Posts Made By: Ted VanSickle

Hello folks, I seem to remember a person about 2 years ago advertising an LX200 shroud. Is he still around?

Ted

Take the computer to Radio Shack. They have just about any power adaptor that you could want. If I were trying to set up power for a field installation, I would plan to use 12 volt auto voltage and RS has an adjustable dc-dc converter that will provide you any output voltage from 9 to 24 volts and the output can have almost any of the popular output connectors.

Ted

Astronomy might be considered an expensive hobby, BUT I have friends who spend as much each summer on golf as I have spent equiping a HomeDome observatory with an LX 200 classic 12" with many of the desirable accessories. My "investment" in a hobby will last for years and the major expense will not have to be repeated annually. Also, have you ever thought about skying?

Our hobby is a bargin considering the long term benefits we can get for every penny spent.
Ted

Ryan, I do not have a lot of experience in ccd photography, but I do have much computer experience. Computers are very inexpensive now. I always buy computers from Best Buys or Circuit City, and I get one that has been outdated by a new model. Usually, these go for about one-half the original price. They also are missing things like disks and perhaps power supplies. Make certain that they sell you something that works though.
Get memory. I try to keep 256 Mbytes RAM and you might as well get 20 to 40 Gbytes of disk space. RAM memory is cheap and disk space is a bargain. The RAM will let your system run faster.
Make certain that you get the latest USB port. Many devices work though USB. In my observatory, I have a laptop at the boundary of the building with a buried conduit in the cement floor. I run one USB line from the laptop through the conduit to a 4 port USB hub on the telescope pier. From there, I can run my camera directly, and also, I have a USB to RS232 adaptor to run the telescope. It works fine. This computer is connected into an ethernet network in my house. I use VNC by AT&T as a client server system to allow my inside computer to control the laptop through the network. I also have cable internet access through the ethernet router/hub in the house. That way, I can run my telescope and the camera from my study and any computer on the network, including the one in the dome can access the internet. I have had no trouble with the computer set-up. I wish that I could say that I am able to take great pictures with the system. Maybe someday.
Ted

Jay, I don't use setting circles, but I do use a goto scope. I would think that the setting circles would work the same way. The coordinates that we use in the sky are RA measured in HRS/MTS/SEC and declination measured in degrees,etc. Zero hours is at a location in Pisces. Zero degrees DEC will point you to a projection of the Earth's equator and 90 degrees DEC points you at the pole. Perhaps you should set the pole at 90 degrees rather than 0.
Ted

Thanks people, I had not thought to try a drug store. I tried to find silica gel at all of the major hardware stores, WallMart, Sams, Staples, etc. to no avail. I'll canvas a couple of drug stores tomorrow.
Ted

I use clearskyclock.com and I can get a look at two days of sky conditions everytime I log on.
Ted

David, Look for Ed Stewart's page on MAPUG.com. You also should look through the MAPUG archives for different mounts.
Ted

Mike, a couple of questions. What do you mean by not centered? Is the target in the field of view with a 26mm eyepiece? Where are you located? EST is an offset of +5 and CST is +6, etc. You will find a description of these numbers on pages 10 and 11 of the LX200 manual.

I suspect that things are working fairly well if your target comes up in the field of view even though it is not dead center. I keep my 12" LX200 on a permenant pier and before I shut the telescope off, I align it to the LST with a DEC of 0. When I bring it up later, it is close enough in alignment that my first goto places the target within about 4 or 5 minutes of center in a 13.7 UWA eyepiece. I correct this error and resync, and than I expect to find every target within the FOV of that eyepiece--about 30 minutes --for the rest of the night. I ocasionally tweek the polar alignment a little which makes everything better. It takes some time to get everything aligned perfectly.
Ted

Mike, I have a hunch that your are mixed up on your times. I would pay no attention to sidereal time when you are setting up. The sidereal time is not tightly related to the time-of-day in Pa or London for that matter. The sidereal time is the Right Assention of the zenith meridian at your location. Don't expect to find the ST to be related to your local time. The sidereal time changes about 4 minutes per day relative to the local clock. Set the time offset to 4 hours, the Longitude and Latitude to the correct values, and I am certain that everything will work out, especially if you are using GPS.

Ted