GENERAL FEEDBACK Last updated: 30 September 2008

This page is for user comments and information of a general nature or items applicable to all ETX, DSX, and DS models. Comments on accessories and feedback items appropriate to other ETX and DS models are posted on other pages. If you have any comments, suggestions, questions or answers to questions posed here, e-mail them to me and I'll post them. Please use an appropriate Subject Line on your message. Thanks.

Subject:	ETX-125 Hard Stop
Sent:	Tuesday, September 30, 2008 17:34:14
From:	H* Schaeffer (w4ynd@inbox.com)
I'm sure you have this somewhere on your web site but I can't find it.

The azimuth hard stop on my ETX-125 broke.  How do I get to it to see if
it's something I can fix?  I've looked on your site, and I've looked in
my scope base, and I can't find the info anywhere.

Also, what broke it was, I went to use the scope last night, and found
it would turn about 300 degrees before hitting a hard stop each way.  I
tried turning it back and forth until it hit each stop, and when one of
them "clunked" and let it past, they were both gone.  What caused it to
suddenly go only 300 degrees?

Harden

Harden Schaeffer

Subject:	ETX 125 Gear box replacement
Sent:	Tuesday, September 30, 2008 11:40:22
From:	Kevin Wright (kevinwright766@btinternet.com)
My Meade ETX 125 (two years old) needs a new gear box. It will move up
and down, but emits a loud clicking noise when I try to get it to move
right to left. Can you help?
 
Many thanks
 
Kevin

And:

Thanks for the response and advice. I haven't taken the base off myself.
Diagnosis is from a Belfast based telescope dealer. He tells me a new
gear box fitted by Meade would be 120.00 plus about 60.00 for round-trip
postage. I am collecting the telescope on Thursday and I will follow
your advice and let you know how I get on

Thanks again

Kevin

Subject:	My ETX 125 PE First Use
Sent:	Tuesday, September 30, 2008 06:36:14
From:	Ted Trostle (tctrostle@verizon.net)
After almost 10 years when other responsibilities took me away from
amateur astronomy, I found my interest was still strong. So I purchased
a new Meade ETX 125 PE. WOW!...is about all I can say. The first light
it passed for me was a spectacular view of Jupiter and 5 of it's moons.

I am amazed at the quality of the images and how much the technology has
improved since I made my 8 inch DOB in 1995.

Being that I am still a beginner I would like to ask what basic
accessories I should consider buying.

I have ordered the LPI camera, but I was thinking about filters for it.
Any thoughts?

Also where can I find instructions for using Paintshop Pro for enhancing
the photos I will be taking?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Ted Trostle
State College, PA.

Subject:	Drive Problem
Sent:	Sunday, September 28, 2008 10:25:09
From:	Steve Hollar (sjhollar@dslextreme.com)
I just read the email from John Watson about the "rubberbanding" affect.
I have the same problem. I think it would be more apt to describe it as
a "do not stop on red" problem. Rubberbanding sounds like you would slew
to a particular position, release the arrow key, and the object would
start moving back to your original position. This is just the opposite.
I will press the arrow key, the object starts moving, I release and it
just keeps on moving in the same direction.

A sort of fix I have figured out is to give the opposite arrow key two
or three quick presses. That usually stops the motion and holds it.

On the other hand, I have a problem with sudden motion. I achieved a
very nice Polar Alignment last night. I tried to image the North
American Nebula using one minute exposures. It did pretty good for about
eight images, then, it started rapidly drifting off the FOV. I'm hoping
it is not some internal problems with the gears, but, if it is at least
it is under warranty.

Steve Hollar 

And:

Thanks Mike. That is what I'm hoping. I'll give it a try today.

Subject:	ETX, of course
Sent:	Saturday, September 27, 2008 08:42:58
From:	James Rosendahl (jpr948521@hotmail.com)
As I read this letter, all I could thing was to ask if he is hitting
enter after repositioning his FOV. He should hit enter and hear an
audible beep confirming update.
 
Just a thought!
 
-Jim

And:

Subject:	AZ/ALT %
Sent:	Sunday, September 28, 2008 00:28:31
From:	Henrik van Holthoon (henrik.van.holthoon@wanadoo.fr)
Hello John,

Apart from the advise from Mike you could also change the AZ/ALT
percentage start i.e. At 15 % see if this helps if not go a bit higher
i.e. 20% until rubber-banding disappears. Or go lower if it not solves
the RB problem but go higher first.

