overall winner-meade etx80tc

[earthman]

according to this months sky at night magazine, the above scope was the overall winner, the others were, sky watcher skyliner-200 dobsonian, bresser messier n130 reflector, celestron firstscope 90 eq refractor.

anyone have any comments, is it really the best one to buy for around the £200 mark?

[carlos_dfc]

Originally Posted by earthman

anyone have any comments, is it really the best one to buy for around the £200 mark?

In a word - No!

I think the only reasons the ETX won that contest was the weak competition, and the Goto feature.
Optically - although the meade isn't a BAD scope, it is a street behind a half-decent 8" newtonian, like the SkyWatcher 200, on light-grasp and resolution alone.

If I were offered those scopes for free - I'd take the Dob first, and probably the 90mm longer focal,length Celestron refractor second,
The Meade would only be my third choice because the 130mm EQ-mounted reflector is a poor example (Bresser Messier)
If it had been a SkyWatcher Explorer 130 reflector instead, I'd have also chosen that over the ETX too.

I'm not a big fan of SMALL Goto scopes.....
OK - they may help a beginner to find things - BUT - this will be very short-lived because the limited light-grasp means that it will only be capable of showing the brighter, better-known, deep sky objects - and most enthusiastic beginners will be able to find them without the Goto, within a few months.
The ETX-80 is capable of pointing at many more, dimmer objects, unfortunately, the small aperture means that you won't be able to see most of them - so what's the point of it?

I'd much rather have the light-grasp to actually 'SEE' some of the dimmer objects - then have the satisfaction of also finding them myself - a feeling that's hard-to-beat, and very addictive

[earthman]

i did think it was strange why the meade won the group test, i don't know much but i guessed that the 80mm lens was not great, after all i have 70mm on my binoculars.

**NEW** EXPLORER-130PM With Free DVD telescope astronimical sky so for £180 this is a better bet, i do like the 200 but at £340, i don't know if i can get my budget to stretch to that.

ok, silly questions but does the motorised system on both those scopes lock on and track an object automatically, once you have found it? or is that what a go to system does?

collimation, how easy/hard is this to do?

[carlos_dfc]

Hi - yes the motor system will track an object once you have found it.
That's the beauty of an equatorial mount.

When you set up the scope - you point the central axis of the mount (The R.A. axis) at the North Celestial Pole. This is a point in the sky VERY close to Polaris (the Pole Star)
Once you have done this 'Polar Alignment', tha RA axis will be parallel with the Earth's rotation axis (a very easy procedure to do - it's just a matter of turning a few screws, and watching for Polaris in the viewf=inder)
So now - all the motor does is rotate the RA axis of the mount very slowly - it is set to match the speed that the earth rotates, so that once you have locked on to a star, cluster, galaxy etc - it will stay in your field of view for as long as you want.

Collimation is the alignment of the mirrors in a reflector scope - and it's actually a lot easier than it sounds - the first time you do it may seem a little daunting, but once you have done it, and understand what it is you are aligning, it becomes very easy.
And with the laser collimators that are available these days, it is even easier.

And as for the 80mm Meade - assuming you can find the objects, you will see as much through 70mm binos, as you can see through an 80mm scope - just on a smaller scale (lower magnification)
The fact of using TWO eyes, has a mild cumulative effect, so 70mm for each eye, will bring out as much, maybe more, than 80mm in ONE eye.



edit:-
If you are interested in the 130, beware, there are TWO versions.
One at 650mm focal length, and one at 900mm
The 650mm is the one to get because it has a superior parabolic mirror - the 900mm version is cheaper, but that is because it has a cheaper 'spherical' mirror. Spherical mirrors struggle to give nice sharp images when you get the magnification up above anout 75x.
Look for the designation 'P' after the number 130 - the P means parabolic (incidentally, the 'M' means motorised - they are also available - cheaper - without the motor kit)