Hello All.
I just received my new 10” LX200GPS and want to share my findings with you. I have owned the scope for 2 days now so I will tell you how the two nights went.
The scope went together easily. I purchased a scope saver tray, which I highly recommend. Per Meade’s recommendations I updated the software to 1.3t. I had two issues: First, one of the plastic screws that hold/adjust the finder scope was missing (Meade has some on the way). Second, there are some minor nicks on the lower part of one fork tine. Some have been touched up with paint and some have not. I will be contacting Meade to see if that can do something for me.
The first night was a complete disaster. I’ll make it this short and sweet. Operator error was the culprit. Failing to train the drives resulted in difficulty aligning the scope and being considerably off on the GOTO accuracy.
The second day I trained the drives @ 277X. Once out under the stars I powered up the scope and let the GPS and the automatic alignment do their thing. After the “Alignment Successful” message it was the moment of truth. I selected M13 and off went the scope. I looked through the eyepiece to find that beautiful cluster of stars centered in the FOV. Next M57, dead center, M92, dead center, M31, well you get the picture. All of the objects were either dead center of just a tad off center. . I spent several hours letting the scope do all the work, and frankly I enjoyed it. Just a note, I used a 35MM & a 18MM E.P for the alignment process. Also, I used the 18MM E.P. for all the GoTo slews.
The optics are astonishing, although, they did require a slight collimation adjustment. At 350X and 500X the inside and outside of focus patterns were virtually identical. Textbook patterns indeed.
Looking at the moon I took the scope up to 500X and was amazed at how sharp the images were. I quickly grew eager to push the scope even further so I added a 2X Barlow. A single crater, Gum, was in the FOV and using the micro focuser I achieve a very sharp, crisp image of the crater at 1000X! I am not sure if this is typical, but I believe the enormous amount of light coming from the moon makes this possible. I would like to hear from other users if they achieved similar results.
In general, the scope performs like a champ! I am very impressed with the accuracy of the scope, but even more so with the optical quality. I found reading the user groups messages extremely valuable. This is where I found most of the information to make the second night a success. For the new LX200 owners, take your time to read the manual and ask for some help!
In a nutshell… two thumbs up!
Joe.
I just received my new 10” LX200GPS and want to share my findings with you. I have owned the scope for 2 days now so I will tell you how the two nights went.
The scope went together easily. I purchased a scope saver tray, which I highly recommend. Per Meade’s recommendations I updated the software to 1.3t. I had two issues: First, one of the plastic screws that hold/adjust the finder scope was missing (Meade has some on the way). Second, there are some minor nicks on the lower part of one fork tine. Some have been touched up with paint and some have not. I will be contacting Meade to see if that can do something for me.
The first night was a complete disaster. I’ll make it this short and sweet. Operator error was the culprit. Failing to train the drives resulted in difficulty aligning the scope and being considerably off on the GOTO accuracy.
The second day I trained the drives @ 277X. Once out under the stars I powered up the scope and let the GPS and the automatic alignment do their thing. After the “Alignment Successful” message it was the moment of truth. I selected M13 and off went the scope. I looked through the eyepiece to find that beautiful cluster of stars centered in the FOV. Next M57, dead center, M92, dead center, M31, well you get the picture. All of the objects were either dead center of just a tad off center. . I spent several hours letting the scope do all the work, and frankly I enjoyed it. Just a note, I used a 35MM & a 18MM E.P for the alignment process. Also, I used the 18MM E.P. for all the GoTo slews.
The optics are astonishing, although, they did require a slight collimation adjustment. At 350X and 500X the inside and outside of focus patterns were virtually identical. Textbook patterns indeed.
Looking at the moon I took the scope up to 500X and was amazed at how sharp the images were. I quickly grew eager to push the scope even further so I added a 2X Barlow. A single crater, Gum, was in the FOV and using the micro focuser I achieve a very sharp, crisp image of the crater at 1000X! I am not sure if this is typical, but I believe the enormous amount of light coming from the moon makes this possible. I would like to hear from other users if they achieved similar results.
In general, the scope performs like a champ! I am very impressed with the accuracy of the scope, but even more so with the optical quality. I found reading the user groups messages extremely valuable. This is where I found most of the information to make the second night a success. For the new LX200 owners, take your time to read the manual and ask for some help!
In a nutshell… two thumbs up!
Joe.
