Fred Ley

Hi Leon, You could visit the Meade Advanced Products Users Group (MAPUG) located at http://www.mapug-astronomy.net/ for further information on the issue that you are encountering. Relating to the Declination motor on your LX200, try this section in the MAPUG site at http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=lx200+dec+motor+replacement&sp-a=00040ed2-sp00000000 for article on the Declination motor. I am quite certain that if you contact Meade back in Irvine, that they will direct you to the dealer in your country to solve the problem. You may also need to inspect the gears to see if they are in need of some lithium grease to maintain their lubrication. The same also applies to your R.A. gear too. I have seen mounts that are old and the grease had dried up long ago. Hope this helps you out. -Fred

Hi kookoo_gr, Offhand I don't know where one would go, in the greater Athens area, to pick some up. You might start by giving one of the larger chain hardware stores or industrial supply stores a call. If they don't offer it they should be able to point you in the right direction so as to locate some. This stuff is great as it is light and easy to work with. -Fred

Hi, If you are familiar with English, try these two sites. The companies have been around for years and have many items. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/start.shtml and... http://www.bostongear.com/ -Fred

I recall joining Astromart back in 1998. I saw that in 2006 they were asking for new members to pay a $12.00 fee in order to join. It didn't affect the older members. But, wait, last year or earlier this year I suddenly discovered that I could no longer log in to view my account, etc. So I say to myself "What's up!" with this. I wrote to the folks at Astromart and received a really paltry reply that did not address any of my questions I had written. Simply it said "send $12.00 to join". Well, that really ticked me off. I would have expected the courtesy of bring informed about any changes that they decided to implement within their organization concerning older members that they now asking to pay the $12.00 joining fee. I am not complaining about the $12.00 but about the way that Astromart has selected to interact with its users. Grrrr... -Fred

Hi Sot78, I have the variable polarizer that Meade sells. It works just fine for me. One reason that I invested in the Meade filter is that I don't have to take the eyepiece out and unthread the filter each time that I want to use a different eyepiece. With a webcam attached to the filter, one can image the Moon and adjust the filter externally and view the image on a monitor-if need be. -Fred

Miles? Oh yeah, I love miles. Not to mention ounces, pounds, inches, feet and yards. Watching the Discovery channel messes me up as everything is in centimeters or kilometers. It forces me to do a quick conversion in my mind in order to understand what is going on. In some shows they use both systems of measurement. Go figure. -Fred

Hi Dimitri, Yes, money and portability. We have to deal with those two issues. I guess the best thing is get what you can afford now and at a latter point in time upgrade. I'd love a BIG scope, but again, if I can't transport it I will just end up looking at it and not through it. -Fred

Hi Dimitris, If money were no object, I would buy a C14 as its secondary has the least percentage of obstruction out of all the Celestron SC's at only 10.3%. A C11 is also a nice scope, collecting more photons than the C8 and the C9.25. Of course the "money thing" always come into question-from my own personal experience. I hope that you reach happy resolution in your quest for a telescope. Keep us posted. -Fred

George, You are correct in your assumption of the use of the yellow filter. Filters that thread on to an eyepiece can be used, but, they have to be 0.965-inch eyepieces and not the "normal" 1.25-inch eyepieces. I have five 0.965-inch eyepiece that came with my Polarex 2.4-inch refractor. On the down side of things, those eyepiece are not threaded for filters. I am certain that one could find a way to incorporate filters in they wanted to. -Fred

Nice link to close-up image of Comet Hartley 2. At... http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/epoxi/epoxi-1-20101104.html Live feed at... -Fred

For those "purists" out there, looking straight through a refractor is the only way to go. Of course they will, at times, be putting their body into some strange positions that can be uncomfortable. Buying a good quality mirror diagonal should be perfectly alright. You are not going to loose that much by the reflective surface and what minute amount is lost can probably only be measuered with some exotic piece of machinery. You can check some of the forums on Cloudy Nights Telescope Reviews for further information. they can be found at... http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat= Clear Skies, Fred

One great site that has a lot information is the Space Calendar site at JPL. It is at... http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/calendar/ You will see that all the postings are links to further information on that posting. There is a lot of information to look at-depending on ones interests. Give it a try. -Fred

Howdy, You may want to take a look at the MAPUG (Meade Advanced Products Users Group) web site. The site has been around for years and offers a LOT of information on Meade instruments. They are located at... http://www.mapug-astronomy.net/ -Fred

Hi Tommygolf, Another point to take into consideration is that some manufacturers will not honor a warrantey on a telescope that was not purchased through a local dealer. Say someone purchased a telescope in the U.S., for example. This is done to order to support the local dealer. I know that a dealer has a markup on a product in order to stay in business and cover their operating costs. At least they have taken care of the transport cost, insurance, import duties, etc. So the customer simple walks in, pays for the item, and walks out with it. Of course the final decision has to be ultimately made by the purchaser as to how they wish to proceed. -Fred

The camera can be used anytime. The main issue is obtaining the film for it. Since the negatives are 3.25 x 4.25 inches in size, it may be a bit difficult to locate them today. One may have to buy 4 x 5 inch negatives and cut them down to size. In 1971 I asked Kodak, here in Athens, about buying film. They said that there was film but that the order could not be only for one box. At the time I was 14 and did not have that kind of money to splurge on film. The lat time that I used the camera, I had plastic 3.25 x 4.25 negatives. Because the double film holders have a have a metal bar that puts pressure of the glass plate, I had to use some glass plates that I cut as a backing for the film. Today, with the eas o fthe digital equipment available, I believe that fewer people are using film. Throw in the home developing process and the amount of users will drop even more significantly. But it was always fun to print in the darkroom. In 1972 the astronomers at the National Observatory of Athens, located on the hill of Nymphs, let be use their darkroom to print. That was really generous of them. What I need to do is purchase a SBIG ccd camera along with an attachment for my Canon FD lenses which will then allow me to take some nice wide images of the night sky. Clear Skies, Fred

Your photo brings back memories along with the smell of the developing chemicals too. It is nice to be able to recognise all the items in your photo. I have two developing tanks, one that accepts two rolls of 35mm film and the other tank is for glass plates or sheet film up to 4x5 inches. I have the second tank because my old Unitron Astro-Camera uses 3.25 x 4.25 inch glass plates or sheet film. I wonder if the chemicals will be on the market for much longer, since the popularity of digital cameras has taken over. Below is an image of the Unitron Astro-Camera, minus the two tubes for connecting the camera and holding the eyepiece and filter, that I found on the internet. The camera came with a yellow filter, as opposed to the red filter shown in the photo, and a 30mm eyepiece. -Fred