with the australian $$ the way it is, I was thinking about bringing over a 10" meade sct UHTC OTA. How good are these, and how well would it work on my eq5pro mount ??? The cost of the OTA landed would be a bit under $1000 AU. Seems to be some for sale in the USA with dead LX mounts ( does this mean Meade are hard to get parts for when it comes to mounts, eg "sorry, we don't sell a motor, just a whole mount".
How good are the OTA's ?
How easy is it to get smaller parts for the mounts ?
Would this OTA work ok on my eq5pro ?
This would add to my collection of meade etx-ls6" & sky watcher 8" SCT.
Would be a wee bit heavy for the EQ5Pro mate. The 10" goes okay on the EQ6 mount. They are a heavy OTA. Not sure why people are not getting the mounts fixed as they are pretty good for visual stuff. There are plenty of spares out there and I have seen a few mounts only for sale on astromart. Many folks defork the tube and use them for AP. I only have the ACF version so not sure how good the plain old SCT was.
The 10" Lx model is a very nice OTA (I used one for a few years) -some mirror slop but easily fixed with the spring/ screw mod.
Yes, the older Meade LX Classic is getting more and more difficult to support. The Y!group LX200 does a great job and there are many people who can assist in repairs etc. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LX200/?yguid=322612425
Unfortunately it doesn't work on a HEQ5pro...the OTA weighs in at 14.7Kg; far too much for the HEQ5 - I had mine re-mounted onto a NEQ6pro.
ken
thanks for the info, looks like I'm on the right track to a poor mans 10" SCT setup.
I actually have the Heq5pro, not eq5pro, BUT the 10" meade leaves little margin for weight at 14kg. I wouldn't rule out selling the HEQ5pro and getting a EQ6pro ..... then for under $2000 all up including the mount swap, and end up with a 10" meade, and eq6pro doesn't seem bad ?
How hard (and $) is it to mount the 10" onto a dovetail.
I just want to put an end to these constant upgrades (voices, voices, how do I stop these voices in my head saying upgrade)
Hi
The old LX200 10" OTA is quite a useful visual observing tube but don't expect it to be great for photography (except planetary) on a light duty mount.
You could probably pick one up in Australia for that amount with a U/S set of forks. Getting one from the US could be a bit iffy. There are many around now with unrepairable electronics. I have been repairing the electronics for years now but some parts are no longer available and I have run out of boards that have the necessary parts. These days when I get one for repair I always suggest they would be better off salvaging the OTA and putting it on an EQ6 at least
If you have serious photography in mind you would be far better off with an ED80 or similar and guiding gear fitted to your HEQ5 mount.
As for mounting the OTA on a GEM. If you are mechanically minded and have the tools it is quite easy. If not it could be quite a job to get a stable attachment of the OTA to the mount.
I have a 10" Meade ota. The heq5 pro will NOT support the ota an eq6 will do it (with just a bit over for guidescope). Get a good 8" and the eq5 will be great.