You find this command under setup, telescope and scroll until you find
the AZ/ALT % command.

Regards Henrik

And:

From:	John Watson (john.watson@clara.co.uk)
Hi Henrik.
 
Thanks for this additional information.  I'll certainly try it and let
you know how I get on.
 
Weather permitting.
 
Regards
 
John

And:

Subject:	Re: AZ/ALT %
Sent:	Monday, September 29, 2008 01:58:37
From:	John Watson (john.watson@clara.co.uk)
Thanks, Mike.   "Rubber-banding"...?  Man, it's a different world...
 
John

Subject:	ETX, of course
Sent:	Saturday, September 27, 2008 02:32:59
From:	John Watson (john.watson@clara.co.uk)
I seem to email you only when I want something!   Sorry...

Advice?  My ETX 125 PE is working very well (at least, subject to the
lousy English summer this year) and in alt-az mode the Autostar puts
pretty well anything in the field of view of a 30mm eyepiece.  However,
I have a problem keeping an object centered when using even moderate
magnification.  It's like this: when my target drifts off-center after
a while, I need to use the slow-motions to re-center it of course.  I
can get the object back in the middle of the field no problem, but then
the telescope decides for itself to move it over, usually right out of
the frame!

I guess this has something to do with the backlash compensation.  I've
re-run "drive training" a couple of times, with no effect.  But
anti-backlash shouldn't be involved if I'm manually centering an image,
should it?

It's probably due, as my wife sometimes says, to me working at the
extreme limits of my intelligence.  But can you help?
 
All the best
  
John

Subject:	Re: ETX-125 ota + suitable mount
Sent:	Tuesday, September 23, 2008 22:43:44
From:	p. p.
I'm not interested in astrophotography and I think it would defeat the
purpose of using my ETX-125 as a grab and go.
-Phoebiee

And:

Thank you fro the advice. Now if I could only track down an LXD-75... 
-Phoebiee

Subject:	ETX-125 ota + suitable mount
Sent:	Tuesday, September 23, 2008 07:02:37
From:	p. p.
Hello. I have the spotting scope version of the ETX-125. I love this
scope to death.

My problem is the mount that I got with it (a Bogen Manfretto). Having
to move my scope manually (with my binoviewers) is a real pain in the
unreachables. I am thinking about getting the Orion Teletrack mount (EQ
mounts are useless to me). Would this be a good choice, or are there
other suitable mounts for my scope?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Phoebiee

Subject:	My sky computer chip
Sent:	Saturday, September 20, 2008 02:40:00
From:	Louis Welke (wwtpoper@yahoo.com)
Yesterday I received a new computer chip for the "My sky" I have and
decided to make a backup of this chip in case something happens to erase
the original.

It was a 256 mb chip and after I copied all the files back to the
original 256 mb chip that was cleaned off by trying to upgrade My sky I
placed the chip that received the info back in the My sky and it would
not work and I had to pull out a battery to shut the unit off.

Is there something in My sky that will not recognize a copy of their
chip and only the original one you get with it?

Otherwise all the info seemed to transfer ok to the first 256 chip I
had.

Thanks again Mike.

Lou Welke

Subject:	ETX 125 wiring diagram needed
Sent:	Thursday, September 18, 2008 14:57:18
From:	praesepe44@aol.com (praesepe44@aol.com)
I've visited your web page often, but never had a question before.  I'm
hoping someone out there might have a wiring diagram for an ETX-125EC
mount.  I bought the mount used, minus the telescope, hoping to adapt it
to an older telescope.  The mount is currently inoperable.  There seems
to be a wiring problem, but I can't be sure.  Thanks in advance for any
help you might be able to give me on this.

Carol

And:

Thanks for the quick response to my e-mail.

The mount came with a standard EC handcontroller .  We also have an
AutoStar 497 that is supposedly able to be used with it.

I will have my husband check out the Telescope Tech Tips page this
weekend.

Carol

Subject:	Fed Up
Sent:	Friday, September 19, 2008 13:58:08
From:	Jason (jay.ukdriver@btinternet.com)
1 Meade ETX 125 PE door stop... I'm honestly HUGELY dissapointed with
this telescope. I spend most of my observing evening trying to get the
damned thing aligned then I spend the rest of the evening trying to get
the AWFUL LPI to focus on anything,

Put me right off astronomy...I think I'd rather pull my own teeth than
spend another night trying to get this 1000 piece of junk to do
anything...

