Meade 12" LX200 GPS SCT w/ Televue 85 Refractor
See Photos Below Text
In the last year or two I've really acquired more "stuff"! I am now primarily using a new Meade 12" LX200GPS telescope, and recently acquired a Televue TV-85 refractor. My latest acquisition for imaging is a Canon 20Da digital SLR camera, which replaces my old Olympus OM-1 film cameras on all my imaging outings nowadays. Below are a couple of shots of my "typical" setup using this equipment. I used this setup exactly as shown to take several exposures on 11/13/04 - 11/15/04 that are on this website. Here are a few of the more important specs:
My latest, updated imaging outfit is shown in the First Row photos below and includes these latest additions:- Canon 20Da DSLR camera
- Meade DSI II Pro imager (used for autoguiding)
- Kendrick Digifire-10 dew heater control with 2 temperature-sensing ports
Shown in the Second Row photos below is my complete imaging outfit, circa 2005 when I was still primarily imaging with film:
- Olympus OM-1 camera (I own "only" about 6 of these!)
- Kendrick dew-protection heat strips for the 12" objective, TV-85, and Telrad
- Losmandy rail system for piggyback mounting accessories (in these photos, the TV-85) to the LX200GPS
- Losmandy counterweight rail system (mounted under the LX200GPS tube)
- Milburn Deluxe Wedge (for buttery-smooth adjustments when polar aligning)
- Home-made counterweight systems for balancing the forks in RA, and for added weight to balance the tube itself
- Televue .8 focal reducer for photography using the TV-85
- Taurus Tracker III off-axis guider (used in this setup only as a flip-mirror to take dark frames, but indispensible!)
- ST-4 autoguider
- Meade 12mm Astrometric and 9mm adjustable-reticle guiding eyepieces (for drift alignment and for manual guiding)
- Meade anti-vibration pads (used with rubber pads on the tarp below)
- Heavy-duty 12v power supply (Radio Shack - 10 amp)
- Home-made Lexan plastic eyepiece tray attached to the tripod spreader
- Giant Field Tripod shortened using Peterson Engineering's Shrink Kit and Mounting Assistant II
- LOTS of Velcro (the industrial-strength stuff)
Notice
the fork-mounted counterweights on left fork arm in the Third Row RIGHT photo below. These 1/2-lb weights were "liberated" from 10-lb ankle
weight.
To balance the fork arms, it takes 5 pounds worth of these 1/2-lb
weights. These are rectangular in shape and Velcro works well.
Also notice the pancake weights on the Losmandy counterweight
bar. Besides the "official" Losmandy 2.5-lb weights, there
are also 2 2.5-lb and 1 5-lb pancake weights from the local sporting
goods store, with a strategically-epoxied wheel bearing
that has the exact (1/2") shaft size and a near-perfect shoulder
size. The shaft was epoxied to the shoulder, to keep it from rotating.
Shown in the Third Row LEFT photo is a "fine-tuning" weight capability
with the same 1/2-lb weights from the ankle weight,
used on back of the tube itself, above and
below the diagonal, to tweak
the balance as needed. Velcro holds those weights to the tube.
Shown in the Bottom Row photos:
- Kendrick Observing Tent (a MUST for those week-long outings to
star-parties!) - note zip-open top over the telescope...this is a true portable
observatory with sleeping area
- The astro-mobile itself, a 2002
Honda Odyssey minivan (license plate: STRNOMR)
- And, for use during those long imaging sessions when
everything is working like it should for a change (meaning no intervention is
necessary), it's always helpful to have a good friend (Scott Hanford in this
case) who owns a VERY BIG DOBSONIAN telescope to observe with! In
photo at BOTTOM RIGHT, Scott is posing proudly with his 24" StarMaster.
It's an awesome scope and is not only computerized but has a go-to drive and
tracking as well.
Not shown:
- Taurus MiniTracker
- Taurus HyperCamera
- Lumicon Giant Easy Guider off-axis guider
- Various Harmann mask focusing aids
- Various Olympus lenses, from 28mm to 300mm
- Non-Olympus lenses, including 16mm semi-fisheye and 400mm telephoto
- Canon lenses: 50mm, 18-56mm, 70-200mm (L), and 28-75mm (Sigma)
- Laptop computer with various astronomy software, including:
- TheSky 6
- Skytools 2
- DeepSky
- Starry Night Pro Plus
- Autostar Suite
- Meade LPI (Lunar-Planetary Imager)
- Meade DSI (Deep-Sky Imager)
- Phillips TouCam Pro
- Meade 201XT autoguider
- Peterson Engineering's EZ-Balance and EyeOpener II
- Peterson Engineering's focus knob, focus bearing, and declination clutch lock upgrades
- Buck's Gears upgrade
- Astro-Physics 3.25" visual back and 2" MaxBright diagonal
- Formed Lexan plastic holder for ST-4 autoguider, to mount it to the tripod, parallel to the front tripod leg
