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Pablo Rosell
 Tuesday, October 25 2011 @ 07:26 pm EDT (Read 3990 times)  
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Hi guys,
After a crazy busy year (finally got my PhD Wink ) and mayor mods to my lxd75 mount I finally found some time to image again!
This time I'm using just the Lumicon Deep Sky filter (no narrow bands, and no color). It looks like the mods paid off. I can guide for 20 min and get round stars! No random jumps in the dec axis while guiding. Here are the results of the last two nights.

Hope you like them,
Pablo

M31 (The Andromeda Galaxy) [WO ZS-66, DSI2-Pro, 20 subs, 10min each]:


M33 (The Triangulum/Pinwheel Galaxy) [WO ZS-66, DSI2-Pro, 10 subs, 20min each]:


M45 (The Pleiades) [WO ZS-66, DSI2-Pro, 12 subs, 10min each]:


Pablo - Fayetteville, AR
 
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nspace01
 Tuesday, October 25 2011 @ 11:08 pm EDT  
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Out Standing Pictures.................but most of all, cangradulations on your PHD...........We'll have to start calling you "Doc".................. Eek!


nSpace01
 
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Pablo Rosell
 Thursday, October 27 2011 @ 10:14 am EDT  
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Thanks Leonard! hahaha, nah. I think I rather stick with Pablo, haha.


Pablo - Fayetteville, AR
 
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lrjarhead
 Thursday, October 27 2011 @ 11:37 pm EDT  
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Pablo (Dr.),
Absolutly awesome photos!! Congrats!!
Mike


 
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Pablo Rosell
 Friday, October 28 2011 @ 08:27 am EDT  
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Thanks Mike!


Pablo - Fayetteville, AR
 
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dgrosvold
 Friday, October 28 2011 @ 11:37 am EDT  
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Gorgeous pictures, Dr. P Big Grin

Good to hear from you Pablo - we missed you over the past year or so. If I might ask - what kind of mods to you make to the LXD75?

I'm getting interested in the new Meade LX80 mount - it looks like it would be a great companion for my WO-110 Megrez.


Dave - Morrow, AR
 
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Pablo Rosell
 Saturday, October 29 2011 @ 01:25 pm EDT  
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Thank you Dave.

Looks like the LX80 is quite an improvement with respect to the LXD75. Or,..., you can add a zero to the model Smile

The three major upgrades I made were:
1) Altitude adjustment mechanism.
Here the RA housing was originally held in place to the mount base with a 12mm screw that had a lot of play. The adjustment screws pushed directly against the "V". This caused a lot of wear on a (soft) cast aluminum in one point.
Solution: Change the 12mm screw with a stainless steel axis running on a brass bushing. pushing two SS rods against the "V". This way the contact surface is a line instead of a point. For the rods to stay in place I had to concoct some kind of reel made with 1/8" brass square.

2) Worm housings.
I was finally able to add ball bearings properly to both axes worms. I bored the bushing to fit a 10mm OD ball bearing on the adjustment side and placed a similar ball bearing on the fixed side. They now run way smother and with virtually no play. Backlash is no problem anymore.

3) Change the original dovetail head with the ADM one.
This one is just a beauty. On top of it is the dual dovetail holder. Maybe in the future I might place an 8" SCT with Losmandy dovetail, for planetary imaging!

Since the mount was completely dismantled I took the opportunity to change the four ball bearings (still the original ones) with new ones. I knew at least one of the DEC ones was not well lubricated and not working as smooth as should (long time ago I thought it was a good idea to clean my mount and placed the bearing in thinner, duh!). I also had to repaint the RA housing because the original paint got into contact with thinner and dirt (Not a good combo).
Now the mount looks like those cars in the middle of a paint makeup. It has a big red piece (RA housing) a black piece (ADM accessories) and the rest is kept in its original pearl color.


Pablo - Fayetteville, AR
 
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