lx200 14"

[mozzie]

well my new scope turned up a week ago and wow when i opened the box for the first time (there a big sucker).elise replied how in the hell are we going to lift it into the pod.
the weather had come in so it was'nt till sunday we lifted it onto the pier with a little struggle and a squeeze through the door i was finally mounted,and i was a lot happier theres plenty of room in the pod as it slews around and does its thing.i thought i knew a bit about meade scopes and with this autostar 2 hand controller with different buttons doing different things the first night was ordinary but what i did see with acf optics was very pinpoint and clear jupiter was moon drenched but a pleasure to see shadows transiting across it 47 tuc with 26 nag was crystal clear and very chrisp stars to the centre where resolved like id never seen before, i could'nt sleep one morning and seen m42 a couple of hours before sun rise and there was even more detail from 12 to 14" so im happy with the choice and size of scope id bought.
the weather has been shocking lately and again tonight its garbage so no chance of a look but as i get use to using it and some dark nights ill post my viewing.
i was also suprised that the solamax scope also come with it and i didnt have to wait a month or so for it and ive temporary mounted it on top till guide rails turn up, but the days have been fair and the sun in h/a oh my god heaps better the white light.i was watching flares for hours some seemed to spiral and otheres curved wow what a sight and geez i got burnt my poor bold head but worth it.ive taken some photos of the scope mounted in my pod
woo hoo im stoked !!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:
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[h0ughy]

how awesome is that - bewdiful

[Octane]

Wow, Pete!

I've had the pleasure to look at some globular clusters using the 14" LX200 up at the CAS observatory at Mount Stromlo. The amount of detail visible is just insane. I can only imagine how much better it must be through the refined optics of the ACF series of scopes.

I'm not a visual person, but, damn, green with envy! Congratulations. : )

H

[mozzie]

thanks houghy and h
id looked out of 8" acf's at astrofest and was amazed!!! i only do visual and cant wait for the weather to clear and a new moon to put it through its paces
but first impressions are very impressive!!

[strongmanmike]

Man, Pete, awesome looking scope and in that Pod it looks like a super sophisticated kids playground :lol: :thumbsup:

I am suitably jealous

Mike

[h0ughy]

LOL you are so right about that :thumbsup:

[Waxing_Gibbous]

its bigger than my car! Beautiful scope. Can I have it? :D

[RB]

That's awesome Peter, congrats on the new scope.
Looks fantastic in the Pod.

[mozzie]

hahaha!!!!!!
dont know about kids playground more an adults!!!! i struggle keeping the kids out they love astronomy...

[mozzie]

thanks peter and r.b

there was a lot of weekend bricklaying to pay for it!!!!!

just hope we get some good weather!!! just finished another job and the rain just hasnt stopped theres a lot of people here sick of it!!!

[xstream]

Congratulations on your new toy Peter, I'm sure you'll have lots of fun playing with it.

You certainly can't beat aperture! :thumbsup:

[astroron]

WOW Peter what a set up:eyepop: Absalutley Fantastic:thumbsup:
I hope you get many hour enjoyment out of it:D
It looks very professional:thumbsup:
Cheers

[mozzie]

thanks ron
ive bought the night sky 3 volumes and im going to try and get some real faint dso's 14"with acf optics should be good fun!!!

[GrahamL]

Looks great mozzie ,, :)

[DavidTrap]

Sorry if I cost you a lot of money Mozzie - I recall you looking through my 8inch ACF at Astrofest 2009 and being impressed by the view!

Cheers
DT

[mozzie]

thanks david, i'll let elise know it was your fault :lol::lol:
seriously i cant wait for some clear weather and new moon to start running it through its paces
hows your scope going no probs with the optics

[Rev]

Hi Pete, Greg from not too far away at North Haven. You may remember we were both waiting for our PODS at the same time. What a coincidence, I have a 14" ACF swinging around in my playground as well! Mine is equatorially mounted on an offset pier with wedge. I found mirror flop and focus a chore until I added a 10 to 1 focuser. Love the extra photons and resolution of the bigger glass. Globular clusters particularly seem to come alive in the 14". I would be interested in knowing how you get on with cool down time and tube thermals. The weather this year reminds me of the six months I lived in Scotland! Here's hoping for some more clear and steady nights.

[Rick Petrie]

Hi Moz
That looks like an awesome bit of gear there mate. Certainly was worth the wait. Looking forward to checking it out when we see you in Feb.:thumbsup: It's amazing how much more detail you get with the extra aperture.
Is there any room left in there to set up my 14" dob when I visit?;);););)
Cheers

[mozzie]

theres always plenty of room.........are you bringing it up if so we'll have a session one night your brother is only 5 mins from my place..

