LX200 wind wobbles

[Polmear (Tim)]

After looking through the messages here it seems a few people have experienced difficulties with Meade's LX200 when there's a faint breeze. I live in a place where we get the Albany Doctor and while it's great for a cool night's sleep, it spells death to any observing or (especially) photographic session.

The fork-mounted LX200 wobbles all over the place in the wind. So...is there anything that can be done about it. Is it possible to ameliorate the effect of wind, short of waiting for and utterly still night?

[marki]

Yes, defork the tube and put it on a solid EQ mount or buy a good quality field derotator and mount it Alt/Az. I have tried many mods with little success and short of welding up my own mount frame out of 20mm ali I dont think there are any other reasonable solutions, they just flex too much. I have found shields and shelters from the wind to be of little value, others may have a different story .


Mark

[PeterM]

My LX200R is in my observatory so is somewhat protected. The scope is fitted with an Astrozap flexi dew shield that in breezes of more than 5kmh have a detrimental effect on 30 second images. So if you are using a dew shield particularly a flexi one take it off and try a dew band. Protecting the scope (and user) from wind/breezes has long been desirable with any scope. Portable wind shelters can work well as can using your vehicle as a shield. If at home drive some 40mm plumbing pipe into the ground then use a tarp strung between 2 star pickets to protect from the direction that most troubles you. Or put another 2 in and move as required. Remove tarp and starpickets and pipe left in ground is ready for next nights observing. To have an LX200 wobble all over the place means there must be some serious wind and not just faint breezes.
PeterM.

[Poita (Peter)]

You could dampen it, but really, ditch the fork and get a solid EQ mount, forks on wedges are a wobbly proposition and positively hair-pulling for photographic work.

[rogerg (Roger)]

With my LX200 classic I didn't have significant problems up to about 20km/hr.

The weak points which introduced vibrations were:
- the wedge
- the dew shield
- the pier until I filled it with sand

If it was ever going to be slightly breezy I would leave the dew shield off and just leave the dew heater on if required. For my location if there was wind there would not normally be dew.

The wedge I strengthened bit by bit over the years, adding more support/structure to it. But overall I lived with the fact having it on a wedge made it more shaky. I intended to replace the Meade wedge with a solid welded one, but never got that organised.

Roger.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by Poita

You could dampen it, but really, ditch the fork and get a solid EQ mount, forks on wedges are a wobbly proposition and positively hair-pulling for photographic work.

As a general statement I disagree, there's pros and cons, I had great success with my fork mount, I'm sure it comes down to individual circumstances. I know several people who have EQ6's with 10" OTA's and every one of them always has problems in the slightest breeze.

[Polmear (Tim)]

Originally Posted by marki

Yes, defork the tube and put it on a solid EQ mount or buy a good quality field derotator and mount it Alt/Az
Mark

Have you seen the prices on those EQ mounts?? Maybe I will think about the field derotator, as the scope does seem more stable without the wedge. But I don't plan to rush into anything just yet.

[Poita (Peter)]

Originally Posted by rogerg

As a general statement I disagree, there's pros and cons, I had great success with my fork mount, I'm sure it comes down to individual circumstances. I know several people who have EQ6's with 10" OTA's and every one of them always has problems in the slightest breeze.

I have no problems with the breeze with a 10" LX200R on an EQ6, but I imagine with a Newt it would be more problematic.
The wedge is really the weak point in most cases, but to do any serious photography at that focal length I think a GE mount is the only way to go.

[jamiep (Jamie)]

Those big meades are a big sail area on a good day - even good mounts/wedges etc are going to struggle with a gusting wind... any way of shielding it from the wind?