Here we are at the moment to make a nice review of the new mount that I installed in the observatory. The frame is then considered the Meade LXD750.
The purchase of this frame is acquired under the advice of my friend James and he immediately piqued my interest.
The reasons that led me to change frame for the observatory are mainly two: firstly, to have a really fixed frame, not to move around more, which I had to do with the EQ6 to make public comments on the evening in second place I needed to go on a frame "heavy "he had a range exceeding the EQ6 so that you can take to better my Newton 250 mm, and then who knows in the future means of 300 mm or larger apochromatic.
We come now to write a review without her going, starting with the packaging that I have noticed that the packaging is masterfully created and is robust enough to protect the wedge from accidental impact.
The frame of its packing extracted
out of the box you'll immediately notice its strength, is massive and wonderfully made with a head weight of about 26/27 kg, removing the cap that covers the polar scope ( optional) will immediately notice the bearing of the axis of AR, which now is a truly enormous feeling of great build quality. Another note about the tripod is supplied with the mount, just a word for it, great. The height is impressive build quality, has a terrific sound and is really the top as rigidity and stability.
I mounted the LXD on a fixed column therefore not use the tripod, but I'm already thinking about a small change to use the EQ6 equatorial head with this fabulous tripod.
Once attached to the frame column appears in all its glory, I made a special attachment plate in order to use the attack Vixen / Losmandy. The LXD
in my possession is the version with Autostar computer 1697 and is operating with a 18V power outlet or network, or with cigarette lighter (optional).
Once on the Autostar seems to be at home, easy, fast and intuitive. We propose to first turn to enter the coordinates of where you are and time, a memory buffer then will remember this information.
For alignment there are several procedures, the easiest and simplest solution is to place the RA axis at 90 degrees and then automatically he will point the North Star and the mechanical movement of the center, once completed this operation, ' Autostar will point to a star of its catalog and we will have centers with electrical movements, even after completing this step, the LXD will be perfectly aligned and the tracking is very precise.
But the real jewel of pointing LXD, which is essential in CCD imaging, is the function of matching.
This function is used to point to objects in a very precise and is Deepsky a star point (usually the principal) and a constellation point indicated once just to make the object you want to goto ritrovarselo perfectly to the center of the eyepiece or CCD.
Another interesting feature is really useful in long-exposure CCD imaging is the smart drive.
This feature significantly improves the tracking error and is to record the mating of the worm gear RA and DEC movement when tracking a star, and then replicate continuously during the shooting.
the field, the frame behaves really well, with all the tubes are always movements very fluid and precise. I tried several times extreme points, from one part of the sky ever noticing a remarkable precision in the focus deep sky objects, and planetary subjects point in the error was minimal.
With the pipe 250 mm Newton I noticed that the damping of vibration occurred in about 2 seconds, a sign of good mechanical construction.
A real treat for a frame in its class is also the presence of two Monopoly manual micrometer for movement.
I also made photo sessions and Hi-Res and deep sky. For the first I could easily make shots with long focal lengths of 180 Mak. Deep sky for the shoot I have to wait, I found incompatibility of a small cable to carry the guider SBIG original file, because the electrical connections are reversed and I have to make a cable for that purpose. I made some shots without cmq guider and trouble shooting I did about 2 / 3 minutes without scoring any stretch of the stars.
A negative note is listed the polar scope, which in my experience is not very precise and difficult collimation, besides this I also noticed a bit 'of backlash in DEC, but the function of specific nell'autostar compensation greatly improves the problem going to disappear completely recorded mechanically mating with the worm gear. Ultimately this
Meade LXD750 is really an excellent frame with electronics truly beautiful and functional, the LX200 protocol always works very well, mechanically very good pair is made with good materials and well designed (indeed it appears as though they are oversized).
Meade LXD750 placed on its tripod
LXD750 Meade in an evening observing
