Meade LS-8 ACF
Meade LS-8 ACF
See below
Last edited by dcastro on Fri Nov 26, 2010 12:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
First light
I finally took the plunge after 6 months of vacillating. Have been wanting to get back into astronomy after 20 years away. At the time I used a 6 inch Newtonian at my school. Taking into account many factors (not much free time, young children, limited viewing opportunities) I decided to bite the bullet and buy the Meade LightSwitch 8 ACF.
It arrived this week (which explains the heavy rain and overcast skies for the last 3 nights). It came in two boxes and was nicely packaged and very well protected. It comes with a 1.25 inch adaptor, diagonal and 26 mm eyepiece. I also got the Meade 4000 series eyepieces as I dont' think my kids would have the patience to wait for me to build up a collection.
Setting up is no trouble. The tripod is light but stable and the spreader is easy to attach. Because my kids would look through it I left the legs short, which is bad for the back but lets them get a look. The tripod head has a nice 'mercedes' shaped guide on top to orientate the base of the telescope assembly and three nuts to hold it steady and secure. Attaching the eyepieces and controller were straightforward.
I took it outside the house for a test and of course it was cloudy. Turning on was scary as the first message was 'Firmware read error, reload firmware' while the audio introduction plays but if I wait a while the second line is replaced by 'Media exits A/V'. Pressing this takes me to the Time and location setup screen. It tried to acquire GPS
but failed and I had to enter the location and time manually. Fortunately the skies cleared later in the evening and I tried again. There has been a lot of bad press online with quality control in Meade, especially with the earlier versions, and the GPS not working. Fortunately the second time the GPS took off right away despite being set up on my back porch between 3 (very close) houses. It was able to lock on to the satellites despite only having a narrow T-shaped strip of sky and located its alignment stars rapidly. I tried to bypass some stars thinking it would not see them as they were not visible to the naked eye and managed to freeze the program. Eventually when I left it alone it was able to spot and aligh to those stars just fine with the built in CCD camera.Views were only good for planetary observation that night and we got a good look at Jupiter and its moons. First time for my son- which was exciting for both of us. Not much opportunity since but I am taking it over to a relative's house soon and will try to hook up a TV so the video presentation will run as well. I ran this indoors off my TV and it is quite a draw for the kids. Can't wait
It arrived this week (which explains the heavy rain and overcast skies for the last 3 nights). It came in two boxes and was nicely packaged and very well protected. It comes with a 1.25 inch adaptor, diagonal and 26 mm eyepiece. I also got the Meade 4000 series eyepieces as I dont' think my kids would have the patience to wait for me to build up a collection.
Setting up is no trouble. The tripod is light but stable and the spreader is easy to attach. Because my kids would look through it I left the legs short, which is bad for the back but lets them get a look. The tripod head has a nice 'mercedes' shaped guide on top to orientate the base of the telescope assembly and three nuts to hold it steady and secure. Attaching the eyepieces and controller were straightforward.
I took it outside the house for a test and of course it was cloudy. Turning on was scary as the first message was 'Firmware read error, reload firmware' while the audio introduction plays but if I wait a while the second line is replaced by 'Media exits A/V'. Pressing this takes me to the Time and location setup screen. It tried to acquire GPS
but failed and I had to enter the location and time manually. Fortunately the skies cleared later in the evening and I tried again. There has been a lot of bad press online with quality control in Meade, especially with the earlier versions, and the GPS not working. Fortunately the second time the GPS took off right away despite being set up on my back porch between 3 (very close) houses. It was able to lock on to the satellites despite only having a narrow T-shaped strip of sky and located its alignment stars rapidly. I tried to bypass some stars thinking it would not see them as they were not visible to the naked eye and managed to freeze the program. Eventually when I left it alone it was able to spot and aligh to those stars just fine with the built in CCD camera.Views were only good for planetary observation that night and we got a good look at Jupiter and its moons. First time for my son- which was exciting for both of us. Not much opportunity since but I am taking it over to a relative's house soon and will try to hook up a TV so the video presentation will run as well. I ran this indoors off my TV and it is quite a draw for the kids. Can't wait
Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to seeing your scope in future star parties. 
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
Photos from LS 8
It has been a VERY cloudy month and rainy to boot.
I finally got better viewing conditions tonight - just did it in my backyard as clouds have a tendency to sweep in if I wait too long.
The GPS and alignment still work fine, though because my field of view is so restricted I ended up having to move the scope a few times to see different objects - that means realigning again. By the third time I did not bother with GPS but set the location manually, which works fine. Once aligned I got nice views of the Moon in first quarter, with a nice short commentary. Also of Jupiter and M42. I tried out the adaptor for my Canon EOS for the first time and it worked fine (although it comes shipped with a cover inside the bore - no wonder I couldn't see anything to start with). I found it easiest to bring the view up on the EOS back screen and focus using that image - less shaky and larger image.
I experimented with settings and found that program mode is fine for the Moon. Jupiter is not very large and I will have to play around with the Barlow next time to see what I can do about it. M42 was surprisingly clear tonight and came out well on B setting using a remote shutter cable for around 5-7 minutes. I have to confess I did not time it exactly but it is the same time it takes to get a glass of Coke from the kitchen.
Overall quite a pleasant surprise.
Some of the other images were shaky but I think that was just me being a bit clumsy and nudging the camera. No star trails on the best image.
As for 2 inch - I think it should be able to take those attachments as the first attachment I have toput on is a step down adapter from 2 inch to 1.25 inch before I can use my eyepieces. As I don't own any 2 inch equipment I can't confirm that just now.
I finally got better viewing conditions tonight - just did it in my backyard as clouds have a tendency to sweep in if I wait too long.
The GPS and alignment still work fine, though because my field of view is so restricted I ended up having to move the scope a few times to see different objects - that means realigning again. By the third time I did not bother with GPS but set the location manually, which works fine. Once aligned I got nice views of the Moon in first quarter, with a nice short commentary. Also of Jupiter and M42. I tried out the adaptor for my Canon EOS for the first time and it worked fine (although it comes shipped with a cover inside the bore - no wonder I couldn't see anything to start with). I found it easiest to bring the view up on the EOS back screen and focus using that image - less shaky and larger image.
I experimented with settings and found that program mode is fine for the Moon. Jupiter is not very large and I will have to play around with the Barlow next time to see what I can do about it. M42 was surprisingly clear tonight and came out well on B setting using a remote shutter cable for around 5-7 minutes. I have to confess I did not time it exactly but it is the same time it takes to get a glass of Coke from the kitchen.
Overall quite a pleasant surprise.
Some of the other images were shaky but I think that was just me being a bit clumsy and nudging the camera. No star trails on the best image.
As for 2 inch - I think it should be able to take those attachments as the first attachment I have toput on is a step down adapter from 2 inch to 1.25 inch before I can use my eyepieces. As I don't own any 2 inch equipment I can't confirm that just now.
Photos
Link to the photos
M42
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40326685@N ... otostream/
Moon in 1st quarter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40326685@N ... otostream/
M42
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40326685@N ... otostream/
Moon in 1st quarter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40326685@N ... otostream/
With regards to astrophotography andeelym you are right that it will not work with objects directly overhead if it is connected directly to the back of the scope. It may be possible to attach it to the diagonal and get images that way - I will give it a go next time the sky clears long enough for viewing and photography.
Thanks for the report and photos. Nicely done. Embedding them here for you:
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.