>Hey John,
>
>Unless you're getting into astrophotography you won't need a wedge.
>Alt-az mounting on the tripod is more stable.
>
>On the other hand, if you do need a wedge, get a good one. The Milburn
>wedge is well spoken of here and it's about the same price as the
>superwedge. I believe someone else makes a quality wedge also, however
>the name escapes me for the moment. ??
>
>Alan
>
>
>>>>I just picked up the 10" LX200 and wonder, is the regular Meade wedge
>(advertised for the 8") compatible with the 10" base? Or do I have to
>drop $400 for the Superwedge instead of "only" $150 for the regular?<<<


I'll echo Alan's sentiments about the Milburn. Having read much on this list
about everybody's favorite wedges, I'll chime in with some of my thoughts that
I have never seen mentioned here.

First of all, when I ordered my 12" last summer, I had also ordered the Meade
Superwedge. A couple of friends and fellow MAPUGgers tipped me off to the
Milburn, and the Mettler. Checking them out, I liked the wide range of
latitude that the Mettler offered, but chose the Deluxe Milburn on the basis
of construction. It also helped that I happened across one in a nice little
telescope shop deep in the heart of Texas while away on company business. I
quickly canceled the superwedge which was an unknown amount of time on
backorder from my dealer.

While waiting the wait time on my Milburn, I became quite proficient with the
LX200 in Alt-Az. For casual viewing - this is a great way to observe and I
recommend it for anybody. However, I am an old time star-hopper, and work on
various AL observing clubs which to varying degrees, indicate a requirement to
find, not goto.

I found that in Alt-Az mode, I did less find, not because of the goto,
but because of the lack of equatorial alignment. I love to check my star
charts, and sweep to an object by drawing imaginary rectangles (in polar
coordinates for the mathematicians) on my chart, and sweeping in R.A. a
certain number of degrees, and then in Dec. a certain number of degrees (along
two sides of that rectangle).

I've now had my Deluxe Milburn wedge a month and a half, and have gotten good
enough with POLAR setup on the LX200 that I get very decent polar alignments
after 5-6 times setup. Last time, at my club's open house for the local
observatory, on the lawn at setup, we had variable cloudiness. I did manage
to find Polaris before it went away, but never saw it in my main eyepiece,
only an finder scope that I hadn't had time to check the alignment on. It did
extremely well for switching back and forth between the three planets and the
Moon.

But I haven't even mentioned the *best* part about the Milburn wedge, which is
its design. I didn't make this connection until after I got it and the second
or third time of setting up POLAR. The user interface of the Milburn wedge is
closely coupled (a software term I borrowed for this occasion) to the
alignment process of the LX200. That is, the manner in which you go about
aligning the LX200 go hand-in-hand with the way the manner in which you adjust
your wedge to center Polaris in the main eyepiece.

I would go so far as to say that learning both techniques (LX200 Polar *and*
Adjustment of my DMW) provided "greater than the sum of the two products"
synthesis.

Also, there has been some recent mention in the Meade Dew Shield thread about
presentation (looks cool!) of the LX200 and its benefits to owners. Well, the
DMW makes a 12" at least 70% more impressive because it allows the OTA to
project outward, rather than straight up. I've had my 12" to several club
open house events before, but the last time with the wedge, had the public as
well as club members doubly impressed. I got more questions that night about
how much it all weighed, than all previous times combined. Many of them women
(for some reason).

One other thing. The first time I set it up, a reflection of myself
approaching from one side nearly caught me off guard. Who was that in my
backyard? <G>

If, as you read this, you are wondering, "Did Ken *give* me a wedge?",
the answer is "No, I paid the full price for it." <G>


Leroy Guatney
12" #126548
N 39 39'/W 103 56'
http://home.rmi.net/~lwlg/SCI/astronomy.html

Proud Owner Page
http://home.rmi.net/~lwlg/SCI/meade-lovers.html

"Astronomy: General" mailing list
http://home.rmi.net/~lwlg/SCI/ag.html
http://www.egroups.com/group/astgen


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