n00b first post

[night-vision]

Hello all,

Been lurking for a while and since i have my first scope on the way (LX90) what better time for my first thread.

I'm a absolute beginner at astronomy and cant wait to point the LX90 skywards for the first time when it arrives next week :D . So far I have installed Stellarium (with server) and Orbitron onto my laptop just to get a feel for the night sky, is their any other software you guys n' gals would recommend? . At the moment I just plan to familiarise myself with the scope and sky and maybe down the track attach my DSLR for some shots of the moon ect.

The LX90 is second hand and unfortunately doesn't come with any software as previous owner seems to have misplaced/lost the cd's for it. I managed to find the client software on Meade's site but was wondering if this is all the software that came packaged when the scope was new? and if not could somebody please recommend where to find it?

I'm sure I will have 1001 questions as my knowledge progresses so I had better apologise now for all the n00b questions coming your way in the future. Thanks In Advance

night-vision

[Dennis]

Welcome to IIS and I hope you have a blast with the “soon-to-arrive” LX90. I’m not sure if I would be as brave as you in announcing its arrival, as it is a well known fact that the receipt, not necessarily the purchase of, any new equipment can bring nights of cloudy skies! :lol::lol:;)

Is it an 8" or 10" 'scope? I've never owned or operated a Meade 'scope so cannot provide any advice on the topics you enquired about, but I'm sure someone will pipe up soon.

Cheers

Dennis

[night-vision]

Hi Dennis thanks for the welcome, the LX90 is the nonGPS 8" model, I hope I haven't jinxed some clear skys for next week :whistle: :lol:

night-vision

[citivolus]

Cartes du Ciel (http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/) is a good (free) place to start. It can also control your scope over a serial interface.

You aren't missing much as far as software goes from Meade. You can download the Autostar update tools, which will be more current than anything that shipped with the scope.

[iceman]

Hi there and :welcome: to IceInSpace!

LX90's are a great first scope, you'll love it. Keep asking questions!

[acropolite]

The LX90 is a great scope, you really won't need any software initially unless you want to control the beastie from a PC, even then programs like Starry Night will have the necessary drivers inbuilt. Make sure you set your latitude and longitude in to the hand controller and that the time and offset from UTC are correct. If the LX comes with LNT be aware that the proximity of any nearby metallic objects will affect the accuracy. I generally disregard the auto align and instead manually level and point north and use 2 star alignment and hand pick my alignment stars. Just yell for help if you have any problems.

[night-vision]

Thanks for all the replies,

citivoius, thanks I'll check it out.

acropolite, Thanks for the heads up with the manual level and two star align. Curious the metallic objects affecting accuracy, which type of structures will cause this?

Cheers

[acropolite]

Steel railings, a car nearby, metal roofing etc, I gave up on auto align once I realised that 2 star gave more accurate results.

[astro_nutt]

And another big welcome to you night-vision!!..and congrats on your new scope!!!..lucky devil!!
Cheers!!

[night-vision]

Ok cool, I thought I'd better ask as the scope comes with a cigarette lighter lead for alternate power source and did wonder if by structure this entailed a vehicle also.

[night-vision]

Thanks astro_nutt, my legs are getting sore from checking the mail box every 10 minutes ;)