Lidl "Computer Telescope" forum

Hi Marko, Albert and All,
I took the scope out tonight for "first light", the optics
It seems ok, the usual chromaic abberation you'd get in any achromat scope was present.
I had a good look at the moon, some nice fine detail there, saturn was real small, when I pumpoed up the magnification it got bigger but not much clearer, there was no sign of the cassini division but then again it wasnt high in the sky, so we'll see next time, its times like those you appreciate the power of a 12" scope.
also tried the orion nebula but all I got was the central stars, too much moon glow. The pleiades were fab, nice and blue and easily fit into the field of view, so overall, no nasty surprises.

I have to say that I was skeptical about the barlow, but it works surprisingly well, no real image degradation with it, except for the highest power eyepiece where there is some serious reflections going on with the moon. Without the barlow, the scope is like a medium power
"single binocular", the barlow turns it into a telescope.

I tried the meade 4000 super plossels against those suppleid with the ETX, and the 4000s showed a sharper image, easier to focus, but then again, just 2 of those eyepieces is over twice as dear as the entire ETX setup, or atleast thery were before the end of line sale started this month, they're now going for half price, nows the time to stock up on these good eyepieces.

I did a very rough goto setup and it worked pretty well, although I'll need to train the drives.

As for photography, I think puting a SLR camera at the end of the scope without a counterbalance on the tube might be a bad idea,
scopetronix.com have all kinds of stuff for the ETX, such as adapters for attaching your camera to the end of the scope and piggyback brackets and even counter weights. If the scope is too unbalanced, you'll either strain the motors or the tube might slip down or up,

I dont know if this drive is good enough to take long (anthing longer the 30 seconds) exposure photographs through the end of the scope, time will tell.

You might want to try using the philips toucam pro and the barlow for getting images of the planets, you could use the eyepiece location for that.

Anyway, thats my 2 cents...

Dave, can u please give me a link to the Tesco priced SERIES 4000 plossl's that you mentioned, must get one or two now I have a "new toy" to play with
Hope I will make more use out of it then my other two although I have a lot of catching up to do on Cathy, must find out how to reset mine, put in Dublin as default location only to find that I couldnt re enter it, is Cork or Limerick available in the menu? damn manual, dont feel like opening it, know something Dave, it looks fine, im happy out with my 169€ purchase, Orion, you could also have bought 3 of these for the price of one in a "well known Dublin shop" in case all the parts were not in the box !!!!
Charles

So if I were to piggy-back my camera on the ETX with a standard 50mm lens just to take some constellation shots would 30 seconds be the longest I could expose for without noticing field rotation? Has anyone got a wedge for sale??

Hi Folks,
Got the first chance to use the new ETX lastnight. My first target was the moon, nice clear sky and a very bright moon. I had the scope pre-assembled so just attached the Barlow and bits n bobs and off out I went.
Got some lovely views of the moon anyway, craters, ridges etc. But thats when it happened. Now before I explain what happened, I kindly ask Mr. Orions Neb to refrain from guffawing and continuing his rant ; I'm looking for genuine comments please, no 'I told you so's.

I changed the lens to a higher magnification, and was in the process of focusing, when the focus knob dropped off the shaft and landed on the base of the scope. Luckily it didn't fall into any nooks or crannys on the ground.

It would seem that the focus knob is secured to the focus-shaft(?) by a screw that is tightened against the shaft, and then the base of the screw is removed at the factory so it appears nice and clean.

So I'm going to put the cogs in motion to try and get this sorted. I had another issue with the LCD display on the star-computer bit aswell. In daylight when the star-comp was off, there seemed to be a 'puddle' (for lack of a better word) of LC in the middle of the LCD that made it very hard the read the scrolling text when it was turned on.

Anyhooo. It appears I got the lemon of the bunch Not to worry though.
I know it might sound odd but I genuinely was impressed with the rest of the package. My previous scope was a Celestron reflector.......all very plasticy and wobbly compared to the Meade.

Anyone else having similar problems? Is the best course of action to go to LIDL or Meade directly?

Thanks in advance for any help!

K.

Hi everyone.

It seems like ive made a couple of enemies for reasons I don’t understand.
All I did was spoke the truth.

If this is the attitude I get here, that means I wont be welcomed into the local astronomy club? Never mind its my fault, I should of kept my mouth shut. I thought I was reasonable in all my posts and if I offended anybody I apologize. So what I will do now is stop posting and you wont here of me again. That way it will be easier for everybody.

Thanks to you all for replying to my posts, its been interesting.
A special thanks to you albertw….for letting me pointing out my views and giving me the benefit of the doubt…..thanks very much.

All the best

Orion.

Ps……sorry to hear about what happened to your scope krusty……honestly
The lads on here will help you out. I think dave lillis has mentioned the LCD screen its only a minor thing something to do with contrast or other.

If this is the attitude I get here, that means I wont be welcomed into the local astronomy club? Never mind its my fault, I should of kept my mouth shut. I thought I was reasonable in all my posts and if I offended anybody I apologize. So what I will do now is stop posting and you wont here of me again. That way it will be easier for everybody.

hi Orions neb,

I haven't contributed anything to the posts on the Lidl scopes as I have to confess I'm a happy binocular user and wouldn't really have use for a telescope (no room in the house either!) I have had two telescopes over the years but sold one and donated the other to the SDAS group.

I wouldn't take the comments too harshly on the early threads because forums thrive on heated discussions -- as long as nothing libellous or personal insults don't get traded. Without being able to meet people face to face it's easy for words to appear cruel but there is no malice or intent to hurt. Apologies on behalf of the group if that has been the case.

hopefully you will continue to be part of the IFAS forum and contribute to future discussion on all aspects of the hobby -- after all, it's human nature to debate.

all the best,

John
South Dublin Astronomical Society.