CCD Imaging Primer
	Imaging Made Easy and Fun!

Initially my LX200 would only track reliably for 5 seconds. After balancing the scope in RA, I found I could go for 10 seconds (funny that the scope comes from the factory in an unbalanced state!). Finally, I programmed the LX200 SmartDrive (more widely known as PEC - Periodic Error Correction). Now I can go for 30 seconds, a significant improvement. Some have reported their LX200's being able to do several minutes after training the PEC! PEC is essential!

The generally accepted wisdom with regards to PEC is to:

Level your tripod

- RA corrections won't affect declination

Get a very good polar alignment

- no star drift will be due to misalignment

Get a star close to the celestial equator

- periodic error will be most obvious here

Do it in conditions of good seeing

- no star drift will be due to atmospheric turbulence

Do a single PEC training session only

- don't use the telescope's PEC averaging feature

Setting up PEC for your telescope drive system involves manually guiding on a star with a high power illuminated reticle eyepiece for 8 minutes (the time it takes to use the entire worm gear on the LX200). I like to use a 12.5mm reticle eyepiece in conjunction with a 2x barlow. The LX200 records each press of the E/W keys that you make. Later, whenever you are using your scope, the PEC feature continuously "plays back" these corrections to smooth out the errors in your particular worm gear.

When training the PEC, set the slew speed to "Guide" and be very fast with your keypresses -- the Guide speed is still 2-3 times faster than needed for these corrections and you don't want to overcorrect! (Hopefully Meade will make a slower Guide speed available in the future).

See your telescope's Owner's Manual for more info on PEC.