{"id":7920,"date":"2017-12-15T11:29:34","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T15:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/?p=7920"},"modified":"2017-12-15T11:45:55","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T15:45:55","slug":"meade-lxd55-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/2017\/12\/meade-lxd55-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"Meade LXD55 mount"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/meadelxd55.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/meadelxd55-299x234.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"234\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-7921\" srcset=\"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/meadelxd55-299x234.jpg 299w, https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/meadelxd55-150x117.jpg 150w, https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/meadelxd55-768x601.jpg 768w, https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/meadelxd55.jpg 971w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is my new (used) mount, a Meade LXD55.  It comes with a battery holder for x8 D size batteries, but I suspect it would go through that pretty quick.  So instead I just ordered a<br \/>\nTalentcell Rechargeable 6000mAh Li-Ion Battery Pack, 12V DC Portable Lithium Ion<br \/>\nto power the thing.<\/p>\n<p>So far the intent is to mount a small refractor on it:<br \/>\na Meade DS90 refractor (2008 $190 from Costco) D=90mm FL=800mm F8.8<br \/>\nIts mount failed some years ago and has been moved around from mount to mount depending on the event.<\/p>\n<p>If the pointing works out and the battery works out, it will become out portable scope, to take out for star parties, or for chasing down occultations.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the features as mentioned in a review from CloudyNights<\/p>\n<p>The real bonus is that the mount is controlled by two robust motors which are controlled by the Meade AutoStar 497 hand computer \/ controller. The mount includes an internal polar finder scope and all the usual dials and adjustments. Once the polar scope and OTA are aligned to the mount, you do a casual polar alignment and then let the AutoStar do it&#8217;s &#8220;One Star Align&#8221; procedure, you are off to viewing any of the thousands of cataloged object in the AutoStar&#8217;s database. Based upon your location, time and date, it will even offer &#8220;Guided Tours&#8221; of the best objects to view when you are set up.<\/p>\n<p>The AutoStar includes a &#8220;High Precision&#8221; mode which is very helpful in finding those &#8220;faint fuzzies&#8221; that are not visible with the naked eye. There is also a &#8220;Synch&#8221; feature that allows you to fine tune its accuracy for any given part of the sky. Another handy feature is the &#8220;Spiral Search&#8221; mode that initiated a slow methodical spiral search of the area you are directed to so that you can check out surrounding objects or home in on that elusive DSO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is my new (used) mount, a Meade LXD55. It comes with a battery holder for x8 D size batteries, but I suspect it would go through that pretty quick. So instead I just ordered a Talentcell Rechargeable 6000mAh Li-Ion Battery Pack, 12V DC Portable Lithium Ion to power the thing. So far the intent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7923,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7920\/revisions\/7923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starlightcascade.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}