Meade LX850 German Equatorial Mount with StarLock without Tripod

The LX850 mount, constructed of machined stainless steel and aircraft grade aluminum, is a rock solid platform for the most demanding applications, with a 40kg payload capacity and pointing accuracy as good as one arcminute. Features include precision roller bearings on each axis, a 1.75 stainless steel RA shaft, 5.8" main gears, fine manual adjustment controls on both axes, illuminated reticle output port, telescope to computer USB cable and AutoStar Suite software. Mount main body weight is 25kg.

The kit includes StarLock – the revolutionary new technology that makes target acquisition on your imaging sensor and accurate guiding during exposures completely automatic. With Meade's exclusive LightSwitch technology at its core, StarLock uses an 80mm f/5 optic and two camera sensor system to provide computer assisted polar alignment using the drift method. Once aligned, the StarLock is guiding the mount in real time, and even automatically programs periodic error correction, achieving a guiding accuracy of up to 1 arcsecond in good seeing and with the capability of guiding on stars as faint as 11th magnitude.

The LX850 features DC servomotors on each axis with a maximum slew speed of 3° per second, allowing slewing 180° to the opposite side of the sky in one minute flat. Fine slewing and photographic guiding speeds can be adjusted from 0.01x to 1x sidereal, with faster slewing at 2x, 8x, 16x, or 1/4, 1/2, 1 or 3 degrees per second. The mount and all electronics are externally powered by the included Meade Universal Power Supply (12V). An external DC battery or power pack may also be used; Meade 607 Power Cord sold separately. The mount includes both mechanical locks and slow motion manual controls in both axes if for some reason you found yourself without power. Includes single 12kg stainless steel counterweight, additional weights sold separately.

Features:

• German Equatorial mount with 40kg instrument capacity
• StarLock dual imager full time autoguider
• Pointing accuracy as good as one arcminute
• Constructed of machined stainless steel and aircraft grade aluminum