Meade LXD 75-Series User Manual

MEADE’S LXD75 GERMAN EQ MOUNTby John Crilly IntroductionMeade’s LXD75 is their current medium- duty German equatorialtelescope mount. It re

AZIMUTH AND ELEVATION ADJUSTMENT BOLTSto place Polaris near the center of the polar alignment scope will permitaccurate GoTo operation and tra

To use the Autostar, some additional steps are required.Date/time/location/time zone information must be entered. The drivesmust be trained (usu

the left shows my preferred home position. Next, the alignmentprocedure begins, in which the user centers the alignment stars after themount moves

DEC WORM ADJUSTThat’s the only adjustment this unit required. I then powered it up andentered date/time/location/time zone

DUAL SOLAR SETUP AT ASTROFESTORION 120MM F/8 REFRACTOR I used the mount with the 8” Schmidt- Newtonian optical tube, a 120mmF/8 refractor, an

the telescope. The SN-8 was used for miscellaneous deep skyobservations and the GoTo accuracy after a good drive training andcareful three star ali

A quieter drive system would be nice. I wish Meade would offer thismount bare, with no optical tube. A handbox holder would be a goodadditio

disclaimersThe mount reviewed was purchased “blind” from Oceanside Photo &Telescope by the author. The author has no commercial relationship

Like all of those, it is an imported unit derived from Vixen’s Great Polarismount with a payload capacity for visual use of approximately

BATTERY HOLDER It is equipped with an illuminated polar alignment telescope. The cap forthis polar finderscope is ret

selectable. Meade specifies the pointing accuracy as being within 15arcminutes. This will suffice to place objects within the center half of thefi

What a user should knowAs with any equatorial mount, the user should be somewhat familiar withthe celestial coordinate system. This means that the u

Setup is straightforward. The tripod is shipped with the spreader andmounting bolt packed separately, so assembling the tripod is the firststep.

Loosening the azimuth adjustment bolts on the mount to provide a gapfor this dog, the mount is lowered onto the tripod head. Then themounting

COUNTERWEIGHT RETAINERThen the optical tube’s dovetail is inserted into the saddle. Excep

Using the mountFirst, the optical tube must be balanced in both axes. DEC axis balance RA axis balanceNext, the RA axis must be pointed at or near