Posts Made By: Joe Lalumia

I just purchased a rolling lockable plastic box with a handle from Northern Tool, for $69. The Meade factory foam for my 8" LX90 fit inside the box almost perfect leaving a few inches for other items.

For a time I used heavy duty black poster board with velcro glued on, rolled into a tube as a dewshield.

I mounted my Telrad dead center on the tube on my LX90.......works fine.....left the finder scope as it came from Meade..... off to the right side of the tube. The LNT module takes up the left side of my LX90.

and there is a "self centering" accessory you can buy to make the scope JUMP RIGHT ON the tripod! Ha. here is a link to one of several centering plates:
http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=7091

Hope this helps you.

Robert, thanks, I downloaded Astroplanner and will give it a try. Thank you.

They are tough to see........I have an 8" LX90 with dead-on gotos, so I know for sure they are inside the eyepiece! I have only been able to see a "hint" using averted vision.........from my "dark sky" HA! site in the driveway on a busy street! You need dark skies for those types of DSOs.

GARLIC!...........eat lots of garlic everyday for 4 days BEFORE the observing session.

Only "Italian" mosquitoes will bit you.

Joe Lalumia

I have an Astro-Tech 1.25 dielectric, and a Williams Optics 2" dielectric----- both are outstanding and much superior to a stock diagonal. Well worth the cost....... although the Astro-Tech was very reasonably priced.

Ivan is 100% correct.

Are you just going to do visual observing? If so then the fork mount is easier setup, and better eyepiece placement for visual observing.

The GEM is better for photography.