Can one get a simple, equatorial fork-mount 8" SCT??

Alas, the world has gone too complicated. Meade tells me they no longer
manufacture the LX-10, which was the last basic, simple, mass-market 8"
Schmidt-Cass.

What I'm looking for is a fork-mount 8" Schmidt-Cass which has an
equatorial mount and a clock drive. I don't need goto, I don't even
need a hand paddle. I do need the cost to stay reasonable.

This would be for an introductory astronomy class, full of students who
are new to astronomy and generally not technically inclined (or even
motivated) to be amateurs. While Dobsonian telescopes are trivially
easy to set up, I don't think they're the right thing for this lab; the
students have enough trouble as it is, and it's too much to ask them to
guide the telescope to be able to study and drawn an object. Similarly,
even if you don't use the "goto" features of a goto telescope, my
understanding is for them to track, you must get the lined up on a star
in the first place.

A german mount is also probably too much of a mess and a pain to ask the
kids in this lab to deal with.

My goal is a minimum of overhead. We've got a set of early-1990's era
Celestron C8's, the Celestar 8 model, which are perfect. The students
bring them out, bolt them on the wedge (we have semi-permanent mounts in
the lab facility), flip a switch, and it's tracking. No fuss,
relatively easy to use-- although already it's a fair amount to learn
during the short time available in a 1-unit lab.

Can one get the equivalent of a telescope like that any more? Or if you
want a fork-mounted 8" SCT, do you have to pay for and deal with all the
overhead of a goto mount? The Meade LX-10 was the last basic, solid,
classic, just-what-I-need telescope I knew about, and it's been
discontinued.

What's with the need to attach fancy gadgets and systems to everything?
Is there no market any more for the basic, clock-drive-enabled
telescope?

If anybody knows of something that might work the way the classic C8's
worked, please let me know.

-Rob

--
-=-=-= Rob Knop =-= =-= http://www.pobox.com/~rknop =-=-=-
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"Rob Knop" wrote in message
...

Alas, the world has gone too complicated. Meade tells me they no longer
manufacture the LX-10, which was the last basic, simple, mass-market 8"
Schmidt-Cass.

What I'm looking for is a fork-mount 8" Schmidt-Cass which has an
equatorial mount and a clock drive. I don't need goto, I don't even
need a hand paddle. I do need the cost to stay reasonable.

This would be for an introductory astronomy class, full of students who
are new to astronomy and generally not technically inclined (or even
motivated) to be amateurs. While Dobsonian telescopes are trivially
easy to set up, I don't think they're the right thing for this lab; the
students have enough trouble as it is, and it's too much to ask them to
guide the telescope to be able to study and drawn an object. Similarly,
even if you don't use the "goto" features of a goto telescope, my
understanding is for them to track, you must get the lined up on a star
in the first place.

A german mount is also probably too much of a mess and a pain to ask the
kids in this lab to deal with.

My goal is a minimum of overhead. We've got a set of early-1990's era
Celestron C8's, the Celestar 8 model, which are perfect. The students
bring them out, bolt them on the wedge (we have semi-permanent mounts in
the lab facility), flip a switch, and it's tracking. No fuss,
relatively easy to use-- although already it's a fair amount to learn
during the short time available in a 1-unit lab.

Can one get the equivalent of a telescope like that any more? Or if you
want a fork-mounted 8" SCT, do you have to pay for and deal with all the
overhead of a goto mount? The Meade LX-10 was the last basic, solid,
classic, just-what-I-need telescope I knew about, and it's been
discontinued.

What's with the need to attach fancy gadgets and systems to everything?
Is there no market any more for the basic, clock-drive-enabled
telescope?

If anybody knows of something that might work the way the classic C8's
worked, please let me know.
I think the problem is that given the low cost of electronics, it is
actually cheaper to produce two motors, and a 'goto' drive, than to make a
wedge. On this basis, the wedge based unit, has a very small market, and
won't sell...
I'd reconsider on the 'GEM'. Given you have access to permanent pier mounts,
a GEM, can be just as simple as a fork mount in this context. Some designs,
don't have the normal dovetail mount, but have a plate with indexed
location, so that once the tube is positioned on the plate, it becomes a
'single screw' attachment to the GEM. Similarly, the attachment between the
GEM itself, and the base, can have the adjustment screws locked with a
little 'low strength' retainer, so that they don't move, and if the GEM has
to come in, it is another 'single screw' to attach the unit. With a single
sidereal motor drive unit on the GEM, or dual axis drives (depending on how
complex you want to go), the scope can be as easy to setup as the fork
mount. The only 'downside', is the head positions that can result when
tracking...
On fork mount units at reasonable prices, I'm afraid that you are now pretty
much stuck with the GoTo Systems... :-(

Best Wishes

Alas, the world has gone too complicated. Meade tells me they no longer
manufacture the LX-10,

Hi Ron:

If so, that's a damned shame. Are you sure? Last time I talked to them, they
were continuing it, and it is still prominently featured in their online and
print catalogs. Not that it would surprise me...Celestron's non-goto fork
mounts are long gone.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

On Tue, 05 Aug 2003 15:47:20 GMT, Rob Knop wrote:

What I'm looking for is a fork-mount 8" Schmidt-Cass which has an
equatorial mount and a clock drive. I don't need goto, I don't even
need a hand paddle. I do need the cost to stay reasonable.

A german mount is also probably too much of a mess and a pain to ask the
kids in this lab to deal with.

There always is the used instrument market.

A GEM is no harder to use than a fork. I think the eyepiece is a
little more accessible with a GEM than with a fork. When you look at
higher declinations with a fork mount you have to get close to it.
With a GEM you can stand a little to the side.