And an update:

Subject:	Eureka!
Sent:	Saturday, September 20, 2008 15:30:48
From:	Jason (jay.ukdriver@btinternet.com)
I'm FINALLY outside doing some useful observing after having a "eureka"
moment. It doesn't really matter if I get a successful align, as long as
the telescope knows where it is (regardless of time) it will track any
object I centre! As you well know, all the scope is doing when tracking
is negating the Earth's rotation (that was my eureka).

As for aligning properly, I've tried everything. Every
diagnostic/calibration step I can take I have and still every time it
slews to a star for alignment there is nothing in the targeting gadget.
I plan on shooting a video of the steps I take tomorrow night and
posting it on YouTube so you can maybe diagnose what I'm doing wrong.

Anyway, I thank you personally and sincerely for your enthusiasm. I was
ready to take a helicopter to 6000ft and throw this telescope but now I
have my eureka, and even got my DSI to focus on the moon (which has now
stubbornly decided to go behind a tree) I've had my developing passion
for the hobby renewed.
 
Cheers buddy,
 
Jason

Subject:	etx 90 issue
Sent:	Monday, September 15, 2008 12:23:06
From:	Ron Vavra (ronvavra@bellsouth.net)
Last night I tried for the first time to take some pix with my new
camera adaptor and as I was starting to sight on the moon the telescope
tube just dropped to vertical.

Now no tightening of the left or right knobs does anything. I seem to
remember seeing somebody refer to this problem but I can't find it.

Do you know what the problem is or where I can find help with it?
 
Great site, thanks,
Ron

And:

Thanks so much. I went to the site and downloaded the installation
instructions which I can use to take the scope apart to diagnose per
your comments, before ordering the part.
Thanks,
Ron

Subject:	Re: JMI MotoFocus
Sent:	Monday, September 15, 2008 10:08:54
From:	John Edelmann (edelmann@hcst.net)
Okay ... like I said, it it is definitely a torque issue ... when the
knob of the JMI focuser is tugged in the direction of the brass moto
pulley, it gets much harder to turn, than when it isn't.  The o-ring
effectively causes it to torque ever so slightly, but enough to result
in the o-ring slipping on the brass pulley.  The brass bit turns just
fine ... but the focuser knob remains stationery.
John.

Subject:	ETX125PE hits hard stop during Go-To after alignment
Sent:	Saturday, September 13, 2008 19:20:33
From:	Philbert Ang (phil_ang@telus.net)
This is a rather long email.  I hope you'll bear with me.
 
First of all, thank you for hosting this site dedicated to the Meade ETX
and their other Go-To telescopes.  I would just like to say that it has
been so helpful to me.  I am aghast at the inaccuracies and inadequacy
of my Meade ETX-125PE's operation manual.  It is unthinkable for a
manufacturer to come up with such a lame manual for a high-precision
device.  Anyway, I currently own an astrotube version of the ETX-125PE
which I purchased on April Fool's Day of 2008 from Astronomics.  I have
so far taken it out about 6 times since I received it. Everytime I spend
with it has so far been a learning experience.  I would like to share a
very weird incident with my scope on my latest outing last night.  Here
it is.

Before I go on with my story, I would like to give a backgrounder of
what I have done so far with the scope (in the correct order):
1.    Executed a RESET.
2.    Re-enetered my favorite custom SITE.
3.    Changed the battery of the LNT.  It won't keep time anymore.
3.    After changing the battery, entered the correct TIME.  I noticed
that you have to enter the actual time (in my case DST) and set DST to
ON.  Go into the hidden SmartFinder Menu (by pressing MODE button for 3
seconds then release) scroll down to the current time and LST.
       I was confused whether I should enter standard time or DST.  I
       used to enter the non-DST time and set the DST to YES thinking
       that the telescope would automatically add an hour but it didn't.
       When I entered the actual time (in DST) and activated DST to YES,
       the correct time was displayed.  When I turned DST off, the time
       in the hidden SmartFinder Menu rolled back one hour.  The manual
       never tells you this so I would like to share it to other people
       who are as confused as I was.
5.    Set-up the tripod with it facing True North and leveled.  Mounted
the telescope and the control panel is facing West.
4.    Performed "CALIBRATE MOTORS"
5.    Performed "TRAIN DRIVES"
6.    Performed "CALIBRATE SENSORS"
7.    Checked time, date and site.  Made sure all those are in order.
8.    Performed a two-star alignment.  Here is where the story begins:
 
