Kochu's Review of the new Meade LXD75 SN8

[weixing]

Hi,
Why don't you just get a non-GOTO scope, such as a Sky-Watcher 5" MCT?? It has a larger aperture than an ETX-105 and it is cheaper also. It is also as portable as a ETX. IMHO, it is as good as any Meade MCT scope.

By the way, you won't have GOTO... but is that a must??

Have a nice day.

[ariefm71]

hi kochu,

can give us the drawing plan for your half pier and the address of the local shop mentioned? also, how much did they charge you?

cheers,
arief

[kochu]

Hi Arif,
No problem, I will post it tomorow. Sketches are in Office.

Kochu/29-12-04

[rizal]

Thanks a lot kochu! I will wait for a while at least until mid January as advised due to the new announcement by Meade. I think its been a great year for amateur astronomy lately as new interesting scopes/gadgets coming also APO price getting lower- probably just the right time I found this new hobby in astronomy but also make it harder to make up my mind. Argh! But just checked at the Meade website today LPI suite is included in ETX series scopes for free! - have to check with Grandeye about this.

by the way, you won't have GOTO... but is that a must??

2 reasons 1. Family enjoyment 2. Linux

When I first opened my TASCO box recently - the first question my 3 year old son asked me was "Where is the Autostar?" I think I can teach my kids faster in astronomy with GOTO scopes

Also the fact that I am sort of a "gadget freak" guy- I like to integrate most of my stuff/hobby with my Linux box. When I heard that ETX/GOTO works great with computers+Linux too , I said wow! I should have one of these!.
I hope I can save enough for one of these also later!

http://cyanogen.com/products/cloud_main.htm



Thanks all for you comments.

[kochu]

Hi all,

Details of Half Pier attached

Kochu/30-12-04

[ariefm71]

hi kochu,

this is most useful, thanks!
i happen to work near ubi area, how much did aftech quote for the half-pier?

cheers,
arief

[kochu]

Hi Arif,

$$ 33 for Aluminium stock, purchased by me separately and $$ 100 toward machining by AftTech.
Kochu/30-12-04

[VinSnr]

hi kochu,

this is most useful, thanks!
i happen to work near ubi area, how much did aftech quote for the half-pier?

cheers,
arief

arief, you looking for a half pier for the AS-GT mount?

I think you can just swap the mount head to the other side. The tripod look real strong enough not to topple.

My main headche is that the mount can't reach latitude 0. But can still raise one leg to compensate that.

[kingkong]

Hi Rizal,
Why don't you wait till Jan 1 st week 2005when Meade is expected to announce something great. Incidentally no one has any clue what it is going to be.!!!!

any link/ref please?

if you are referring to the:
"In 1992 Meade introduced the LX200, and changed the face of astronomy On January 3, 2005 Meade will do it again" in meade homepage. imho, that's not going to be a 1st scope candidate.
more likely to be a lx200 replacement which just requires you to set it down press a button and it will align itself and you are ready to go, visual or long exposure, as long as you didn't set it upside down. may be even that...

[ariefm71]

arief, you looking for a half pier for the AS-GT mount?

I think you can just swap the mount head to the other side. The tripod look real strong enough not to topple.

My main headche is that the mount can't reach latitude 0. But can still raise one leg to compensate that.

my as-gt didn't come with tripod (bought the head only), thinking of buying hal110 tripod, but will need a half-pier for that.
I managed to do a minor mod to the mount to raise the control panel so it will not hit the base when adjusting to our latitude. Managed to go down to about 2 degrees, should be good enough :-)