Hello Michael!

We got our 15" lx200 last May. It had (the same?) pointing problem. We
replaced the new motor assemblies that Meade sent us. We had 10 degree error
on 360 degree slew. Wrong encoders, I suppose! I suggest you to check your
scope by making a 360 degree slew and checking the digital coordinates. You
can use the setting circle on the mount as the reference. That way you can
verify possible encoder problems.

Now we have a much better pointing to about 5 arc mins, not enough but
definetilly better. We may still have some minor polar alignment error, we
are going to check as soon the weather permits. We have noticed that HPP is
worse than normal pointing... very strange. For example HPP (via Vega to
M57) seems to be always 10 arc mins off.

For the mirror slop we got a NGF-S, we havent been able to test yet. The
mirror slop is very bad for this expensive telescope.

Please let me know if I there is something I could do for you.

Hoping you get the telscope to work,

Arto Oksanen
Jyvaskylan Sirius, Finland

--
Arto Oksanen
Internet Consultant, Lotus pCLP

TietoEnator Oyj, PO BOX 236, FIN-40100 Jyväskylä, Finland
Tel. +358-14-3033210, Mobile: +358-40-5659438, Fax: +358-14-3033034


-----Original Message-----
Sent: 16. lokakuuta 1999 1:31
To: MAPUG
Subject: ÄMÅ: LX200 Pointing Problems


I am having major troubles.

I have posted this problem to this list a few times. So far, I have had no
success. But I have to give it another try.

I am trying to get a 16" Lx-200 working properly. It is in polar mode with
the permanent equatorial pier. I have just done a drift align, as per
Ossie's suggestion (not perfect, but the star doesn't drift for about 5 min
or so).

The Main problem is that the pointing is very off. The clock and date are
set properly. I sync on a star, lets say Vega. I slew to a star within
20deg of Vega. The image isn't centered, but is within 10 arcmin. I slew
back to Vega, perfectly centered. I slew to a star about 90 deg. away from
Vega, and its almost 1 deg. off. Slew back to Vega, perfectly centered.

We also have a major mirror flop problem.

The scope was just sent back to Meade to be repaired this summer for this
exact same problem. They replaced the encoders and motors. We got it back
3.5 months later. I found that the homing feature didn't work after we got
it back, and the mirror flop problem didn't even seem like it was addressed.

I have been trying to get a hold of Ossie all day now, and have only been
getting his voice mail (he doesn't seem to check it, because I've left
messages there before with no response).

Normally I wouldn't worry about this, but this telescope has to be used
remotely for a class starting in Jan. 2000. The objects slewed to have to
fall within 11 arcmin by 7 arcmin (FOV of ST-8) nearly all of the time.

We can't afford (time-wise) another shipment back to Meade, since by the
time we get it back, it will either be too cold (-10 F or less) or there
will be too much snow on the ground to install it. We would have to wait
until April (darn North Dakota Weather!!!). The other thing is that I
personally don't trust them, they already screwed something up without
fixing any of the problems.

The questions I have for you very knowledgeable telescope users are:


1. Is there any way I can fix the pointing problem myself?

2. Is there any way for me to fix the Mirror Flop Problem?
(Would getting an NGF-S and putting in the Red Screw to hold the
mrror be a good idea??)

3. Is there any way for me to test for what is wrong with the Homing
function?



I Thank you all for your responses in advance, and apologize for the length
of this post.


Mike Gerszewski
Univ. of North Dakota
Space Studies

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