Rotated the telescope CCW until I hit the hard stop and then CW until
the scope is pointed to True North (i.e. the DEC setting circle is over
the control panel).  I locked down the RA lock.  Unlocked the scope's
DEC (vertical lock), leveled the tube to 0-deg. and locked it down
again.  I hit ENTER and AUTOSTAR asks me to pick a star.  I picked
ARCTURUS as the first star.  It slew to ARCTURUS, I then centered it and
hit ENTER.  It asks me to pick a second star, I chose one of the twin
stars of the Big Dipper, i.e. ALCOR.  Note that ARCTURUS is to my WEST
and ALCOR is at NW.  After I centrered ALCOR, I press ENTER and then I
get an "ALIGNMENT SUCCESSFUL" (or something to that nature) message. 
When I did a Go-To to Jupiter, the scope started rotating CCW.  Remember
that when we perform the two-star alignment, we turn the scope full CCW
to its hard-stop and then around a 1/4-turn CW to point the scope north.
And, when I did the 2 star alignment, the two stars I chose were at my
west and northwest.  This means that if the scope were to slew CCW, it
will hit the hard stop in a short period of time if it were to keep
going.  We'll it just did that when I Go-To Jupiter (which is between SE
and S of my position).  Without even reaching Jupiter's RA, it hit its
hard stop and it wasn't going further.  I then loosened the RA lock to
disengage the clutch and turned OFF the unit to avoid ruining gears or
motors.

I did the two-star alignment again using the same starts and then Go-To
Juptier and the scope did the same thing.  It seems like the scope isn't
as intelligent as it sounds and didn't seem to know that the hard stop
is just a 1/4 turn CCW away.  It should have did a CW turn to avoid the
hard stop.  Dumb scope!

This morning, I did a 2-star alignment in my living room.  Using my star
wheel (since its daytime), I fictitiously aligned it to Aldebaran and
Betelgeuse.  I purposedly chose these two stars since they are close to
each other and, at that time, were at my southwest (according to my Star
Wheel).  I was trying to simulate the problem last night.  I noticed
that instead of the telescope slewing CCW to pick up Aldebaran on the SW
from its North orientation, it slew CW instead.  I would have expected
the scope to do the same last night with ARCTURUS but it did the exact
opposite and, I believe, the right way.  After a successful 2-star
alignment, I asked the scope to Go-To Mercury, Venus and Saturn, and it
slew to those supposed locations (which BTW are very close to each other
generally at the SE) without hitting any hard stops.

I am wondering if you have encountered a similar incident or if any one
has related a similar problem to you as the one I encountered last
night.  Absolutely baffling.  I suspect that the stars of choice might
be the culprit as both of them were close to each.  On my next outing,
I'll pick two stars that are more or less opposite of each other and see
what happens.

I have so far enjoyed the rest of my telescope and learning more each
time.  I have done a lot of reading on your site and I have learned a
lot from you and other folks who have shared their experiences.  I have
searched some articles in your archives for the problem I encountered
above but have been unsuccessful in finding a close match.  When I find
time, I also want to share with other ETX-125PE owners out there on how
I customized my Pelican 1620 case to fit my scope.   I did a very good
job with the foam cutouts.  Thanks once again for your wonderful and
information-rich website.

Clear skies!

Philbert Ang
British Columbia, Canada        

And:

Yes, I am fully aware of the Home positions for Auto Align vs. non-Auto
Align.  In my case, I chose the manual 2-star alignment thus did the
proper home procedure as I described in my previous email.

I have checked that the scope rotates around nearly twice.  So it is
confirmed that there are no obstructions.  I will conduct further tests
the next time I go out with it and let you know what I find.

Regards,

Philbert  

Subject:	JMI MotoFocus
Sent:	Friday, September 12, 2008 18:29:40
From:	John Edelmann (edelmann@hcst.net)
Wondering if any other folks have had issues with the o ring supplied
with the JMI Motofocus not being able to turn the knob on the ETX125? 
Motor works fine  but the o-ring "belt" slides on the brass pulley,
because the knob is too hard to turn, when torqued even slightly, by the
force of the o-ring.  I've notified Tom Johnston at JMI re: the matter.
I just ordered (and received) another handset piece because I had
misplaced it a year or more ago.  But perhaps now I remember WHY I
managed to misplace it

Thanks,

P.S. and yes, I've rejuvenated things a bit.  I even got the USB serial
cable from Meade to work (today), since my computer didn't have a serial
port anymore.  I also installed Scopedriver  and was amazed that it
actually worked great first time!
 
John.

