Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 60

S&T Test Report

The heavy-duty X-Wedge gets a thumbs up for its design and
construction. Ball-bearings and large hand knobs on the azimuth and elevation adjustments make easy work of precisely
moving the heavy telescope during polar alignment.

In addition to the scope's 10-inch main aperture and 50-mm
finder pointing skyward, there's StarLock's 80-mm f/5 guide
refractor and a small-aperture, wide-field camera, which together
perform a variety of important tasks beyond just autoguiding the
main telescope for astrophotography. These include precision
centering of celestial objects in the field of a camera or eyepiece,
and helping refine the telescope's polar alignment.

(73 kg), including the 44-pound tripod and optional
28-pound X-Wedge (a must-have accessory for long-exposure astrophotography). The OTA and fork mount, without the StarLock guide scope and tube counterweights,
tips the scales at almost 80 pounds. This makes it about
30% heavier than Meade's corresponding 10-inch LX200
and almost 60% heavier than its 10-inch LX90. With
StarLock and counterweights, the assembled scope
weighs close to 90 pounds. Furthermore, it is an awkward scope for one person to set up despite four handles
60

May 2016 sky & telescope

and two handholds on the fork and a single handle on
the back end of the OTA.
To make assembling the scope more manageable,
Meade has designed a nice system for separating the OTA
and fork arms into pieces that, for the 10-inch, weigh 44
and 34 pounds, respectively. This helps, but it still makes
assembly challenging for one person. Indeed, rather than
getting bogged down with details, and despite the fact
that I set the scope up by myself nearly two dozen times,
I will just say that I don't recommend it as a safe process
for one person. Even with the OTA stripped to its minimum configuration (no finder, StarLock guide scope, or
counterweights), I struggled to align the safety catches on
the OTA's declination trunnions with their mating pieces
on the fork tines. It would be easier to do this with the
scope set up for altazimuth operation, but with the fork
tilted for astrophotography on the wedge, it's an intimidating operation for one person. The real solution is to have a
friend lend a hand when setting up the scope.
Autostar II. The brains for the LX600's GoTo pointing
(including catalogs containing more than 145,000 celestial
objects), tracking, and a host of other advanced features
are in the Autostar II control system, which has been on
Meade's high-end scopes for more than a decade. It is a
mature system that works exceptionally well.
Despite its sophistication, Autostar II is relatively
intuitive and easy to operate in the dark with the hand
control. You don't need to keep a printed manual at
hand, since even rarely used features are typically
accompanied by instructions that scroll across the hand
control's 2-line LED display. There are far too many
Autostar II features to write about here, but you can find
many of the details in the 72-page LX600 instruction
manual, which can be downloaded as a PDF file for free
from Meade's website (meade.com).
StarLock. This is really amazing technology, and
it sets the LX600 apart from any other fork-mounted
telescope on the market, bar none. In a nutshell, every
time you slew the LX600 to a new target, StarLock
automatically acquires a suitable guide star and begins
guiding the telescope accurately enough for astrophotography. There is no need for an external computer or even
so much as a button push of input from the user. The
system is 100% autonomous. And it's also non-intrusive,
meaning you can go about using the telescope any
way you want without interference from StarLock. The
autoguiding begins within about a minute of the scope
being moved to a new location (by either GoTo slewing or
the observer pressing the direction buttons on the hand
control), and it's instantly overridden whenever the scope
is moved to a new position by any means. A single red
LED on the StarLock guide scope indicates when the system is autoguiding and you can begin shooting pictures.
StarLock also performs a variety of other tasks,
including the precision centering of targets in the field


http://www.meade.com

Sky and Telescope - May 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - May 2016

Contents
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 1
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 3
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - A
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - B
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 4
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 5
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 6
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 7
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 8
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 9
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 10
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 11
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 12
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 13
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 14
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 15
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 16
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 17
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 18
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 19
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 20
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 21
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 22
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 23
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 24
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 25
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 26
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 27
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 28
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 29
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 30
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 31
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 32
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 33
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 34
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 35
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 36
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 37
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 38
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 39
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 40
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 41
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 42
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 43
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 44
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 45
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 46
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 47
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 48
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 49
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 50
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 51
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 52
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 53
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 54
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 55
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 56
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 57
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 58
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 59
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 60
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 61
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 62
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 63
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 64
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 65
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 66
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 67
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 68
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 69
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 70
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 71
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 72
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 73
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 74
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 75
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 76
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 77
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 78
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 79
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 80
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 81
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 82
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 83
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - 84
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - Cover3
Sky and Telescope - May 2016 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202405
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202404_qr
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202404
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202403
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202402
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202401_aus
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202401
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202312_aus
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202312
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202311
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202310
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202309
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202308
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202307
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202306
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202305
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202304_qr
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202303
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202302
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202301
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202212
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202211
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202209
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202208
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202207
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202206
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202205
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202203
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202202
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202201
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202111
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202110
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202109
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202108
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202107
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202106
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202105
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202104
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202103
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202101
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/skywatch_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202009
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202007
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202006
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202005
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202004
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202003
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202002
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_202001
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201912
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201911
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201909
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201908
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201907
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201906
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201905
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201904
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201903
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201902
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201901
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201812
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201811
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201810
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201809
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201808
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201807
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201806
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201805
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201804
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201803
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201802
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201801
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201712
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201711
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201710
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201709
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201707
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201706
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201705
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201704
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201703
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201702
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201701
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201612
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201611
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201610
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201609
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201608
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201607
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201606
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201605
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201604
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201603
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201602
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201601
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201512
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201511
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201510
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201509
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201508
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201507
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201505
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201504
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201503
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201502
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201501
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201412
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201411
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201410
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201409
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201408
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201407
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201406
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_mars
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201405
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201404
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201403
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201402
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201401
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201312
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201311
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201310
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201309
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201308
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201307
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201306
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201305
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201303
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201302
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201301
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201212
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201211
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201209
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201208
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201207
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201206
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201205
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201203
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201202
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201201
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201111
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201110
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201109
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201108
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201107
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201106
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201105
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201104
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201103
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201101
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201011
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201009
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201007
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201006
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201005
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201004
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201003
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201002
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aas/st_201001
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com