[Rohan]

Well 2 weeks on and 3 viewing nights under the arm thought i might make a quick post about my thoughts on the LX90.

In terms of viewing last night was supurb, clear skys, no wind at all, light pollution a problem but what can ya do.

Anyway to be honest i'm not very happy with my scope. So far it hasn't impressed me much. My main concern has been the GOTO. The first night it was fine, second night it stuffed up a lot and i had to realign it twice before getting feed up. Last night it took 5 attempts to get a succesful alignment. I checked everything, date, time, location, comfirmed the stars on my computer and it still failed. When it slewed to the alignment stars it wasn't even close to them, often 45+ degrees off. The first night it stopped right on them.

So obviously when i did get it succesfully aligned went for a spin around the universe. Saturn, not in eyepiece, had to aling with the finder. Jupitier, just in the eye peice but still abit dodgy. Then went off hunting galaxies, nebs and so on. Everytime what ever it slewed to looked nothnig like what i was expected. Eventually i just wizzed around looking for something interesting. Came across a bright yellow star and was wondering what it was, used the identify option and autostar came up with the jewal box. Funnily enuf i was no where near the jewal box. Checked the dec and RA locks and they were firm on and the scope had not moved at all.

Told it to GOTO Omega C. and was off again, finally tried Jupiter so i could defianatly check it was off. Got the rough location but still didn't make my finderscope. By then i had had enuf so packed up and went inside.

Unfortunatly the setup of my house & backyard prevent me from been able to focus on anything far away (land objects) so i havn't had a chance to train the drives. Anyone think that will help. I guess i have taken the wrong approach to astronomy by getting a GOTO, if the scope points at something i don't always know if its miles off or i just can't see anything because a) scope to small or b) city lights.

Or maybe i just expected way to much for an 8". So far i'm worried that i may have just spent $3500 on a large paper weight. Will try get out to a dark site in the next few weeks to re-ignite my interest.