Hi, Joe --

I don't have exactly what you asked about, but probably one of
the closest combinations: an LX50 7" MAK and Pictor 416. I almost
bought an MX-5C but found a used 416 while I was waiting for it to
come back in stock at Adirondack.

The MAK is probably one of the best scopes around for visual
observation but not necessarily for photography including CCD.
The long 2670 mm focal length magnifies too much to fit the most
magnificent globular clusters onto the small chip, even with an
f6.3 reducer, and doesn't pass enough light for film photography
in case you decided to try a bigger image format. The long FL
also magnifies tracking error and shake. Calculations of image
resolution vs pixel size will say that the magnification of the
MAK is too great for just about every CCD chip on the market
except for planetary shots. For details about pixel size and
magnification, try http://www.skypub.com/ccda/ccda.shtml and go
down to the bottom of the page; the first article, at
http://www.skypub.com/ccda/ccdalib/startout.html , tells about
optimizing your scope/CCD chip combination. BTW I admit, my
combination is far off unless I bin 2X2, which makes it kind of OK.
One of the low-res chips comes out pretty well with the MAK. (The
one used on the ST-6, with 23X27 micron pixels. See
http://www.company7.com/library/sbig/comparetable.html . I don't
know the chip designation; sorry.)

Todd Gross has an MX-5 and loves it; he has some magnificent
shots of Jupiter as well as a bunch of DSOs. In principle it
lacks the resolution of the more expensive units and this will
show up if you print or display large images, but this isn't a
problem otherwise. He posted the URL of a pageful of images; try
http://www.weatherman.com/#astronomy and
http://www.weatherman.com/jupiter.htm . Note that long FL/high
magnification is an advantage when you shoot Jupiter unlike when
you shoot dim/extended DSOs.

You need to decide if you're going to mainly observe, or mainly
image, and if you're going to image, get either the 8" or 10"
f6.3. If you're going to observe, get the MAK and skip the CCD
unit. My plan was to observe for a couple of years with the MAK,
and then move to a bigger SCT after I learned my way around the
sky, but it turned out that the imaging bug bit hard after 'way
less than a year. The same may happen to you.

BTW I live in Massachusetts but I'm in Sydney this week on a
business trip. I brought a pair of binocs and plan to grab a look
at the Magellanic Clouds some night while I'm here, but so far
it's been raining cats and dogs. I'll be in Melbourne on Fri but
still too far from Adelaide to drop by and say hello in person;
then back to the USA on Saturday. Did you catch the comet a few
months back? (I forget the name, but it was only visible south of
the equator; you must know the one I mean.)

Hope this helps. I'm still checking email a couple of times a day
while I travel so you can email me back if you want. If this note
stirs up a hornet's nest, at least I'll see it right away :-)

-- Jon Siegel

At 01:55 AM 8/16/98 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1998 17:08:29 +0930
>Subject: [M]: 7" LX200 Maksutov & Starlight Express MX5-C CCD Camera
>
>Hello,
>
>Greetings from Down-Under!
>
>I am considering the purchase of a Meade 7" LX200 Maksutov and a
>Starlight Express MX5-C single hott colour CCD camera.
>
>I would like the group's feelings about the individual units (i.e.
>telescope and camera) and then if anyone has had any experience with
>this combination, perhaps they might wish to share their findings.
>
>Thanks,
>
>
>Joe Grida
>Past President &
>Project Manager, Stargazer 2000 Project
>Astronomical Society of South Australia, Inc.
>GPO Box 199, Adelaide S.A. 5001, Australia.
>Website: http://www.assa.org.au/
>

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