For several years I have had trouble Plate Solving closer than about 450 pixel error with my LX600. As long as the pixel error in the Plate solve was set to 450 or higher it would always solve within two moves. If I tried setting the error down lower the scope scope would be close in two moves, but when it tried to solve closer the scope would keep over shooting back and forth and never get any closer. I recently did a scope reset after re-adjusting the RA gear mesh. I wanted to re-do everything from scratch. I always set the max slewing rate in the handset much slower than the default to be able to watch for cable drags and because of the cold temperatures up here in the mountains. On my first plate solve I noticed the scope slewing faster than I had set it the handset, and figured SGP was over riding the handset slew value. In the telescope settings I found the “HI, LO” setting had the “HI” checked and was set to 3 degrees/sec. I would use the nudge buttons to fine tune my final framing. I didn’t know this would affect the plate solving slew rates…but it definitely does!!! Leaving the “LO” button checked and setting the rate to 0.1 degrees made all the difference! I also changed the Plate Solving error back to 50. Now each move to target ALWAYS Plate Solves within three moves, and the final error is always 20 to 25 pixels. I tried using a pixel error of 30, but it would sometimes take four scope moves to solve. I wasn’t able to see the difference in the framing between the two settings, so now I leave the error at 50 and let it solve in three moves. I no longer need to use the nudge buttons to fine tune the framing as the target is now exactly where it should be. I checked with three other LX600 users, and none of them knew about this either. All of them now report the same result by changing these settings.
Just thought I would put this info out there for other Meade users…
John