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Subject: Re: lx-200
From: Pgoelz@aol.com
Reply To: mapug@shore.net
Date: Fri Jul 28 03:41:56 1995

In a message dated 95-07-28 05:29:52 EDT, you write:

>What's wrong with moving the scope with the keypad? It's not as
>intuitive as grabbing the OTA and swinging it around, but I don't
>have any trouble using a Telrad and the keypad buttons.

I dunno. There is something satisfying about grabbing the thing and moving it rather than waiting for it to slew. Might not be such an issue if there was a real joy stick with continuously variable slew rates in proportion to the joy stick deflection.

The Ultima2000 was appealing in that you were supposed to be able to move manually at any time without undoing locks or the like.

But, my guess is that it was a fancier version of the same software used in the Advanced Astro Master and the like. My one experience with the AAM was very dissapointing, with pointing accuracy so poor that the object was not always in the FOV of a 26mm eyepiece, and occasionally off by a degree or more.

Contrast that with the LX200, which rarely misses placing the object in the FOV of anything longer than 10mm. And, I have noticed that when it does miss, it may be due to a data base error, since it appears to miss by the same amount on subsequent nights??

Paul