that will only
work if both drives are fully functional whereas in polar mode only
one drive is in use when tracking.

Do persevere, because the LX-90 is a fine instrument.

I would receommend the LX90 Yahoo group for very good support from
other LX90 users.

Regards

- Mike

Pierre,

Thanks for your response.

It seems to me that you are trying to chew too much at the same time.
Take it in steps to master your scope visually first.

Quite possibly which is why I am now concentrating just on getting the
alignment right. I have also taken some time to learn how to use the scope
to find objects manually, without GoTo which has been rewarding in that I
have over the course of the year seem most of the planets with the exception
of Mercury and Pluto. Finding Neptune and Uranus for the first time was a
small challenge but I believe I found both without the use of GoTo.

Go through the setup procedure with a fine tooth comb. Write it down in
detail as
you are performing it so that you can come back to it if you get
stuck.

Thanks. Good point.

Imaging is certainly an interesting activity at the telescope but only
when you have mastered the setting up and the visual aspect of
observing.

Agreed. I have come t the same conclusion. One step at a time.

Forgive me for toning down your enthusiasm for quick progress but, I
have seen it all before.

Not at all. Thank you for your points of which I will take note.

Mike,

1) I had a duff drive motor which was replaced under warranty (and an
intermittant handset cable like you). I could not detect that the
drive was faulty apart from it being really difficult to achieve
alignment.

Sorry you had such a fault but I'm glad you were able to get it repaired
under warranty. Unfortunately my scope is used and not under warranty so I
haven't got that option. I want to make one last concerted effort to get
this cracked before resorting to calling Meade. There's an astro shop in
Sheffield that has ofered to check the scope out - for a price of course -
but at least I have another option.


2) I got used to doing the drive training really well; it is
imperative that you only use one direction when approaching your
terrestial target, if you overshoot, start the training procedure all
over again.

Thanks for the point about overshooting. Didn't realise it could make such a
difference, but I also read that somewhere else recently (Weasner or Jans
pages I think) so I will look out for this.

With both of these points attanded to, my 'scope points very well at
my evening's target (usually a planet) and often puts it straight in
the field of view of a 10mm eyepiece.

In a 10mm eyepiece? Well that just goes to show what should be possible when
its aligned properly.

I would receommend that you return to alt-az mode as that will only
work if both drives are fully functional whereas in polar mode only
one drive is in use when tracking.

Will do this I think as it should work properly this way anyway. Once I'm
sure its aligning properly in this mode then it should also in Equatorial.

Do persevere, because the LX-90 is a fine instrument.

Yes have been told that too. Still working on it and waiting for clear
nights which have been very far and few recently.

I would receommend the LX90 Yahoo group for very good support from
other LX90 users.

Yes, also made myself a member of this group and I'm already receiving some
useful advice. For example I just saved £20 on a USB-to-serial converter.

Thanks Mike.