Wedge mounted LX200

[mick pinner]

l've finished the wedge and mounted the scope so waiting for some clesr skies to do a drift alignment and then some long exposure photography.

[RB]

A beautiful setup indeed Mick, Congrats.

:eyepop:

[AndrewJ]

Gday Mick

Looks like a nice little view you have there.
( Better than security lights at least )
Just looking at the photos, and knowing yr near Melb,
i just want to clarify the angle you have the wedge set to.
It may be an optical illusion, but it looks set too high to me.
Melb is roughly 37deg Sth, so the latitude plate needs to be approx 53deg relative to horizontal.
Yours "looks" the other way round, ie 37deg relative to horizontal.

Andrew J

[mick pinner]

so are you saying that the angle in relation to the top pier plate needs to be 37 or 53 degrees?

[AndrewJ]

Gday Mick

The moving wedge plate needs to be initially set approx 53deg relative to the pier top plate.

The pole ( from Melb ) is at an altitude of approx 37deg,
and your forks ( ie RA axis ) need to point at the pole.
As such, when on the wedge, the "forks" need to be at 37deg relative to horizontal. The bottom of the scope ( that bolts to the wedge plate )
is essentially 90deg different.
Thus the wedge plate needs to be at 90-37 = 53deg.

Andrew

[mick pinner]

thank you Andrew, l did raise this point before and got conflicting answers, yours makes sense, l did a drift alignment last night although exactly where the star in the eastern horizon needs to be l'm still not exactly sure of,
is it about 20 degrees above the horizon with the declination settings on zero? l took a couple of photos in the Carina area and am still getting field rotation so something is still not right.

[rogerg]

Mick, that's a very nice setup you've got there - you must be very happy and proud. Nice LX, nice WO scope and good weight.

Which brings me to my question - what brand are the weights? I'm always looking for options in this respect, I would still like to balance my WO Megrez on my LX but haven't got the right weights to do it.

Wedge angle - I got this wrong when I first attempted. Except that in my case I had my local engineer weld a solid wedge for me - at the wrong angle (35 degrees to the horizontal not vertical). I now have a sold steel wedge that isn't even useful as a door stop - too heavy to move! Ahh, I learned quickly from that one. :)

Roger.

[mick pinner]

hi Roger, thanks for the comment, l made the weight set up myself l make a few things for LX200's rigid dew shields etc.

[GrampianStars]

G'day Mick
the angle of the Lat. plate is identical to the angle of your latitude absolute for me it's 37° 11' 32.5"
from the picture yours looks OK :thumbsup:
get a GPS reading and set it at the same Latitude reading

how is the balance with just the centre support and all the weight over 1 point ?

I noticed that the 3rd picture looks wrong ? i cant see the set-up properly though.
the LX 200 panel faces south. the forks point south with tube parallel to the forks the finder on bottom
Mick your set up looks !

[mick pinner]

hi Robert, there seems to be a lot of differing opinions on the setup Beren sent me a picture of his on the wedge and his finder is underneath, if the high point of the wedge is facing north then with the scope mounted the control panel is facing south but for the finder to be on top then the ra lock would be facing up and not aligning to the zero mark on the ra indicator.
is not the angle of the wedge taken from the vertical and not added to the horizontal?

[GrampianStars]

Yep the 3rd picture is right for the LX200GPS
i've a classic with no stops so I have the finder on top

the angle looks about right in pic 2 just set it exact for your location :thumbsup: then drift align should take about 1/2 hour on your first go
I use a 9mm reticle and align the crosshairs with the RA of the scope
also add a 2x barlow it works pretty quick from there ;)

[mick pinner]

mine is also a classic so do you have the ra lock on top and also when you do a drift alignment on a star in the east do you set the dec to zero degrees and just rotate in ra?

[GrampianStars]

your pic 1 is the same setup I use for drift align (RA lock on bottom)
I first point to a star 10deg North of the ecliptic on the meridian
and adjust the Latitude plate to (37° 11' 32.5")
then i point to a star East 30deg high just 10deg off the ecliptic and adjust the Asimuth
(east/west) :thumbsup:
I've got a Argo Navis hooked to mine so don't use the circles

[mick pinner]

in pic 3 the scope is pointing south although the wedge angle is wrong it is now 38 degrees from the vertical not horizontal ( do you agree this is right ), is this pic right with the finder underneath? or should it be on top with the ra lock?

[GrampianStars]

I have the RA Lock on top pointing to the pole

[mick pinner]

thanks Robert, appreciate it.

[rogerg]

I'm a little confused by the directions being given... and I figure you guy's have got it sorted, but just to throw in another example of one set up, here's my LX200 classic in "parked" position.

http://www.rogergroom.com/rogergroom/productImages/000378.jpg

Roger.

[GrampianStars]

very nice set-up there "rorerg" :thumbsup:

[beren]

If you have the RA lock on top id be worried about the scope knowing its positon before it hits the hardstops.:shrug: