Telescope Reviews: LX90GPS "Easy Alignment"

There are 3 alignment options that I can see on my meade lx90 emc (SCT).

NOTE: this is an older LX90 that still uses the same lx200 mount but has an older version of autostar. 98% of my telescope is gonna be identical to yours, only differences i have determined are the autostar software and slightly different optical coatings.

Easy Alignment => The scope picks a bright star in the sky and asks you to center it in the eyepiece. You MUST have a pretty good understanding of the constellations and which stars are named what. Personally, i always hated easy alignment because i don't know exactly which star is which if it is picked randomly.

One star alignment => YOU get to pick the star that you want to align with. This is infinitely easier than "easy align" as its far simpler to just determine what 1 or 2 stars are called, as opposed to a vast possibility of different alignment stars that the easy align picks for you.

Two Star alignment => This is the option that i use every time, and is my favorite. It is the same as one star alignment, you get to choose what star you want to align with in a long alphabetical list of stars.

Here is how i learned to do it, coming from NO knowledge of what any of the stars are called.

First I determined which are the 2-4 brightest starts in my night sky. In central new jersey, the brightest stars are Arcturus, Altair, Deneb, and Vega. Depending on the time of night I use 2 of these 4 stars since they are very easy to locate.

Altair, Vega, and Deneb form a well visible TRIANGLE of 3 bright stars, easily seen by the naked eye.

Arcturus is easy to locate since it is pretty much by itself and it has a reddish/orange color as opposed to altair deneb vega which glow BLUE same as most stars.

Three Star alignment?? => Now i have never updated my firmware on my lx90 emc because I never saw a reason to. My goto has always performed admirably, and even though not all of the objects appear dead center in the eyepiece, they are still very close regardless.

I would expect that 3 star alignment is even more accurate than 2 star, but only specialized activities or the most discerning observer would really need it.

My lx90 emc even has the HIGH PRECISION mode in which it focuses on a bright object near your target, asks you to center that bright object, and THEN it moves to your originally selected target. I have NEVER used this mode in all the time i have had my telescope, since I never tried astrotography and the normal goto mode far exceeds any needs I have for accuracy.

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Meade 8.25"(209.55mm) LX-90 EMC (SCT)

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