The Meade manuals aren't exactly great and miss out lots of useful tips that you end up finding out on forums etc. I've put in a few below that I can remember which will be of help if you're just getting to grips with an LX200R or ACF;-


Do not enter the time, date or position of your site if you have an LX200 with GPS. This will interfere with the information your LX200 receives via its GPS and the scope will not be accurate.

When you align the scope the handset will tell you to centre on the brightest star, and in my experience I often couldn't work out which star in the eyepiece was the brightest, and therefore I'd guess and the alignment would be off. Go to the UTILITIES menu and find the menu header BRIGHTEST STAR, and select it to OFF. Now when you align your scope the handset will display the name of the star to centre on. Use a star map or free program such as Stellarium (on my free software links page) to work out which star you're meant to be centring on. To make sure Stellarium works correctly the time and your location has to be set. Once done, click on the magnifying glass icon in Stellarium, type in the name of your star and use that reference to centre the correct star in the eyepiece.

After selecting an object to look at, always press ENTER on the handset before pressing GOTO. If you don't press ENTER before GOTO then the coordinates probably won't be correct and the scope will often slew to somewhere other than what you were hoping for. I normally press ENTER twice just to be sure. I never found this mentioned in the Meade manual and it had me pulling my hair out for days.

Synchronising on stars helps the scope's accuracy. This is very simple, select a star and let the scope slew towards it. The scope will often be close but not always perfect. Centre the star in the eyepiece using the handset and then hold down ENTER for a couple of seconds. The handset will then say something about synchronising on that star, press ENTER again and the handset will now tell you it's synchronised. Do this each time you look at a star as it only takes a few seconds. I only normally do this on stars, not deep sky objects or planets.

I always turn on High Precision as this helps the scope's accuracy. When you have High Precision selected to ON, when you press GOTO the scope will slew to a star near to your chosen object. The handset then tells you to centre that star in the eyepiece and then press ENTER. The scope will then slew to your chosen object and hopefully it'll be bang on. This is really helpful when your chosen object is a faint galaxy and you want to image as at least you know the scope should be pointing at your object, even if you can't see it. High Precision has to be turned on every time you turn the scope on as the handset does not remember this setting. To turn High Precision on, select SETUP, then TELESCOPE and then HIGH PRECISION. Once you've selected TELESCOPE go backwards once (press left arrow) on the menu as HIGH PRECISION is the last on the list of 20 options.

Although the system has GPS which tells it the time, you do have to have to have DAYLIGHT SAVING set correctly. Have it set to on between the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October, and off for the rest of the year. This option is found in the SETUP menu.

If you want to return to the basic menu at any point, for example if you want to exit the long-winded Tonight's Best menu, hold down MODE for a few seconds and you should return to the top menu.

I've got my scope on a permanent mount, so when I switch it off I select UTILITIES from the top menu, then hit the left arrow once to go to PARK SCOPE and press ENTER. The scope will then move and tell me to switch it off. When I switch the scope back on it's ready to go without having to align, saving a lot of time.

Reduce your slew speed as this will reduce wear on the mount's gears. This is found under SETUP, TELESCOPE and then MAX SLEW RATE. I've reduced mine to about half. This is still more than fast enough, and far quieter, which is great if you don't want to wake the neighbours.

Training the drives can be beneficial. This is easier to do in daylight. You will need to centre the scope on a fixed point in the distance if you can see one. Choose SETUP, TELESCOPE and TRAIN DRIVES. The handset will tell you what to do and it's very straight forward.

I haven't bothered to Calibrate Sensors or do any PEC training although I know others do and swear by it.

If you've got your LX200 permanently mounted in a shed/observatory then remember to bring the handset in when you're finished as they don't like moisture. I had to get mine replaced due to leaving it out with the telescope.

I'll add more tips as and when I remember them.