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Subject: Re: CCD imaging
From: Robert Fields
Reply To: mapug@shore.net
Date: Fri Dec 30 03:48:18 1994

astrorcf@netcom.com

On Thu, 29 Dec 1994, James Bush wrote:

>
> Will someone tell me that i am wrong?

You are very wrong. Some people are trying to use the Alt-Az set-up for long exposure photography. The Alt-Az mode was not intended for that purpose. Meades ads specifically stated that it would only work for short exposures. Most of what the people here are seeing are tracking errors from unguided exposures - and this is expected.

The LX200 drives in Polar mode work VERY well for long exposure photography. Even the best mounts require some guiding. None of this is unreasonable.

Using the HP pointing mode on *MY* LX200 puts the object dead center every time. I just did some tests on this last night. Quite impressive.

As for the clock, you may be new here. Check the archives, this one has had considerable discussion. Ron (Meade) explained their decisions for choosing the clock chip that they did. They also explained that the local time displayed is not significant to the scopes performance. You could completely remove that display and the scope would still function. At least thats my recollection of the *clock* thread.

>
> also, a word of warning. the lx200, the one i have had in my possession
> for over a year, the clock is notoriously bad. any where from 15 seconds
> to more per day in error. it is absolutely necessary to check the clock
> everyday before start of observing.

As noted above, the clock thread has been hashed over many times. perhaps someone could do a nice summary posting that I could add to the FAQ, the archive and subsequently post as this topic is raised again in the future <grin>.

-Robert