Telescope Reviews: LX200 ACF first impression......

I'm not very good at this kinda stuff so please bear with me.
The new 12" LX200 ACF came out of the box last night. Yes, it is just as heavy as the 12" LX200 Classic, and now that I'm 7 years older, it seems like it might be heavier. Thank the Lord I have a Marge....all purpose, all round good spouse. Between the two of us we managed to get it mounted on the tripod. At a little lower than waist level, the top is easily reachable. The shorter heavy duty field tripod is a God send. The original Classic tripod.....I could have used a sky hook had I been able to get one.

The various parts went together according to plan...electric focuser, batteries (8), finder, and hand controller. I did make up a prototype mounting assistant...more on that later.

Having had some experience with the GPS model of LX200, I assumed this one to also need the control panel facing south. I searched the manual for this bit of info but could not find it. It might be in there, I quit looking.

I set the OTA approximately level and pointed it towards the north and flipped the onoff switch. Per the manual, I hit the "0" button and the mount did the level/find north/home location thing. Everything looked like it knew what it was doing....I'd no clue. It was still light out so when it finished, I parked it and shut it down.

Dark....clear....onoff....two star alignment. Among other things the hand controller told me to face the control panel to the south. I'd have been irked if I hadn't done this and if I had not known about it before I started assembly I'm not sure I would have pointed it south. Everything went as expected, and the hand controller spit out the alignment successful message. This is where things really got interesting. I input Jupiter and hit the Goto button....after some whirring and wizzing (much quieter than the ole Classic), came a the first unexpected thing. Jupiter was exactly centered. Oh how happy can a happy man be?? The view?? Par Excellent! I don't recall seeing as many bands with the ole classic SCT. Now that's not to say I didn't, just that I don't recall seeing as many.

For the next hour and a half Marge and I were treated to a plethora of astronomical wonders....ALL within the center third of the field of view of the eyepiece.

IMHO, Meade has listened to all the fussin and bickerin....the quality, upon first inspection is spot on. I can't help but think there is a large improvement, also, with the inclusion of their warranty program. No way they could offer it without having made several improvements over the classic.

Sincerely......

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Steve Durham
www.margesmonograms.com
(Marge made me do it)