Subject:	my sky plus
Sent:	Friday, September 12, 2008 10:20:51
From:	Ed Monty (emonty@tampabay.rr.com)
Dear Sir: early in the year i ordered a meade my sky, and after 3
different units, i returned the last one for credit. yesterday i spoke
with a sales rep. from woodland hills telescope, and he told me that
meade had resolved their problems with some hardware changes. calling
the revised unit a my sky plus. my question is. in your experience with
this unit, do you feel it is still inaccurate ? ( degrees of error when
pointing to an object ) your reply would be appreciated. 

thank you 

Ed Monty  

ps.  have not seen any recent reviews of the my sky.

Subject:	Can I use the Meade red dot telescope finder and dovetail bracket with my etx-90?
Sent:	Thursday, September 11, 2008 16:15:29
From:	Ron Kapalka (rkapalka@q.com)
the meade red dot finder seems to be designed for a 80mm meade refactor
telescope. however the design seems really similar to others that I see
on your accessory page. it is a two piece dove tail mount and finder.
the mount appears to have a curve on the base. any comments from readers
on this thing?  it has two screws, but i do not want to drill into the
scope. two side taping is okay? thanks, ron

Subject:	ETX 125ec drive problems
Sent:	Wednesday, September 10, 2008 22:18:43
From:	patrickmcgarry@bellsouth.net (patrickmcgarry@bellsouth.net)
Hello Mike you have helped me before so I hope you can help again.. I
purchased an etx 125ec used last week ($480.00). I know its a risk but I
cant afford a new 125 model. Well the problem is the 125 only operates
in the vertical mode it will not move on the horizontal axis.  When you
plug in the ec controller it moves vertical and stops, its supposed to
move in both directions and all 4 lights blink as per the manual. It has
no motor noise from the horizontal drive motor so Im not even sure its
getting a signal or power. When I press the up and down buttons it
sometimes just moves even after I have let the button go, like it is
getting stuck in one direction. Do these controllers go bad? The
telescope looks good and it was listed as only used a few times when
sold. Please let me know what you think or if it can be fixed.  I have
purchased a new 497 controll and it should get to my house on friday, I
hope that it can be the fix because I was not going to use the old
controller anyway.

Also can I join you group, I would like to learn all I can about my new
telescope.

Thank you for your time,  Patrick McGarry

And:

Thanks Mike for your fast response. I just fixed it! I was reading a
post on your site and someone had a problem with the internal wires and
they also said how to remove the back cover. Well I removed the cover
and it was right there. a plug had been disconnected, its kind of a bad
deal how the wires were run, they were  around a metal post and when the
scope turns it is pulled off. So I rerouted the wires and installed some
tie raps and it works like a charm..  Boy do I feel better, I thought I
just lost 480.00$$

Thanks again you have a great site..  I hope this scope helps me see
some great things..

Subject:	The X On The Moon
Sent:	Tuesday, September 9, 2008 17:24:36
From:	Steve Hollar (phoneman@hollar.com)
this is actually for Rob Roach who sent the Moon photo on August 7. He
may not be aware, since he didn't mention it, that he captured the
famous Lunar X. Follow down the terminus just above the two craters at
the bottom and you will see a distinct X. This can only be seen for
about 4 hours around the lunar First Quarter. If he didn't know about
it, he got lucky. Good shot.

Steve Hollar 

Subject:	Meade's Mysky
Sent:	Sunday, September 7, 2008 19:09:19
From:	Louis Welke (wwtpoper@yahoo.com)
I read that awhile back you tested Meads Mysky and during the test you
had problems with it freezing up.

The Mysky I have that I bought a little over a year ago worked great
when I first tried it out.

All of a sudden it seems to freeze up during the Get from GPS mode where
it says it is acquiring Gps and a few seconds later the (3) small red
indicators light up and it is still acquiring although I have (3) bars
that have come across the screen almost halfway and have stopped, the
hour glass is showing also and I can't get out of that mode so I have to
shut it off.

I remember when the (3) red indicators  came on only after The get from
Gps was successful and it was ready to use.

I then tried  entering the Date,and the 24hr time and after pushing done
it also froze up and I had to turn off the unit.

If I try demonstration mode everything seems to show up ok but this does
not show what really is where I am pointing the unit.

I think that the software may be corrupted although I don't know how it
happened.

Is there a reset for the Mysky?and if I download new files from Meade
will I lose the GPS function?

I am hesitant to send this unit back to Meade due to their long delays
in sending them back.

