By finishing focus while rotating the knob in the counter-clockwise direction, you give the primary mirror the best support, collimation, and it reduces the potential for the mirror to settle and move after you finish the focus. When you "pull" the mirror back, it slightly de-collimates your optics and ALSO the mirror may eventually settle on you in mid-exposure (that would ruin the image being captured at the time). When you "push" the mirror forward, it gets the best support from the bottom and also forces the mirror to rest in a properly collimaged position. This is because the focus knob either pushes or pulls on the primary mirror at the back of the scope and the mirror rides on a central baffle that has to allow at least a tiny bit of slop so that it can slide easily. The LX200 has mirror-shift when you reverse the direction of focus. When focusing the scope, always "finish" turning the focuser into focus in the counter-clockwise direction. My LX200 has an electric focus with visual back (standard 2" tube opening for a 2" eyepiece or 2" diagonal) and so my camera uses a 2" diameter nosepiece with the EOS t-ring. My scope can point straight up through the fork arms with an electric focus and my Canon 60Da attached and still have plenty of room so that there's no danger of the camera hitting the base if the optical tube tries to point straight up.Ĭheck the clearance on your scope (with camera attached) to make sure you are comfortable knowing that you have enough clearance - as this will avoid potential damage if you slew to a new target in the dark and the camera crashes into the base.
I have a 14" LX200 ACF - which has longer forks and I have a LOT of clearance behind the optical tube. When you connect the camera, connect it "straight through" (no 90º diagonal).
You'll be doing manual exposures and you'll want to know what your native focal ratio is. You'll want to know what focal ratio you have because when you use a camera with a telescope there's no adjustable f-stops like there is for a lens.
Most LX200 scopes are f/10, but there were some f/6.3 models and the new LX600 and LX850 models are f/8.