I recently received a family member's 10" Meade LX50 EMC telescope with equatorial wedge and tripod and star diagonal along with some assorted wires and hand controllers. The telescope is maybe 25-30 years old and has been in the original box with foam for at least the last decade. The mirror looks fine and the corrector plate looks a little dusty but otherwise corrosion-free.
When I've tried to use it, I noticed the focus was soft or mushy and seemingly wouldn't hold for very long. It's hard to explain but the focus knob doesn't seem to respond the same predictable way as other telescopes I have. I'm assuming it needs collimation. Bright out-of-focus stars show the central obstruction slightly off-center. I definitely don't have a low power enough eyepiece to use with it since it only has a 1.25" diagonal.
I'm also not familiar with fork mounts like this so I don't know if it works or not. As far as I know, it's motorized and it tracks but does not offer go-to. If I turn the mount on, a red light comes on, but I can't tell if it actually works. There are a lot of telephone jacks and other wire ports but I'm not sure what goes where or what's necessary. I understand these mounts are notorious for not working after a long time in a box. If I need to defork it and mount it on another mount, any suggestions on what could handle something this big? My long term plans before this unexpected windfall have been to get a ZWO AM5 mount for imaging, would that hold it?
For reference, I have an 8" dobsonian for visual use and a small refractor and DSLR setup for imaging. But I've never used an SCT before. I think I'd like to start out just for visual use but imaging with it would be a long term goal. Any advice would be great, I'd love to make use of what seems like a great scope!
If the telescope has been sitting a long time (ie: years), it might be good to run the focuser completely from one end to the other a few times to redistribute the baffle grease - the scope focuses by moving the primary mirror back and forth along a baffle tube that you're looking through. If you turn the focuser knob in one direction like 20-30 times, it should stop eventually, Then turn it the other way until it stops. Do that again 2 or 3 times and hopefully the focuser will behave better.
What is your shortest eyepiece? I usually collimate my SCT with a 6mm Ortho which gives me 333x. That would give over 400x in your scope, I believe. Collimation is one key to getting these scopes to perform their best, and doing the collimation in focus at high power is critical. If you don't have the manual for the scope, here is a link:
https://deepskies.co...lx50_manual.pdf
For the fork mount - the forks point to Polaris (if you're in the northern hemisphere). I usually put my EQ wedge on the tripod, and then use the hole for the 3rd (top?) bolt to line up with Polaris before I actually put the scope on the mount. That visual sighting is usually sufficient for the tracking motor to keep things in the eyepiece for a while. To test if your mount is working, set it up in the backyard and aim it at a street light or something else you can focus on. Then turn on the drive - if the image moves slowly (sometimes it takes a few minutes to notice it) then things are working. Again, read the manual and it will explain about the axis locks and getting polar aligned.
I have an 8" Meade SCT and I deforked it and put it onto an EQ5 mount. I'd suspect you'd need at least an EQ6 for a 10" SCT. The tube probably weighs 22lbs naked, so adding accessories and optionally cameras means about 30lbs. You'll want your mount to be capable of double that if you want steady views. I have no idea if the ZWO AM5 is up to that task.
Let us know how you make out, and if you feel inclined, we always love pictures of these classic scopes!
