Gday Chris
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Doesn't that mean I [often] won't find a target?
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If you get a good align, pretty much all targets should be in the FOV of a 26mm EP. Planets can vary a bit, but would normally be in the EP.
The selection of align stars and accuracy of centring them can have a big effect on accuracy.
One trick if you dont have a Xhair EP is to defocus quite a lot before aligning. The stars will look like big donuts, and it is much easier to centre this than a perfectly focussed star.
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A troubling concern is I could load new firmware but come up against a bug further down the track that misleads or fools me.
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I basically stopped at A1F7 and this works pretty well, and a lot of the bugs have been patched out. Its been tested in the field for several years now, but if you load it, you will still need to select an ETX80 in order to get the right ratios.
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I assume you own an EXT90 Andrew?
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Nope. ETX-125, LS-6" and LX200GPS 10"
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What firmware are you using?
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Depends :-)
I have 2 x 497, 2 x 497EP and 2 x Audiostars.
I never really know what firmware i have loaded as it depends on what i am doing, but for stable work, i load A1F7 with the patches onto the Audiostars.
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Do you have a list of those known "bugs" ?
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I have dozens of lists, as each firmware fixes some and removes others.
If you read the A1F7 patch file via StarPatch, it is broken into "bugfix" and "enhancement" sections. Just read the bugfix bits to see the major ones.
Andrew
PS To be fair, pretty much all mounts in this price class have some sort of bugs etc.
For normal grab and go viewing, they work well for their price, as long as you get the alignment done accurately.
I know of the Meade bugs in detail because i have been working with them for years, but other mounts arent 100% problem free.