Hi, I’m new to the group an I have a 10” Meade LX 90 and want to start photographing but I’m clueless on where to start with equipment, any help would be appreciated
Photography equipment
Hi William. I started imaging with a fork mounted C8 in 2006. The reality is that it's not the easiest system to image with. A fork mount will need a wedge to make it equatorial to avoid rotation of the image. It's not easy to polar align. The long focal length and slow F ration increases the difficulty.
The good news is, it will work well for Lunar and Planetary imaging. And a wedge will not be necessary.
I was curious if any other members were using an LX 10 for imaging. There are quite a few. I suggest you do a search. The 1st thing you will notice is that most ( ones I looked at) have de-forked the 10 SCT and put it on an equatorial mount for deep sky imaging. No surprise there. And, the images were the scope still seems mounted on the forks, are lunar or planetary. Also on surprise there.
Another option that I do not recommend is Hyperstar. It is possible to get descent images with 20 -30 sec subs using a fork mount. The problem is that you will need dark skies and limited to one-shot color cameras. I did Hyperstar imaging for years with a C11 on a equatorial mount using a filtered mono camera. It works, but can be very finicky because of the F2 system working off of a SCT. Starizona make it sound easy. It is not.
Rather than investing in a large equatorial mount to hold the Maede 10 STC. And you will need a reducer/flattener. it may be more feasible to leave the LX10 for visual. and invest in a smaller equatorial mount and small 60 t0 80mm refractor. The cost may be very similar. You will end up with a wider field of view and a much easier system to learn on.
Lynn K
The good news is, it will work well for Lunar and Planetary imaging. And a wedge will not be necessary.
I was curious if any other members were using an LX 10 for imaging. There are quite a few. I suggest you do a search. The 1st thing you will notice is that most ( ones I looked at) have de-forked the 10 SCT and put it on an equatorial mount for deep sky imaging. No surprise there. And, the images were the scope still seems mounted on the forks, are lunar or planetary. Also on surprise there.
Another option that I do not recommend is Hyperstar. It is possible to get descent images with 20 -30 sec subs using a fork mount. The problem is that you will need dark skies and limited to one-shot color cameras. I did Hyperstar imaging for years with a C11 on a equatorial mount using a filtered mono camera. It works, but can be very finicky because of the F2 system working off of a SCT. Starizona make it sound easy. It is not.
Rather than investing in a large equatorial mount to hold the Maede 10 STC. And you will need a reducer/flattener. it may be more feasible to leave the LX10 for visual. and invest in a smaller equatorial mount and small 60 t0 80mm refractor. The cost may be very similar. You will end up with a wider field of view and a much easier system to learn on.
Lynn K
Helpful
Thank you for your help
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