Meade ETX

[jcd123]

Hi

Can anyone tell me if there is any great difference between the ETX 80 and the ETX 90 (dont say 10) in performance.

I know the price is very different.

I am after an easily portable goto are there any others to consider like celestron nexstar maybe?

Thanks

John

[Flying Astronomer]

My own personal opinion, because I have owned one in the past, is that ETX scopes are a complete pile of rubbish.

[Flying Astronomer]

I should have given my reasons for my opinion about ETX:

(1) The computerised handset is a nightmare to use.
(2) The mount is relatively poorly made and unstable.
(3) Pointing accuracy is poor
(4) Optics are very good, in fairness
(5) Focusing is wildly 'floppy'; it feels like something's loose in the mechanism, and is difficult to achieve fine focus. I found it almost impossible to focus for imaging.
(6) I sold it after less than 6 months!

In comparison, even on simple mounts, the Skymax series are robustly built, have silky-smooth focusing, and optics as good as the ETX.

[nytecam]

The ETX80 is a short focus refractor [giant monocular] ok for wideangle views of nightsky or daytime landscape.

The ETX-90 [and larger apertures] are superior Maksutov optics but slower f/10 ideal for planetary/ lunar viewing but pretty good for the brighter deepsky objects too.

Both scopes on the same type of mount but with the longer focal length Maks the set-up before a session is more critical.

I have a ETX-70 refractor and love it and it makes a perfect astrograph and even from my suburban home it outperforms big Dobs from dark locations. My hompage at Meade ETX-70AT
This page also links to my Meade DS2090 and Meade LX200 recent imaging etc.

Nytecam