[mozzie]

well its been another couple of weeks since ive had a look through the scope the weather has been shocking :shrug::shrug::shrug:i suppose its been the same up and down the coast.
seeing last night was prob.. 6.5/10 kind of cloudless but who cares there was some viewing to be done...
unparked scope and straight onto jupiter watched it wooble around for an hour or so right on dusk pod temp around 30 deg have an internal fan so turned it on to move some air and heat.id say a good hour was all it needed for the mirror to cool down also considering the seeing wasnt the best,went into phoenix and chased some d/stars till it darkened and was able to split 1.4" easliy and so see naglers beeing used coma free to the edge was a fantastic sight, this acf system compared to standard sct's was very noticealble and im very happy with the results.still quiet bright and tryed ngc625 11th mag gal and it was easliy visable in the eyepiece not much detail but wow 14" of aperture has made a difference.i'd locked the mirror and used the electric focuser and during small openings of good seeing the view of this gal was clearer and a little brighter.
could see orion rising over the trees so spent a couple of hours on m42 orion neb,ngc2070 tar neb,ngc104 47 tuc, and wow the detail i was getting and the use of some filters for the nebs was mind blowing.:D:D:D
overall didnt know if there was going to be a difference from 12" to 14" aperture and there was alot more brightness and detail and this acf optics gives me a flat coma free view.the scope tracked perfectly all night and ive ordered an illuminated eyepiece to do a smart mount,this will give me better accuracy in tracking of objects.overall very very happy with the scope and setup and cant wait for the clear nights of seeing to come....

also tried the horsehead damn!!!!! still didnt quiet get it a little bright and a little to low in the sky........ next time

[AndrewJ]

Gday Mozzie

Good to see yr having fun with the new beast
however
all night and ive ordered an illuminated eyepiece to do a smart mount,

Not sure if you mean what you said:shrug:

Meade have
"Smart Drive" ( which is really PEC ) and this will assist with tracking.
However, It doesnt work in AltAz ( due to several bugs )
and in Polar, you need to flip the data in the Sth Hemi,
or it plays back mirror imaged.
"Smart Mount" is a TPoint like process that will only assist ( in theory ) the accuracy of gotos. It has no effect on tracking.
It is also broken, so i wouldnt waste time on it.

Andrew

[mozzie]

hi andrew
sorry yes smart drive don was saying to do this to get the accuracy and tracking perfect!!!!
well any suggestions for alt/az mount ive trained drives etc but near zenith im not gotoing perfectly its on the edge of eyepiece.

every time going to jupiter is also on the edge of eyepiece!!!

[Barrykgerdes]

Smart Drive is and I assume Tpoint are programs designed to place inverse errors (corrections) into the software programs to take care of positioning errors due to manufacturing deficiencies, mainly to orthogonality errors. Correcting these at the source is the best procedure.

PEC is also a manufacturing error but this can't be improved by fixing the source unless you can manufacture error free gears. The way to correct this is usually handled with compensation for repeating worm errors but can also be used to compensate for worm wheel errors. AndrewJ is the expert in this area.

Barry

[mozzie]

yes barry,andrew helped me out when parking the lx90 with lnt.

i think he should be working for meade there wouldnt be any bugs in the software!!!!!!

[AndrewJ]

Gday Mozzie


I'll have to call Don "Smart drive" when i next chat:rofl:
However, you will not get it perfect.
For AltAz mountings, ignore Smart Mount and Smart Drive,
you will be wasting your time.
Also, planetary gotos ( incl moon ) can be a ways off as the Meade firmware only uses a simplistic algorithm to calculate the positions.
To properly test goto accuracy, you should only use stars.

When you do get round to going polar and doing PEC, i strongly suggest you use a cheap webcam and guider software, vs spend 24mins looking into an illuminated reticle
( been there, tried that ;) )

Andrew

[mozzie]

thanks andrew theres no real problem with goto's maybe i was trying to get it to perfect!!!!!!! im so wrapped with the scope.don done the latest patches for me to so thanks for all the work meade dont seem to do!!!!:lol::lol:

[Inmykombi]

That looks awesome Mozzie.
Well done mate.

[Rev]

Hi Mozzie, I was wondering whether your new 14" is the reason of all the cloudy weather along the coast? :)

Regards Rev

[Ric]

Congrats on the new scope Pete.

It's an awesome looking beast.

[mozzie]

well i don't no if its my scope!!!!!! but hasn't it been terrible..on the good side it will clear one day..???

[h0ughy]

yes one day it will clear ;)

[Hagar]

Hi Pete, Glad to hear you've got your new beast. Helen and I will be coming back up to the lovely place you live next year in the last week of July through to the last week in August. If you are home we will drop round to have a look through this monster.
Cheers Mate, have fun and don't burn your eyes out on the moon or Omega Centauri.

[Kal]

one day this year though??! :question:

hey mozzie great pics the scope looks right at home there in your pod, but really, this weather your brought is shocking :rofl:

[mozzie]

hi doug
sounds good well have a couple of bbq's and quiet ale's.the weather may have cleared by then!!!!!!!

[mozzie]

thanks andrew
i don't know if it was my scope that brought the weather :shrug:
im a bricky and i'll tell you what its nearly time to find a new trade!!!!!
well all be whinging in 2 years no rain,all dry,plants dieing etc etc hahaha!!!