Drawing upon nearly 40 years of experience, Meade, continue to raise the bar with the LX850™ with StarLock™ German Equatorial Mount. Capable of carrying up to a 41kg (90lb) payload, with full-time automatic guiding and LightSwitch enabled high-precision pointing, the LX850 is the latest in a long line of advanced astronomical products.
The machined stainless steel and aircraft grade 6061-T6 aluminium construction means that the LX850 is a rock-solid platform. With precision roller bearings on both axes; a 1.75" stainless steel R.A. shaft; 0.68" diameter brass worms and 5.8" diameter, 225-tooth aluminium gears, the LX850 delivers smooth and precise movement. As you would expect, the LX850 is a fully computerised GoTo mount with GPS and comes with a database of over 144,000 objects. All this sets atop a new super-stable tripod.
The StarLock™ module includes two cameras. One camera has a super wide-field optic with LightSwitch style pointing and high-precision mode, capable of landing an object within 1 arc-minute. The other camera, with an 80mm F/5 optic is capable of guiding down to 1 arc-second and is sensitive enough to lock onto 11th magnitude stars automatically! Once the scope lands on a target, it begins to guide itself and all you really need to do is polar align, add a camera, focus, and open the shutter. StarLock even automatically programs periodic error correction also reducing any other errors down to virtually zero. Oh, and they've also included an electronic drift-align assist, which provides a simple routine for accurate polar alignment using the StarLock™ guider to measure the drift. There's no Longer any need for a separate guider or computer and the StarLock requires no user focusing or guide star selection. Wow!
Utilising revolutionary new technology, every aspect of this amazing mount system has been designed to deliver the new standard in Astro-photographic and visual performance.
Product Number 1208-80-01
Clear Aperature 12" (305mm)
Optical Design
Advanced Coma Free (ACF)
Focal Length 3048mm
Focal Ratio f/8
Telescope Mounting Heavy-duty German Equatorial
OTA Mounting Losmandy ®-style mounting plate
Optical Coatings Ultra-High Transmission Coatings (UHTC)
Resolving Power (Dawes Limit) 0.380 arc seconds
Secondary Obstruction (%) 16.86
AutoStar Controller Autostar II
Object Database 145,000 objects
Viewfinder 8x50mm with cross-hair reticle
Eyepiece HD-60 25mm, long eye relief, premium eyepiece
Diagonal 1.25" diagonal prism
Optional Focal Reducer/Field Flattener 2 inch diameter, 3 element, fully multi-coated, f/5 (designed specifically for LX800 f/8 ACF optical systems)
Optimal back focus distance at f/8 TBD
Optimal back focus distance at f/5 3.5 inches
Focus System Internal Crayford style zero image-shift primary mirror focus with dual speed 7:1 control
Primary Mirror Lock Not required due to internal Crayford style primary mirror focusing system
Slow Motion Controls Electronic
Control Panel 12v DC in, 12v DC out, Power, Focuser, Reticle, Handbox port, 1 computer connection port (RS232), 1 StarLock port, 1 Aux guide port
Total Instrument Capacity 90.0 lbs. (40.80 kg)
Counterweights Included. 2 x 18 lbs.
Zero Image-Shift Microfocuser Included
Accessory equipment mounting system Optional Series 5000 Auxiliary Equipment Mounting System
Power 12v DC 5 amp, using supplied Meade Universal Power Supply
Materials
Primary Mirror Low-expansion borosilicate glass
Secondary Mirror Individually figured with primary mirror for maximum correction. Low-expansion borosilicate glass
Correcting Plate/Lens Aspheric high-spectral transmission Borofloat glass from Schott AG Germany
Optical Tube Aluminum
Weights and Dimensions
OTA Weight TBD
OTA Shipping Weight TBD