These telescope are fairly low-maintenance items, apart from infrequent
lubrication of the pivots and worm gears, and maybe cleaning the optics,
there's not a lot to maintain. Plastic gear train? - if you mean the
reduction gearbox(s) then providing the tooth loads remain within spec,
they'll last indefinitely. Use the scope markedly out of balance and it
might be another story.

Temperature changes are unlikely to affect the LX200 - far more likely they
will affect the observer!

The electronics are more problematic, and if a hardware failure is going to
occur somewhere then this is most likely the culprit. There's a lot of
switches, discrete electronic components and cable connections which can
fail in service. There's no way of predicting this, or protecting your scope
against it, random component failure is going to occur though thankfully
quite rarely.

The other main area of concern is humidity, and there are steps you can take
to protect your scope. All cable connections and mechanical switches can be
treated with an electrical contact-cleaner/water-dispersant (I wouldn't
recommend WD40, use a specific product for the job). Don't go mad with the
stuff, you just want to protect the contacts from oxidising. You can also
ensure your scope's optics are protected from moisture which might damage
the coatings (just ventillate well, or use desiccant inside the OTA).

Chris Heapy


> ----------
> Sent: 15 June 1999 13:50
> Subject: [M]: LX200: Longevity of
>
>
> Debating the purchase of an LX200-10" (permanent observatory
> setting)and I was curious as to how they hold up over time. My schedule
> is such that weather permitting, I could easily use the instrument up
> to 50hrs/month.
>
> How does the plastic gear train hold up?
> What about maintenance?
>
> With cyclic thermal stresses from being placed in an amateur
> observatory, I would expect them to have an effect on the mechanics
> sooner or later.
>
> What about max and min ambient temp that the instrument can be
> subjected to?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________
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>

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