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Here you can see Scott Roberts standing next to the new RCX400 12" scope! The
fork arms are massive and this whole system is designed with astrophotography
in mind. Heavy duty solid piece construction with an eye towards rigidity and
vibration dampening is the constant theme throughout the build process. The
drive systems used in this scope have been precision-tuned by some users to a
degree that is normally only heard of in mounts costing $10,000.00 and up.
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This RC design with the Meade corrector is ground-breaking. Meade bonds the
secondary mirror to the corrector plate, which removes the need to cut and
possibly deform the corrector during that process. The secondary is bonded to
the corrector in a vacuum. This RC design is also greatly improved by Meade's
use of computer-designed internal full cut off baffling. Because of this
baffling, the RCX400 models are going to be exceptionally excellent visual
instruments at both low and high power.
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Here is a close up of the secondary baffle.
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Meade's newest vacuum chamber, all computer-controlled. This is where the
"UHTC" happens. The precision here is amazing. The coating depth is so thin,
just a few microns, and all is perfectly controlled.
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Here I am holding the new front corrector & rear mirror cell. This is the
part that moves in and out to achieve focus (it has 9 user settings to
parfocalize your eyepieces and imagers!). You can see the AWESOME kevlar carbon
fibre tube, it is just spectacular-looking in person. Of course, these are all
parts that are in the process of being put together and inspected!
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Here is a close-up the very cool kevlar carbon fibre design. Note the Meade
blue weave!!
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Here is an OTA with no mirrors so that you can see down the throat of the
instrument. You can see the carbon fibre focus/collimation drive shafts; the
drive motors are at the rear of the scope. It looks like the corrector will be
fairly easy to remove when you want to do any internal cleaning. Because the
front corrector moves in and out to achieve focus, it is a bit more open in the
front than your standard SCT, but this will make thermal equilibrium quicker to
achieve. Also, their are 2 temperature sensors, one in the fork arms and one on
the corrector plate. This will enable users to define when they want the
heaters to come on by using the difference in temperature between the two to
help determine local dew point. Very cool and innovative designs all the way
around!
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With the back cover removed from the OTA, you can see one of the focus motors
that moves with all the others in and out to achieve focus or individually to
collimate. Meade sets the collimation at the factory and presets a default so
if you get it WAY out and can't find your way back to collimation, you can just
tell it to go back to "0" and the motors will take you back to the factory
setting. Also, the mirror is FIXED. This will ensure you have no image shift
and will remove any of the deformations that may happen using mirror cells.
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Meade drive base, showing the new USB 2-powered HUB! This is but 1 of the 3
total USB ports on the scope. Also shown is the standard 12V DC power input.
There will be a new Meade AC adapter (I think the load is different from the
LX200 GPS), but the RCX400 will use the same #607 DC power cord. The drive base
very similar to the drive base used on the LX200GPS 14", with the oversized
polar shaft and balanced drives. They have a special jig and procedure at Meade
to set each of these at the factory.
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Shown here is the back of the OTA where the other half of the control ports are
fixed. Here you can plug in just about any accessory you can think of. Meade
even has a DB9 connector marked "Smart Accessories", but no amount of prying
got any detailed information... obviously more to come!
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Here is the fan at the back of the OTA. It will run when the scope is cooling
off (early in the evening, usually).
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Meade is now using Sony's GPS receiver, this is many times more sensitive than
its predecessor. All of Meade's current, newest, best architecture is present
in their newest RCX400 scope...GPS, LNT, UHTC...now, how about getting one PDQ
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That's NOT ALL, folks! Stay tuned for more exclusive photos of the new Meade
RCX400!
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