Posts Made By: Taylor Chonis

Hello,

I have a Meade LX200GPS 8" with a SuperWedge. I recently got the wedge and have used it about 3 times. I find that polar alignment is pretty tough to do and there isnt very much information on how to do it in the Manual (or at least I cant find any). It takes me a good hour to get it all aligned and then do my 2 star alignment to get accurate GOTOs. Is there a quicker way to do this? I am only 17, and I cant always stay out all night with my scope because I have to get up early to go to school in the mornings. I need to do a polar alignment in order to do astrophotography, and that is why I baught my LX200. Im not too good at polar alignment, but I think I need to get better. Anyone got any tips for me?

Thanks,
Taylor

I baught my LX200GPS last August. The scope runs using firmware Version 1.2a. If I remember right, many people who baught thier scopes back in August immediately updated thier scopes to a new version because Version 1.2a had some minor problems. There have been some little bugs that ail my scope every once and a whole, and they are software problems. Should I update my software? What will the most current firmware version have that 1.2a doesn't?

Thanks,
Taylor

Hello all,

I have a Meade f-10 8" LX200GPS with Superwedge. I baught it in order to do astrophotography (both film and CCD). I am still aquiring the necessary acessories in order to do astrophotography, but I am starting to think about what CCD imager I should buy. I dont have much experience. I used a QuickCam Express webcam with my old Meade ETX-90EC, and I have just built an air-cooled QuickCam VC for simple Lunar and Planetary shots just to get my feet wet in digital imaging. Once I get all the other accessories I still need for my LX200, I will buy a real CCD imager. I am only 17 and have spent just about all the money I have ever earned on my LX200 and dont have a whole lot to spend on a CCD imager. Which one should I buy? I was looking into a used ST-237 or ST-5C camera. The new SAC-8 camera looks appealing. I'm not looking to get some hardcore CCD imager like an ST-8 or anything like that. I just want to get something that will give me good results at a good price. I dont think I can spend more than $1000. Any ideas for me? I dont know what direction to go with this so any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Taylor

Hello,

I am currently looking for options for a guidescope for my LX200GPS 8". I am thinking about maybe an ETX-90 OTA to go on top or maybe a Celestron 90mm refractor. Any fellow 8" LX200 users have any ideas for me. Thanks.

Taylor

Hello,

Earlier this evening (Jan. 2, 2003), I took out my 8" f-10 LX200GPS in hopes of imaging Saturn with my new modified QuickCam VC. I have never been able to get a good image of Saturn before with previous cameras. Below is my result for tonight. It was taken at prime focus. I took a video at the maximum frame rate of my camera for aproximately 5 seconds resulting in a total of 145 frames. All 145 frames were aligned, stacked, and processed using a program called Registax. Pretty good results for a QuickCam VC! I would like to do better, but hey, I'm only 17! I think I have done well. Comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Taylor Chonis

Hello,

This is my first time posting a messege on this forum. I am looking for a nice refractor to put ontop of my 8" LX200GPS. I am in need of a scope that can give nice wide field views, and can also act as a premium telephoto lens and a guidescope for when I shoot through the LX200. I have my Superwedge and everything else to go for astrohphography except the guidescope. I have got good results with short 3 or 4 minute exposures of deep space objects, but that puts a large deficit on what I can photograph until I get a seperate guidescope. Seeing as I am only 17, I dont have $2000 to spend on a Televue 85 (which would probably be optimal for my purposes). I can only spend around 600 to 700 dollars.

This brings me to my question. I am looking for opinions on either the Televue Pronto or the StellarVue SV78S. They are close in aperture, but the Stellarvue beats the Televue on focal length. I am a little torn between the two. I dont know if maybe its an even better idea to save up a little more for a TV-76 used. Does anyone have an opinion on this? I need to decide pretty soon because summer is approaching and I would like to get out and take some astrophotos while the weather is nice (and while I'm not overrun by school work), so any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know that some opinions on this will be biased towards the Televue seeing as this is the Televue forum, but sill, opinions of pros and cons of these scope would be greatly appreciated.

Clear Skies,
Taylor

Hello,

This is my first time posting a messege on this forum. I am looking for a nice refractor to put ontop of my 8" LX200GPS. I am in need of a scope that can give nice wide field views, and can also act as a premium telephoto lens and a guidescope for when I shoot through the LX200. I have my Superwedge and everything else to go for astrohphography except the guidescope. I have got good results with short 3 or 4 minute exposures of deep space objects, but that puts a large deficit on what I can photograph until I get a seperate guidescope. Seeing as I am only 17, I dont have $2000 to spend on a Televue 85 (which would probably be optimal for my purposes). I can only spend around 600 to 700 dollars.

This brings me to my question. I am looking for opinions on either the Televue Pronto or the StellarVue SV78S. They are close in aperture, but the Stellarvue beats the Televue on focal length. I am a little torn between the two. I dont know if maybe its an even better idea to save up a little more for a TV-76 used. Does anyone have an opinion on this? I need to decide pretty soon because summer is approaching and I would like to get out and take some astrophotos while the weather is nice (and while I'm not overrun by school work), so any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know that some opinions on this will be biased towards the Televue seeing as this is the Televue forum, but sill, opinions of pros and cons of these scope would be greatly appreciated.

Clear Skies,
Taylor

Hello,

I have an LX200GPS 8" F-10 EMC. I am wanting to shoot through it for deep sky astrophotography with film. I am also going to piggyback a StellarVue AT1010 on top of the LX200 with Losmandy accessories.I plan to manually guide through that for the time being. I will most likely want to step up my exposure times a little bit and I find that an autoguider may come in handy on the AT1010. I dont have very much money to spend, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for an autoguider that may work well. I was consitering a Meade Pictor 216XT, but I hear that the Pictor series are difficult and frustrating to use. Are there any suggestions? I am only 17, so there is not much money to spend and also not a whole lot of time outside during the school year, so I'm looking for an autoguider that is simple to use. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

Clear Skies,
Taylor Chonis

Hello all,

Since its summer and I'm not in school, I am going to have more time to get outside with my LX200GPS and piggybacked Stellarvue AT1010 to get some serious photos. I have not had a whole lot of chance to experiment with film. The only film I have ever used for deep sky photography is a general purpose Kodak Max 800 color film. I am looking for a film that will better respond to nebulae and also a god film for star clusters and bright galaxies. Basically, I'm looking for a film that would work well for ll deep sky objects. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Taylor

Hi,

I just recieved a copy of Photoshop 7.0 from a friend who didnt want it and I am not very familiar with the program. It looks very complicated and hard to learn, but I figured out the basics with the Color adjustment, brightness/contrast adjustment, unsharp masks, etc. This is an image I edited this evening from a while back at the Nebraska Star Party. It is NGC7000, taken witha Stellarvue Nighthawk piggybacked on an 8" LX200GPS. Guided manually. Exposure was 30 minutes on Kodak E200. I did a pretty crappy job editing this with photoshop, but the the heck: Ill post it anyway (sorry if its a little big).

Clear Skies,
Taylor