7 April 2008
After waiting for over two months for a Meade LXD75-8"SC to replace the one that was stolen in December 2007, I finally switched my order to a Meade 8" LX90-ACF (Advanced Coma Free) telescope. After waiting less than a week, it arrived today.
The box on the left is the tripod and the large box on the right is the fork-mounted OTA (optical tube assembly). But what is that mystery box on top? Well, you will have to wait for a future report to find out!
First to be unpacked was the LX90 tripod. This tripod is more sturdy than the LXD75 tripod.
I then proceeded to unpack the telescope box:
And here you see the 8" LX90-ACF completely set up:
Here's a close-up of the telescope showing the LNT (Level North Technology) and SmartFinder module (slightly behind the 8x50 finderscope in the photo), the GPS receiver on top of the right fork arm, the 1.25" diagonal and 26mm eyepiece, and the AutoStar mounted on a holder that comes with the LX90. After doing some initial testing indoors I discovered that the AutoStar in the holder would interfere with free OTA movement, especially towards the Zenith. So I removed the AutoStar holder and added velcro to the back of the AutoStar and to the three tripod legs. Much better!
I had a Meade piggyback camera adapter attached to my LXD75-8"SC OTA and had used it successfully with my Nikon D70 DSLR. I had ordered the adapter for the replacement LXD75. With the 8" LX90-ACF, I discovered that my Nikon D70 DSLR would not mount on the adapter due to interference from the screws holding the finderscope. So I made an adapter using components of an older Digital Camera Adapter that I have. It should work well as it allows the D70 to be attached without interference.
Weather permitting, "first light" should be tomorrow night.
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