As for my telescope, it is in the middle of an upgrade (yes already!)…nothing major, just replacement screws for the mount and Polar Alignment scope which I ordered from a place called http://www.scopestuff.com/. They have a wide variety of replacement and upgrade parts for scopes so I highly recommend you take a look if you want to make your scope a little bit better (I’ve added a link to them in the Links area). I replaced the following for my LXD-75 scope:
- Azimuth Adjustment Bolts
- Latitude Adjustment Bolts
- Polar Finder Scope Adjustment Thumbscrews
Why did I replace these bolts and screws? Well the replacement bolts are made to be more convenient to turn than the stock ones and the adjustment screws on the Polar Finder Scope require a tool to adjust...where the replacement screws adjust without a tool. Makes it that much easier to use the scope.
Now that it's cloudy and rainy I've been trying to find out more about aligning the scope so that I can take longer exposures. Right now I’m struggling to get up to 30 second exposures and from what people have told me, I should be getting 1min+ exposures easily. I've managed to align the Polar Align scope (which I'm betting was one source of tracking trouble) and am also using a new piece of software to help align the scope more accurately...as soon as I get some clear sky I'll be testing all of this out.
Speaking of collimation, if you are looking for a laser collimator to make sure your mirror is aligned, look no further than the Hotech 1.25” SCA Laser Collimator. I had bought the Meade 1.25” Laser Collimator previously and due to how it is made it didn't sit flush inside of the eyepiece which renders it useless (so don’t waste your money on it!) The Hotech on the other hand uses a rubber ring that expands inside of the eyepiece so that perfect alignment can occur. I'm eager to try out my new adjusted scope but again am waiting for some clear sky...
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