The LX85 8-inch ACF package includes an 8 × 50-mm fi nderscope, 9.7- and 25-mm Plössl
eyepieces, a 1¼-inch mirror star diagonal, and a SCT-to-1¼-inch adapter.qTop: The 8-inch ACF offers improved edge
performance compared with a standard
Schmidt-Cassegrain, producing round stars
over a wide fi eld. Bottom: In addition to the
AudioStar input (HBX) and dec cable connec-
tion, the RA axis includes an ST-4-compatible
autoguider port and an auxiliary port to connect
Meade’s optional focus motor.23 pounds without telescope or coun-
terweight. I had no trouble carrying
the assembled LX85 into the backyard.
There, I oriented the tripod so the
polar axis was pointed roughly north,
installed the counterweight and 8-inch
SCT, balanced the load, and plugged in
the power supply. The large handle on
the scope’s rear cell is a real help in get-
ting the tube mounted on the LX85.
A German equatorial mount needs to
be aligned so its polar axis points to the
celestial pole if it is to track the stars
accurately. The LX85 doesn’t come with
a polar-alignment borescope to assist
with this alignment, but one is available
as an option. Without it, I performed a
rough alignment by moving the mount
until I could see Polaris centered in the
hollow bore of the polar axis.
The next order of business was set-
ting up the mount’s Go To pointing.
The included manual instructs users
to line up pairs of arrow stickers on
each of the mount’s axes marking the
mount’s home position. When I tried
lining up the marks for the declination
axis, however, the locking lever bumped
into a motor housing. That didn’t seem
correct, so I checked the pictures in
the manual. It was evident that one of
the marks was 180° from its proper
position. This wasn’t a serious problem
since it was easy to align the mount by
eye. Moving the tube by hand gave me a
pretty good feel for the smooth motion
provided by the ball bearings Meade
uses on both axes.
Finally, I turned on the power and
the AudioStar’s red LED display came
to life. Before beginning alignment, the
LX85, like most Go To mounts, requires
the time, date, location, and daylight
savings time status to be entered with
the hand control. Once input, the
AudioStar instructed me to “Press 0 to
align, or Mode for menu.”
Choosing 0 brought up the Easy
Align mode, in which the controller
chooses two alignment stars, slews the
telescope to them, and then you center
the stars in the eyepiece. There are three
other alignment options, including
1-Star Align, 2-Star Align, and 3-Star
Align. In those modes, the user rather
than the computer chooses the align-
ment stars. While my experience has
been that it takes three stars to provide
good accuracy over the entire sky, I was
interested to see how the LX85 could do
with an Easy Alignment.
The computer chose Arcturus in
Boötes as its fi rst target and began slew-
ing to the star. When the scope stopped,
Arcturus wasn’t in the eyepiece but was
only a degree or so away. I centered it
in the 25-mm eyepiece (80×) using the
hand paddle’s direction buttons andskyandtelescope.com • JANUARY 2020 71
clicked OK. The second star, Vega, was
in the eyepiece when the scope stopped
slewing — a good sign.
Pressing the Mode key brought up
the Object menu where I entered “Deep
Sky” and then “Messier”. I input “M13”,
pressed Enter and Go To, and the tele-
scope began slewing in the correct direc-
tion. When it stopped and I put my eye
to the eyepiece, there was the globular
cluster glowing dimly. Nice! How about
M15, over in the east? In moments, the
bright little cluster was in view. It was
on the edge of the fi eld, but it was there.
I was off to a very good start.Optical Performance
Accurate Go To pointing is great, but
what really matters is how good objects
look in the eyepiece when you get to
them. Meade’s ACF optical design less-