Lidl "Computer Telescope" forum

Orions Neb.
Before I'm accused of running you off the forum, just a few things.

I have made two posts, EVER to this forum. So far be it from me to give 'attitude' to someone as I'm a newbie here. In fact, I'm a newbie to the astronomy game in general.

All I meant by what I said previous is that I understand what your views on this scope are. You made your point very clear, repeatedly, in ALL the posts you made earlier.

I bought this scope because A. It's a Meade. and B. It was cheap.
I wish I had the cash to buy a big fancy telescope, but alas I had to resort to LIDL despite what was said.

Perhaps what you said regarding this telescope was the truth.
Maybe I was just unlucky.

All I need now is sound advice, not someone to say 'See, I TOLD you that you'd get some reject etc. because it's LIDL"'.

Perhaps I jumped the gun a wee bit, call it a pre-emptive strike.
You haven't made an enemy, so there no need to desert the forum so dramatically.

Apologies if I offended, I think I'm just used to people on web forums having thicker skin. :roll:

Hi,

Glad to see you got some use out of the scope, I'm still living under clouds! And only managed to train the drives against distant streetlights last night.

As for your problems, can you just screw the focuser back in? Sounds obvious I know...

The scrolling text on the autostar screen is always very hard to read. On all models.

The first course of action would be to call the number in the manual, they did include a 5 year warranty afterall. If that doesnt seem to be going anywhere then let us know, there are Meade dealers here who may be able to provide advice.

In fact can people mail me (albert.white@gmail.com) with the specific hardware problems they have and who they have contacted for replacements etc. ? I wont be able to do much but at least we will have a list of issues that we want sorted to provide to Meade/lidl.

Cheers,
~Al

p.s. regarding the autostar, I spent a lot of money on a scope ordered from a very reputable astronomy shop in the UK a couple of years ago and had to get the faulty autostar replaced. Just thought I'd mention that to point out that its not just because they are `supermarket scopes`.

Hi Al,
Neither the focus knob nor shaft that it should be attached to are threaded.....It's just a shaft and knob. On the knob itself, there's a hole on the side where the screw or rivet or whatever was used to affix the knob to the shaft was.

As far as I can gather, nothing 'fell out' as such. Just whatever method they used didn't quite bite the shaft hard enough, resulting in it coming off.

I will ring the number on the manual for sure. If someone has it handy and can post it that would be great as I won't be able to get the number until I get home.

I'll keep ye posted on my progress and will send an email to you Al.
Thanks for the help.

K.

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??

Marco,

Yes and no. What you can do is piggyback the camera onto the ETX, use a shutter release cable to keep the shutter open ("B") and simultaneously have a "high-power" eyepiece attached at the back of the OTA which you can use for guiding and/or small corrections.

In other words, locate and center a prominent star in the eyepiece field of view and make very small adjustments with the hand controller so that the star remains centered. I do not know if you have a choice of slew rates but, if you do, try something like 0.3 and 0.5x.

In the meantime, your piggyback camera is recording the widefield views and the very slight deviations and corrections generally will not be picked up by the camera and lens.

Anthony.

Anthony,
thanks for the advice, any tips for ataching the camera to the mount/telescope?

Hi Marko.....
I was checking out some site's for help on the ETX and came across this site....very nice accessories, including a mount for a camera.



The website is www.scopetronix.com/ .

For my particular problem, I found you can get an adapter to replace the existing focus-knob, as some folks found it difficult to access the focus knob when the telescope is near vertical. Accorinding to another website I found:

"The original knob has a set-screw that attaches it to the focusing control of the scope. The Scopetronix device comes with an Allen wrench to remove the original knob and install the flexible shaft in its place. "

Evidently, the 'set-screw' on my ETX-70 came loose....and promptly disappeared. I will be on my hands and knees looking for the bugger when I get home :lol:

So all is not lost!

Cheers,

K.