| This extra-heavy duty equatorial Ultrawedge is designed to have the strength and rigidity needed to hold heavy 10" through 14" Meade LX200 and RCX400 scopes in a polar alignment for long exposure astrophotography. You can also use it with a 7" or 8" LX200, instead of the lighter 7"/8" wedge, should more stability be desired for critical photography. There is no equatorial wedge available for the 16" LX200. Long exposure photography with the 16" LX200 requires purchasing either the 16" permanent equatorial pier (#8956) or field derotator #1222 for use with an altazimuth-mounted scope. Also, there is no equatorial wedge available for the 16" RCX400. It can only be used for long exposure photography by adding field derotator #1222. This 29 pound die-cast Ultrawedge comes with all necessary mounting hardware to mount it on either the LX200 variable height tripod or the RCX400 tripod. It can be used over a latitude range of 25° to 65°. It comes with large 3" diameter no-tool altitude and azimuth adjustment knobs to make polar alignment easy. A supplied compass fits into the Ultrawedge to make the initial north alignment easier. The die cast vertical side pieces that hold the tilt plate are reinforced by two steel bars bolted from side to side at the rear of the wedge. These bars also improve the Ultrawedge’s vibration damping times. An additional reinforcing plate bolted between the vertical side pieces at the front of the wedge has been drilled to form a convenient accessory tray to hold one 2" eyepiece and four 1.25" eyepieces. Before assembling the wedge to the LX200 tripod, it will be necessary to attach the supplied azimuth tangent arm permanently to the tripod. Pre-drilled holes in the side of the tripod make the job no more than a two or three minute operation. The RCX400 tripod already has a built-in tangent arm, so this step is not needed with an RCX400 scope. Once the azimuth tangent arm is attached to the tripod, the wedge is placed on the tripod so that the azimuth adjustment pin projecting from the underside of the wedge fits into the slot in the tangent arm. The wedge is then temporarily locked in place on the tripod using a 3" knob that threads onto the rod that extends up through the center of the tripod. Three supplied buttonhead bolts are then bolted down though the base of the Ultrawedge into the tripod to attach the wedge to the tripod. The single threaded rod alone is not sufficient to hold the wedge/scope combination. The alignment compass fits into a recess in the top of the 3" center rod attachment knob. The bolts and center knob are not tightened down completely until after the scope is installed and aligned on the pole in azimuth using the two opposing 3" knobs on either side of the wedge base. Once the wedge is bolted to the tripod, thread one of the supplied mounting bolts part way into the hole in the curved area of the scope drive base. The scope is then lifted up to the tilt plate and that bolt is slid into the U-shaped slot at the top of the tilt plate. This first bolt will hold the scope in place while the remaining two bolts are inserted through the tilt plate into the scope drive base. Tighten all bolts equally. Lifting the scope and threading in the bolts will require two people. Finally, the threaded rod with a T-bar handle in the center of the tilt plate is threaded into the scope base and tightened firmly. This is necessary to assure the pointing accuracy of the Ultrawedge. The scope is then aligned on the celestial pole in azimuth using the compass and opposing 3" azimuth knobs. A large vernier latitude scale on the side of the wedge is used in conjunction with a large 3" altitude adjustment knob to tilt the scope up to within 0.25° of the pole. Fine tune the altitude and azimuth using the polar alignment program in the Autostar II controller. Tighten all bolts holding the tilt plate angle and the wedge azimuth and you’re done.
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