Meade LX90 – fork-mount go-to Schmidt-Cassegrains

More Information  · Supplied Accessories  · Recommended Accessories  · Related Documents  · Images of Some Features Price $1,799.00 Supplied Eyepiece SP26 Highest Useful Magnification 400x Visual Limiting Magnitude 14 Focal Length 2000mm Focal Ratio f/10 Resolution 0.57 arc seconds Aperture 8" Net Weight 39 lbs. Heaviest Single Component 30 lbs. Warranty 1 year

This Meade LS SC 8” LightSwitch telescope has: • Hot Product LightSwitch technology for hands-free/eyes-free automatic alignment on the sky • proven Schmidt-Cassegrain optics • built-in 640 x 480 pixel color CCD camera with 8° field • Astronomer Inside multimedia output with built-in speaker and video output • UHTC optical multicoatings • AutoStar III computer control with 100,000 object database

    This Meade 8” LS SC LightSwitch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope aligns itself on the skies automatically to make astronomy easy. You don't have to know Polaris from the Pleiades, or Albireo from Zubeneschamali, to align the scope on the sky each night. You just have to turn it on. As Sky & Telescope said when naming the LightSwitch technology a Sky & Telescope Hot Product for 2010, “Meade’s LightSwitch technology adds a new level of automation to the set up and use of Go To telescopes.” Here’s a link to a rave review of the Meade LightSwitch go-to technology in the December 2010 issue of Sky & Telescope.

    The Meade LS SC LightSwitch Technology uses a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, proprietary LNT (Level North Technology), an AutoStar III computer, and an ECLIPS (Electronically Controlled Locate Identify Position System) CCD camera to make the scope amazingly simple to set up and operate. Simply turn on your Meade LS SC. First the GPS receiver automatically determines where and when you are on Earth from the signals it receives from a network of Earth-orbiting satellites. Then the LNT system automatically levels the optical tube and points it north. Next, the AutoStar III computer automatically points the scope at two alignment stars. And finally the wide-field ECLIPS CCD camera images those alignment stars and automatically centers them for you to refine your celestial alignment.

    You never have to look through the eyepiece or finder, or touch any button other than the on/off switch, to have your Meade LS SC perfectly align itself on the skies, ready to find 100,000 celestial objects for you at the touch of a button. You can be observing dozens and dozens of deep space objects like a seasoned observer your first night out.

    Remember that the best telescope for you is not always the biggest scope money can buy. It’s the scope you use most often. And with its superb balance of sensible aperture, reasonable weight, unique features, and low price, you will find yourself using the highly portable 8” Meade LS SC Schmidt-Cassegrain with UHTC multicoatings a lot. The 8” Meade LS SC – a Sky & Telescope Hot Product for 2010 – may well be the perfect telescope for you . . . for life.

   LS SC optics

This Meade LS SC Telescope’s Optical System . . .

• Schmidt-Cassegrain catadioptric: 8" aperture (203.2mm aperture 2000mm focal length f/10). Oversized Pyrex primary mirror. Schott water white glass front corrector lens. Fully Fully-multicoated UHTC (Ultra High Transmission Coatings) optics for the highest possible image brightness. Aluminum tube construction with glare-stop baffling. Guaranteed diffraction-limited performance. The scope has a standard Schmidt-Cassegrain rear cell thread, allowing the use of most 8" to 14" SCT visual and photographic accessories manufactured over the past 30 years. For more details, click on the “optics" icon above.

• Finderscope: The Meade LS SC finderscope is a SmartFinder non-magnifying red dot finder for object centering and star-hopping when using the AutoStar III hand control manually to stroll through the heavens without using the computer to guide you. This straight-through wide-field red dot finder allows easy non-magnified views of the sky, with a projected red dot of light showing exactly where the scope is pointed at all times.

• Star diagonal: 1.25" 90° multicoated prism type.

• Eyepiece: 1.25" 26mm Meade Super Plössl (77x). The eyepiece field of view is 0.67°, over a third wider than the full Moon, for expansive lunar and deep space views.

• ECLIPS CCD camera: The ECLIPS (Electronically Controlled Locate Identify Position System) color CCD camera is mounted under the optical tube. Its wide-angle short focal length lens is aimed parallel to the tube and records wide angle images of the sky centered on the object at which the scope is aimed. The ECLIPS camera forms a vital part of the LightSwitch automatic sky alignment system, by imaging the stars that the scope points to during its alignment sequence and centering them precisely to refine the scope’s pointing accuracy.
      However, the ECLIPS camera is more than just an alignment tool. It also takes full color 8° panoramas through its own wide angle lens of whatever you observe during the evening while you observe with an eyepiece through the main scope optics. It can save these images to a user-supplied SD card with no computer needed at the scope for later processing indoors on your computer. An SD card slot allows easy software upgrades and storing of your ECLIPS astrophotos on your SD card. If you prefer, it can also display the images in real time on an optional monitor or TV set via a video output jack on the LS for all to see while you observe. The camera does not shoot high power images through the telescope optics, but rather uses its own low power lens to take complementary wide angle panoramas of what you are visually observing at higher powers through the scope itself. This helps to put the close-up objects in context against the larger celestial background.

This Meade LS SC Telescope’s Mount . . .

