Meade Instruments LX200 - Manual (Page 51)

Meade Instruments Corporation - Meade LX200 Instruction Manuals
this manual. Be sure to use your local hour setting appropriately in either 12 hour or 24 hour format as
predetermined by the 12/24 HOUR TELESCOPE menu file option.
The long-life lithium battery (Panasonic CR2032 3 volt or Duracell DL2032B) is stored behind the Power
Panel of the Drive Base. See Appendix E. in this manual for battery replacement information.
[ toc ] 4. Mode Four: TIMER/ FREQ
[ toc ] a. TIMER = Menu Option
The TIMER = menu option is for accurately timing different observing or imaging tasks for up to twelve
hours long. Counting down to zero, in the hours, minutes, and seconds format, it will give a pleasant
beeping tone to notify you that the time is up.
To set the TIMER, move the LCD arrow to TIMER= 00:00:00. Then press and hold the ENTER key to get
the double beep tone and the blinking cursor. Enter the number of hours, minutes, and seconds that you
require. If you need to correct an error in entry, use the E and W keys to move the blinking cursor and then
type in the correct information. After entry, press the ENTER key again and the cursor will eliminate. When
you are ready to start your time count-down, press the ENTER key once more. To pause the count-down
press ENTER again, and then again to resume.
If you merely want an automatic 12 hour count-down, just press the ENTER key without holding. Then
press ENTER to count-down.
[ toc ] b. FREQ= Menu File
FREQ= (Frequency) allows you to adjust the tracking speeds (not slew speeds) of the LX200 digitally in
tenths of a hertz from 56.4 Hz to 60.1 Hz, so that you can match virtually every celestial motion in the sky.
Some popular drive rate settings are:
Table 7: Drive Rate Settings
FREQUENCY RATE DESCRIPTION NOTES
60.1 Hz Q Sidereal Rate; Quartz setting
Default rate at power up. Gives sidereal
frequency accuracy to + or - .005%; Best for
most astrophotography.
60.0 Hz Solar and Planetary rate
Average rate for tracking planets; Actual rates
vary due to retrogrades, oppositions, etc.
57.9 Hz Lunar rate Best for tracking the Moon.
Note: If you have trained the Smart Drive in the 60.1 Hz Q setting (see SMART menu file in this section),
you will find that Smart Drive will still give periodic error corrections in all of the other frequency settings.
There are three menu file options in FREQ=. To see or set the options, move the LCD arrow to FREQ= and
press the ENTER key. At power up, the FREQ= default is the 60.1Hz Q setting. The quartz rate is precisely
fixed and cannot be altered. To choose a rate other than the quartz setting, press the ENTER key to see
60.1 M and then again to see 60.1 M with the up and down LCD arrow. These two menu file options can
adjust the tracking speeds. The adjustment techniques are described below:
http://www.meade.com/manuals/lx200/g.html (15 of 16) [7/29/2002 7:28:04 AM]