astropolak
19-11-2006, 06:27 PM
What a brilliant telescope... I can not stop singing praises about it.
Bintel once again went over and above what one will expect from any dealer. I was invited to inspect the scope and make sure that I was happy with the unit. Don has prepared a unit for me and after setting things up installed the Bobs Knobs - you know the saying "If it ain't broken - do not fix it" ? Well, we should not have installed the Bobs Knobs. Don suspects that the LX200 knobs may not be entirely suitable for LX200R....
Thought you may like to see my email as sent to Bintel, attached below:
Michael
You wanted to know how I went with the scope. Here are few things I would like to share.
Tripod, I have loosened the bolts and followed your instructions - it works. Tripod in good order but one lock nut thread is NOT there, another does not screw in without being forceful. I am not worried about this as I use the tripod with the legs fully in. Using 3 nuts, one on each leg.
Telescope weight is excessive for easy moving in and out of the house - I will design a soft belt harness to go over my neck to lift the thing more easily.
Microfocuser - useless for visual astronomy but works as advertised. Too noisy and does not have ramped motion (permitting faster movements initially and slower closer to the target. I know this is not in the design spec yet would be useful. I have taken the unit out and use manual focus - at least I can ramp it up as I change eyepieces and OTA balance is not a problem...
Finder - works but I have terrible problems pointing that thing at stars. If things do not improve here I may need a red dot finder (1 x magnification). I suddenly have more appreciation for people using those 8x finders (and without computer !!)
Autostar - very good throughout, very intuitive and much more useful than LX90 controller. Only problem - when you get to auto align as you select different stars for calibration, when you get to the last one and do not like it it will not let you go back to select earlier proposed stars...
OTA - superb optics, collimation almost spot on, resolution way better than 8" LX90, biggest improvement is in flatness of the field. All of my eyepieces are close to perfect now. I have WO UWAN 28mm, 25mm TAL, 22mm Pan, 17mm Nagler, 14mm Pentax XW, 10mm Pentax XW, 8,5mm Pentax XF. Field curvature gone and one eyepiece that actually has some - the TAL 25mm looks superb as well, minus the outer 20% which actually shows nice out of focus ring around stars. This would mean that I was observing in my LX90 not only field curvature but a coma as well as the LX 90 was much worse than LX200R and there star rings were elongated near the edge in LX90.
The images are brighter (obviously as the aperture is larger), the doubles are no longer so closely spaced - I find the resolution one of the biggest improvements. The diffraction rings are concentric and match well ether side of focus (good). The diffraction rings are similar to LX90 (this is a SCT thing, centre obstruction causes much of the light to go to diffraction rings), yet I can tell that there is less light in the diffraction rings in the LX200R..
Very pleased with the optics.
Motor drives, pointing accuracy - superb (once I actually got the auto align completed successfully, after about 3 tries). The motors sound purposeful, the slew rate is high and nicely ramped up for quick positioning, the tracking is perfect. It sounds and feels very solid indeed.
I need to learn the star names now if I am to use this new scope without red dot finder. I am so pleased that finally I have dependable scope to grow with me. (read it - To grow old with).
Big thanks to you and Don for setting things up for me and understanding - much appreciated.
As for Bobs Knobs - hope I will never have to use them again.... its just too risky installing them.
RGDS Joe
Bintel once again went over and above what one will expect from any dealer. I was invited to inspect the scope and make sure that I was happy with the unit. Don has prepared a unit for me and after setting things up installed the Bobs Knobs - you know the saying "If it ain't broken - do not fix it" ? Well, we should not have installed the Bobs Knobs. Don suspects that the LX200 knobs may not be entirely suitable for LX200R....
Thought you may like to see my email as sent to Bintel, attached below:
Michael
You wanted to know how I went with the scope. Here are few things I would like to share.
Tripod, I have loosened the bolts and followed your instructions - it works. Tripod in good order but one lock nut thread is NOT there, another does not screw in without being forceful. I am not worried about this as I use the tripod with the legs fully in. Using 3 nuts, one on each leg.
Telescope weight is excessive for easy moving in and out of the house - I will design a soft belt harness to go over my neck to lift the thing more easily.
Microfocuser - useless for visual astronomy but works as advertised. Too noisy and does not have ramped motion (permitting faster movements initially and slower closer to the target. I know this is not in the design spec yet would be useful. I have taken the unit out and use manual focus - at least I can ramp it up as I change eyepieces and OTA balance is not a problem...
Finder - works but I have terrible problems pointing that thing at stars. If things do not improve here I may need a red dot finder (1 x magnification). I suddenly have more appreciation for people using those 8x finders (and without computer !!)
Autostar - very good throughout, very intuitive and much more useful than LX90 controller. Only problem - when you get to auto align as you select different stars for calibration, when you get to the last one and do not like it it will not let you go back to select earlier proposed stars...
OTA - superb optics, collimation almost spot on, resolution way better than 8" LX90, biggest improvement is in flatness of the field. All of my eyepieces are close to perfect now. I have WO UWAN 28mm, 25mm TAL, 22mm Pan, 17mm Nagler, 14mm Pentax XW, 10mm Pentax XW, 8,5mm Pentax XF. Field curvature gone and one eyepiece that actually has some - the TAL 25mm looks superb as well, minus the outer 20% which actually shows nice out of focus ring around stars. This would mean that I was observing in my LX90 not only field curvature but a coma as well as the LX 90 was much worse than LX200R and there star rings were elongated near the edge in LX90.
The images are brighter (obviously as the aperture is larger), the doubles are no longer so closely spaced - I find the resolution one of the biggest improvements. The diffraction rings are concentric and match well ether side of focus (good). The diffraction rings are similar to LX90 (this is a SCT thing, centre obstruction causes much of the light to go to diffraction rings), yet I can tell that there is less light in the diffraction rings in the LX200R..
Very pleased with the optics.
Motor drives, pointing accuracy - superb (once I actually got the auto align completed successfully, after about 3 tries). The motors sound purposeful, the slew rate is high and nicely ramped up for quick positioning, the tracking is perfect. It sounds and feels very solid indeed.
I need to learn the star names now if I am to use this new scope without red dot finder. I am so pleased that finally I have dependable scope to grow with me. (read it - To grow old with).
Big thanks to you and Don for setting things up for me and understanding - much appreciated.
As for Bobs Knobs - hope I will never have to use them again.... its just too risky installing them.
RGDS Joe