hoghead385
journeyman
Reged: 11/15/10
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Meade LT-8SC (8")
#4304416 - 01/10/11 10:55 AM
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Hello everyone from snow covered Atlanta, GA! Recent new guy here at CN who just purchased his first new scope since a kid (long time ago)! After attending a couple of sky parties and reading tons of reviews/posts, I purchased the Meade 8" LT-8SC. I wanted a good all round scope that I could grow with, was easy to transport and did't break the bank. The info on the CN forums is great and helped me tremendously with my purchase decision, thanks to all! With that said, are there any glaring difficulties/problems I should be aware of using this scope? Also, any upfront accessories that would help with scope use?
Hoghead385
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MrJones
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 09/15/10
Loc: Indiana
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: hoghead385]
#4304630 - 01/10/11 12:36 PM
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Congrats, those sound like nice scopes.
Upfront the first thing I'd make sure I had was a maximum AFOV wide angle eyepiece. At 1.25", 24mm SWA (68-70 degree) works well. Some examples are 24mm Panoptic, Meade SWA, Baader Hyperion and Orion Stratus.
After I had that (and a chair) I would get out and enjoy the scope and decide on other accessories later. 
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Bob Griffiths
Getting Grouchy
Reged: 10/10/05
Loc: Frederick Maryland
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: MrJones]
#4304741 - 01/10/11 01:24 PM
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Hoghead:
Congratulations.... on the scope...
The only problem I saw when I used an LS 8' Meade was that it had some vibration problems...BUT no worst then my 8i or my granddaughters 8Se and the cause is not the single arm mount its the darn lightweight tripod...just set up as low as possible and add a weight to the spreader bar and you should negate a lot of the shakes ..
Bottom like it will be a very good visual scope...
For accessories..the number one I would recomend is a GOOD..solid adjustable observation chair..and it is for you eyes NOT you tail end or legs...
That and a couple low powered wide angle eyepieces and maybe a Barlow to use with them....
CLEAR SKIES...
Bob G
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hoghead385
journeyman
Reged: 11/15/10
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: Bob Griffiths]
#4307004 - 01/11/11 11:48 AM
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Thanks for the info MrJones and Bob. According to the website, the scope comes with a 26mm super plossl with 0.66 FOV. How is the EP you recommended different from it? Not questioning, new guy curious? And the Barlow, whatever the power, it multiplies the scope power by that number?
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MikeBOKC
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 05/10/10
Loc: Oklahoma City, OK
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: hoghead385]
#4307017 - 01/11/11 11:57 AM
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|Yes the Barlow mutiplies the magnification. So a 2X Barlow effectively makes your 26mm eyepiece a 13mm. Magnification is computed dimply by dividing the focal length of the scope by the focal length of the eyepiece . . . so a 10MM eyepiece used on a 1000mm focal length scope would yield 100power. Adding a 2X Barlow would make it 200 power, etc.
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MrJones
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 09/15/10
Loc: Indiana
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: hoghead385]
#4307232 - 01/11/11 01:35 PM
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Quote:
Thanks for the info MrJones and Bob. According to the website, the scope comes with a 26mm super plossl with 0.66 FOV. How is the EP you recommended different from it? Not questioning, new guy curious? And the Barlow, whatever the power, it multiplies the scope power by that number?
A 25-26 mm Plossl has a field stop diameter of about 21-22 mm and as you said has a true field of view of about 0.67 deg. I have the Meade 26mm 4000 Plossl and it's an ok eyepiece.
Max field stop for 1.25" eyepieces is 27.5mm however, and will give you 0.8 deg. TFOV. So that Plossl is a fair amount short of the maximum FOV that you can get. With these f/10 SCTs you're looking at a very small portion of the sky and you'll want to see as much of the sky as possible in a finder.
A 24mm Meade 5000 SWA is in my SCT about 90% of the time! A focal reducer or moving to 2" are also options to think about down the road.
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hoghead385
journeyman
Reged: 11/15/10
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: MrJones]
#4309255 - 01/12/11 11:28 AM
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Thanks again to all for your help and recommendations. I picked up a couple of new Meade EP (9 mm & 20mm) to go along with the 26mm that came withe the scope. Hopefully, this will get me going for now with a high, medium and low power EP. Any recommendations for a 2X Barlow that won't break the bank?
