Peston A User's Guide to the Meade LXD55 and LXD75 Telescopes

1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-0-387-68264-8
Verlag: Springer US
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 256 Seiten, eBook

Reihe: The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series

I have owned telescopes for over 25 years since I was a young lad. I purchased an LXD55 AR-6 Refractor in 2002, and was one of the first to own one in the UK. I am also a proud owner of an LXD75 SC-8. Armed with these two very different telescopes, I have spent many hours searching the skies for interesting objects using Meade's Autostar Goto facility. My motivation to write a book about the LXD Goto telescope series, first came from comments about an LXD55 AR-6 Refractor review, that was published on the LXD55 .com website. From then on, I have had regular emails from people asking technical questions about the telescope, and which model is best suited for them. Whilst attending Star parties in the UK, I found that many LXD owners would struggle to use them even at a basic level, especially if they have never owned or used an equatorially mounted Goto telescope before. Since the first LXD55 models came out in early 2002, owners have struggled to find useful information to help them use the telescopes to the best advantage. There have been mixed reactions about its quality and performance . Hence, this book is directed towards those who are new to Goto and the LXD telescope.

Zielgruppe

Popular/general

Autoren/Hrsg.

Peston, Martin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Astronomy as a Hobby.- Choosing an LXD Telescope.- Setting up the Telescope.- Polar Alignment and Goto Setup.- First Night’s Observing.- Telescope Operations, Abilities and Observing Techniques.- The Universe at a Touch of a Button.- Connecting to a Personal Computer.- Taking Images.- Keeping Your Telescope in Peak Condition.- Gadgets and Gizmos.- Where Did It All Go Wrong?.

Leseproben

"CHAPTER TWELVE Gadgets and Gizmos (p. 195-196)

Introduction

No telescope is complete without accessories. There are many available for the LXD series of telescopes and in fact, not just produced by the original manufacturer (i.e. Meade). Many companies have taken it upon themselves to manufacture accessories that enhance the LXD telescope hardware. This chapter provides a general guide to accessories available for your LXDtelescope. The list is by no means exhaustive, and if you want to know more information about buying accessories for telescopes Star Ware by Phil Harrington is a book well worth reading.

Eyepieces

Purchasing an eyepiece is just as important as buying a telescope. The best quality eyepieces tend to be very expensive, some costing more than a quarter of the initial outlay of the telescope. The quality of an image does not solely depend upon the quality of the telescope optics , but also on the quality and type of eyepiece used. Eyepieces come in various types and sizes, ranging from simple designs with a few internal elements to those with a complex array ofelements. The magnification and exit pupil properties depend upon focal length and design type . These are discussed in Chapter 7.

One of the most popular types of eyepieces used by astronomers is the Plossl, It consists of four elements, and is a good all round general purpose eyepiece. The 26 mm eyepiece supplied with every LXD telescope is of Plossl design. A short time ago Meade produced a set of Plossl eyepieces to celebrate their 50th Anniversary. The anniversary kit contains the complete set of Meade Series 4000 Plossl eyepieces ranging from the low power wide field 40 mm eyepiece to the high power 6.4 mm eyepiece (Figure 12.1). The 4000 series has been recently superseded by the superior 5000 series.

Other common types of eyepieces include Kellner, Orthoscopic, Nagler and Zoom. The Kellner eyepiece consists of three elemen ts, has good eye relief and is best used at low to moderate magnifications. They have typical focal lengths of between 40 to 20mm. The Orthoscopic eyepiece consists of four elements and provides excellent sharpness and colour contrast, so are ideal for luna r and planetary work but has a smaller field of view compared to other designs. A disadvantage of orthoscopic eyepieces is that focal lengths 8 mm or smaller, provide pinhole eye relief which hinders viewing of the image.

The Or thoscopic eyepiece design has been superseded with superior, more complex designs which offer wide-field and excellent eye relief for relatively short focal lengths. An example is the Televue Radian eyepiece (Figure 12.2). Zoom eyepieces combine several focal lengths into a single eyepiece design. This is like using several eyepieces at once, altho ugh images tend to be slightly dimmer than fixed focal length eyepieces, due to the large amount of optical elements attenuating the light from the image."

Über Autor(innen)

Martin Peston obtained a first-class degree in Astrophysics at QM & Westfield, University of London. He currently works as a Systems Analyst and has been involved in various UK space and defence projects.