• Fork mount/drive system: Die-cast aluminum drive base. The light-weight, but rigid, die-cast aluminum single fork arm of the Meade LS SC damps vibrations quickly. There is a carrying handle at the top of the fork arm. The fork arm is long, to allow most cameras to clear the drive base when the scope is pointed at the zenith. The mount includes servo-controlled 12V DC slewing and tracking motors driving 4.875" precision worm gears in both altitude and azimuth. The motors are powered by eight user-supplied C-cell batteries that fit into the drive base. Because of all the electronic features built into the LS, the usable life of the batteries is only 3 to 5 hours, depending on the ambient temperature.
      An optional #RCXAC wall power adapter is available to power the LS SC from 110-120 volt 60 Hz AC household current in your back yard to conserve battery life. An optional #607 cigarette lighter cord is available to power the scope from your car’s cigarette lighter plug or a rechargeable battery for extended use in the field.

• Adjustable height tripod: Self-centering steel leg field tripod. A single threaded rod with a large hand-tighten knob and spreader bar simultaneously holds the scope firmly on the tripod and locks the legs rigidly in the most stable position. The spreader bar has cutouts to hold three 1.25" eyepieces close at hand and up and out of the evening’s dews and damps.

• LightSwitch Technology: The unique Hot Product for 2010 LightSwitch Technology of the Meade LS SC allows completely automatic hands-free/eyeball-free alignment of the telescope on the sky at the beginning of each observing session. A built-in GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) receiver and the patented LNT (Level North Technology) in the system’s Integrated Sensor Module combine with the built-in wide angle ECLIPS CCD imager under the telescope tube to allow the LS SC to completely align itself with the sky without any input or guidance from you. You simply flip the LightSwitch on. The LS SC automatically uses its GPS receiver to lock onto radio signals broadcast from orbiting GPS satellites to identify its location, time, and date. It then aims its optical tube north and levels it, then locates and centers the appropriate alignment stars for a perfect celestial alignment every time. You don’t have to look through a finderscope or eyepiece to automatically align the scope on the heavens for an evening’s observing enjoyment.

• AutoStar III computer: The AutoStar III computer can show you the planets and thousands of deep space objects the very first night you use your scope – even if you've never used a telescope before! At the push of a button, the LS SC will move at a fast 6.5° per second to any of the 100,000 objects in its database. You can choose from Messier, Caldwell, IC, and NGC deep space objects, binary and multiple star systems, the Moon, planets, asteroids, and comets. You can also automatically move to any object that’s not in the database simply by entering its right ascension and declination coordinates. The AutoStar III computer includes hundreds of special event menus, guided tours, a glossary, utility functions, and telescope status options. A hand control holder is built into the scope drive base for hands-free computer controller operation. The scope electronics and AutoStar III hand control provide full USB 2.0 support for accessories like optional through-the-scope DSI and CCD cameras.

• Astronomer Inside Software: It's a marvelous experience to look through a telescope at a distant object – but nothing can match the experience of knowing things like how many years its light has taken to reach your eye, how fast it’s moving, how big it is, etc. Thanks to the built-in Astronomer Inside multimedia software, the Meade 8" LS SC enhances the observing experience as no other telescope on today's market can. Right at the telescope, you have a complete audio/visual library at your fingertips . . . just waiting to give you a full tour of the night sky. Thanks to a built-in speaker and video-out jack, the whole family can share in the fun! An optional LCD monitor is available to let you see the more than 75 on-board animated video files in the “Astronomer Inside" software in your LS8 SC, while the scope’s on-board speaker plays the accompanying audio. It will also display the “Astronomer Inside" still photos and menus and will display a current sky chart when not playing back videos.
      The Astronomer Inside multimedia software has over four hours of professionally produced audio content with descriptions of hundreds of objects such as the planets, Moon, stars, constellations, star clusters, nebulas, galaxies, and more. Astronomer Inside will let you learn the secrets and details of the objects you observe while you are viewing them in a fun and interesting way. It has custom guided tours of the best objects that are visible from your location, at any time and date during the course of the year. The built-in speaker in the scope’s drive base can announce audio instructions and object descriptions for all to hear. If you’d prefer to listen in private (at a star party, for example, or in your backyard when people are asleep nearby), there is also an audio out jack that will let you listen privately through optional headphones or earbuds.
      The video output jack for the optional monitor can show you more than 30 minutes of video presentations (movies and animations of celestial phenomena) and still images of many celestial objects, plus give you an instant display of images from the ECLIPS CCD imager and easy on-screen menu navigation. The multimedia presentations feature the voices of Sandy Woods of the “Star Date" astronomy radio program and George Woods, Hollywood actor.

    The simple tripod/altazimuth mount configuration of the LS SC with UHTC optics makes setup fast and easy. The automatic alignment of the LightSwitch Technology system will have you observing in only a matter of minutes. The wide array of objects in the LS SC database (100,000 of them!), and the pointing accuracy of the AutoStar III computer, will accurately speed you from object to object with no frustrating hunting or star hopping. With the LS SC, you’ll spend more of your time looking at objects and less time looking for them.

    If you’re one of those busy people whose schedule doesn’t leave you much time to enjoy astronomy, an easy-to-use fully-computerized Meade LS SC with UHTC optics will make the most of your limited observing opportunities. The 8" LS SC is a scope that one person can easily move outside to observe by himself or herself.

    This 8" scope has enough light-gathering performance to keep you busy observing and photographing for the rest of your life. And the 8" LS SC has all the advanced features you’ll ever need to keep you happy out in the field or in your backyard. The LS SC is big enough to keep you observing for many years to come, portable enough to make it easy to take outside for spur of the moment observing, with superb optics and enough useful features to keep the most ardent gadget lover in seventh heaven ‘til the cows come home . . . all at a price that won’t break the bank.

    The 8" Meade LS SC with LightSwitch Technology and UHTC multicoated Schmidt-Cassegrain optics may indeed be the perfect scope for you.