Ric,

Thanks for sending me a "checklist". Of the items that you mentioned, my
drift alignment is "right on the money". My PEC training is suspect
however.I have tried rocking the fork arms in RA and there is about 5mm of
"play". Do you think it is a loose worm/drive wheel, or a loose locking
mechanism, or has the lubrication worked itself from the gears or a
combination of all three? Meade is asking $200 to fix it and another $200 to
upgrade the drive to today's standards (new EPROM and HPP). As I said my
LX200 was one of the originals and does not have HPP but I'm not certain I
need it because I use TheSKY exclusively for pointing which essentially does
the same thing as HPP by synching on a star when I slew to a different
region of the sky near an object I'm trying to locate. I have heard from
someone that some "older" EPROMS are not compatible with TheSKY. $200
doesn't sound too bad to fix the problem (if they actually CAN fix it!) but
I'm reluctant because I'm not convinced they will and I'm not too thrilled
about being without a scope for weeks maybe months (from my experiences with
Meade). I've followed MAPUG "threads" in the past about which grease to use
and how to go about tightening up the RA drive train but it was some time
ago. I remember you, Doc G, and others discussing this but can't remember
the details. I suppose I could read the MAPUG "archives" or could you be a
good samaritan and tell me how to get into the RA drive train, which screw
to tweak, and what kind of grease to use and any other pertinent info I
should look for? I would be forever grateful (not because I'm cheap, but
because it might get fixed sooner).

Thanks,
Steve Stefanik
-----Original Message-----
Date: Monday, November 16, 1998 22:58
Subject: Re: [M]: 12"LX200 with T-Point


>
>On Sun, 15 Nov 1998 22:00:30 -0500 "Steve Stefanik"
>>Ric,
>>I have been using the ST-7 for almost 7 years. The problem is with the
>>LX-200 mount tracking and pointing. Pointing is about 3 degrees off and
>I
>>can't track longer than 10 to 20 seconds even in "track and
>>accumulate"
>>mode. When I "calibrate" the ST-7 I get a "telescope moved in the wrong
>>direction on the X plus axis" response. The mount has hysterisis
>problems.
>
> You have used the LX-200 for 7 years also ????? The X movement
>represents RA movement ?????
>Sounds to me that you have:
>1) loose or tight RA worm to drive wheel
>2) Lubrication has push itself off the worm/wheel on the RA motor
>assembly
>3) Ra locking mechanism is loose, test this by locking the RA and
>seeing if you can move the fork arms (try it easy).
>4) Mirror flop.........use a mirror lock down
>5) Pointing is easy to take care of by using HPP and eyepiece centering
>object than focus on the alignment star but don't center then it will go
>back exactly to the object if the above problems are fixed.
>6) How good is your drift alignment ????????
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
>Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
>or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
>

View index by [date] [author] [subject]
Previous message: [M]: Meade and MAPUG, Bill Arnett
Next message: Re: [M]: RE: Remotely Operating the LX 200, Len Gordon
Next message in thread: Re: [M]: 12"LX200 with T-Point, Ed Stewart-AstroDesigns
Previous message in thread: Re: [M]: 12"LX200 with T-Point, Ric L Ecker