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Bob Griffiths
Getting Grouchy
Reged: 10/10/05
Loc: Frederick Maryland
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: hoghead385]
#4311393 - 01/13/11 09:57 AM
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Hoghead....
so you now have a 9, 20 and 26 mm eyepieces...
a barlow would convert them into a 4.5 a 10 and a 13 mm .... bottom line is that the 9 barlowed will be too much for you scope and never ever get used with the barlow..and the 20 when barlowed will give you essentially the same view as the 9 when used alone...
The 26 mm is the only eyepiece that could actually be of any benefit to you with a barlow...
Personally I'd skip the barlow and buy a 13 mm eyepiece plus a 32 mm eyepiece to cover all you bases quite nicely...
The highest power eyepiece I even carry in my case that I use for my 8" Sct is a 8.5 mm and it gets extremely little use
Bob G
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hoghead385
journeyman
Reged: 11/15/10
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: Bob Griffiths]
#4315898 - 01/15/11 10:54 AM
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Thanks Bob, when the initial credit card shock leaves my bride, I'll check into the other two eyepieces you recommended! My scope arrived yesterday, very excited! I was a little surprised at the overall weight but still very manageable to move around. I picked up the required batteries needed for operation but used last night to go over the manual and get familiar with the scope. Maybe tonight! I'll also purchase the adapter in the future to run it off house current. Thanks
Doug
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hoghead385
journeyman
Reged: 11/15/10
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: hoghead385]
#4318972 - 01/16/11 07:57 PM
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Short First Light Report! Finally got the scope out tonight but could not get the Auto Align to work. Tried it several times using true north & magnetic north and multiple stars but the alignment always failed. I read the manual thoroughly several times but could not get it to align? I'll try again tomorrow night but I did swing it around for a look at the moon and Jupiter! Moon was awesome, so clear, almost like you could reach out and touch it! And Jupiter, what can I say? Saw some banding and four moons, took my breath away, unbelievable! I did experience the shakes that Bob spoke of but will weight down the tripod next time and lower it some. Even though the alignment feature failed, I was totally blown away with what I was able to see tonight! Can't wait to see what the rest of the sky has to offer! surprises!
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jgraham
Postmaster
Reged: 12/02/04
Loc: Dayton, Ohio
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: hoghead385]
#4319326 - 01/16/11 10:25 PM
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Cool! Have you calibrated the motors and trained the drives yet? GoTo's will pobably be off until these two steps are done.
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Bob Griffiths
Getting Grouchy
Reged: 10/10/05
Loc: Frederick Maryland
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: jgraham]
#4320111 - 01/17/11 10:27 AM
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Have no fear you will at some point not too far in the future master the alignment process...nothing diffcult about it ...
I have limited experience with Meades mounts (I still own and use a LXD55 Goto Mount) but Johns suggestion (well actually he is telling you that you MUST ..and I agree) calibrate the motors and train the drives First...
I do mine each and every night out with it ...
Bob G
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hoghead385
journeyman
Reged: 11/15/10
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: Bob Griffiths]
#4320202 - 01/17/11 11:08 AM
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Bob and John, thank you! I tried to access the calibration/training screen but always got blocked by the align screen so I called Meade Cus Support. A very helpful gentlemen walked me through the screens and got me to the training program. He also said this needed to be done before alignment so both you guys are right on the money. The Quickstart sheet for the scope never mentions this training process, maybe it should be added? Anyway, thanks again for your help. Going to be cloudy tonight so it'll be a couple of days before First Light Out II.
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hoghead385
journeyman
Reged: 11/15/10
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: hoghead385]
#4352562 - 01/31/11 10:03 AM
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First Light Report II. After training & calibrating the motor and drives, alignment was successful! Amazing when you get good advice and follow directions. Wasn't the best of nights as there was some cloud cover but I did get some good views of Jupiter and the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades. I tried to view M31 but never found it with the go to? Scanned manually but no go, will try again when better viewing. My only concern so far
with the scope is the tripod, extremely hard to focus with all the vibration. Maybe in the future I can put the scope/mount and a beefer tripod?? But, I was extremely happy and very excited about my new scope and look forward to clear nights in the future! Thanks again to all for the great advice!
Doug
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GeneT
Ely Kid
Reged: 11/07/08
Loc: South Texas
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Re: Meade LT-8SC (8")
[Re: hoghead385]
#4353690 - 01/31/11 05:24 PM
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Give us your first light report please.
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