Lou Welke

And:

Thanks a lot for the comeback on the My sky, I got on Meade's website
and downloaded the upgrade, however when I tried to upgrade my chip like
they told me it cleaned all the info off my old chip and then failed to
send me the new upgraded info.

I got this message "Comparison failed", so now I have a blank chip for
the My sky.

I called Meade on this and told them what happened and faxed them a
proof of purchase receipt and hopefully they will send me a upgraded
chip for the My sky What I should have done was to make a copy of the
old chip before doing the upgrade.

Lou Welke

And:

I forgot to ask you if the new upgrade to my sky will still allow it to
be used with a ETX via a cable so that a ETX series telescope will go to
a object as if it had Gps built in. Otherwise it won't be that much
different than Celestron's Sky scout. I have this cable and was going to
hopefully use it with my ETX 90 and 125 using "My sky"

I received a message from Meade that they will send me a new upgraded
chip for $5.00 shipping and handling. This seems to be the best way to
go and eliminates problems in upgrading and having the old chip become
corrupted the way it did to me.

Again thank you for your quick response to the problems I have had.

Lou Welke

And:

I read all about the trials and tribulations you had with your new
8"LX90 and also the stories from others about similar problems.

I stopped buying Celestron telescopes because I became convinced that
Meade had better quality products.

I own a Meade LX90 which I am very happy with and seems to be operating
very well so far.

The problem I had with my ETX 125 has been fixed and it should arrive
today, also I am receiving a new 256mb chip for the "My sky" I have.

It's too bad that Meade has problems with their quality control and
shipping out products that are not up to the standards we all expect.

If this persists I can see many Meade devotees going to Celestron.

Keep up the great work you are doing for all of us.

Lou Welke

Subject:	Newer style LNT to AUX port cable?
Sent:	Saturday, September 6, 2008 13:33:07
From:	Eugene Kadish (eugekadish@yahoo.com)
I have a newer style LNT that I'd like to use on an older ETX90EC.  I
see there's a plug on the side of the LNT that I assume is for some type
of cable that could plug into the AUX port of my ETX90?  Is that the
case and if so, is that cable available to purchase from somewhere or
possible instructions for making one?  Thanks in advance and for the
wonderful website...

And:

Thank you.

Eugene

Subject:	re: what lense magnifications to use when viewing the sun
Sent:	Friday, September 5, 2008 22:06:34
From:	richard seymour (rseymour@wolfenet.com)
Mike wrote: "Right now the Sun is being very 'quiet'..."

That's for sure... August 2008 -almost- went down in the record books as
the first month since (i think) June 1913 to have -no- sunspots.

As it turns out, there was one pair of tiny spots last month, so small that
they didn't get logged by NOAA's sunspot count system.  But for the sticklers,
it was therefore -not- a spotless month.

Visit:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/11jul_solarcycleupdate.htm
for more info, and http://www.spaceweather.com  for daily sunspot numbers, etc.

have fun
--dick

Subject:	Re: etx90ec- coating?
Sent:	Friday, September 5, 2008 17:55:17
From:	Jim Jewell II (jjewellii@yahoo.com)
I was afraid of that.  Is there a justifiable reason to upgrade just the
tube to the UHTC coated type as far as better optics (how much better?) 
Will I notice any difference?  Just want to make the right choice
without breaking the bank!
 
Jim

And:

Okay.  Do you happen to know if an AT tube fit an EC fork/base?  If it
can work and finding a reasonably priced tube it may be worth it.
 
Jim 

Subject:	etx90ec- coating?
Sent:	Friday, September 5, 2008 03:52:12
From:	Jim Jewell II (jjewellii@yahoo.com)
Great site!!  Thanks for all your great work!!

I recently got an ETX90EC.  Aside from the sticker on the tube (which is
not present on my scope) how can I tell if mine has the UHTC coating?
 
Jim

Subject:	ETX 125PE Motor Unit Failure
Sent:	Thursday, September 4, 2008 10:47:13
From:	Melissa Johnson (mjohnson@toromontsystems.com)
First, I want to thank you for your site.  I have enjoyed and learned
much over the years.

One week ago I received my new ETX 125PE.  As soon as I took it out of
the box and tried to train the drives, the R/A (horizontal) drive would
not work.  No noise, nothing.  I called Meade and they suggested trying
a Reset.  No help there.  Is it possible for Reset to correct the
problem if the motor makes no noise at any time?  Also, the Autostar
starts with the "0 to Align message".  The sun warning does not come up
telling me someone has changed the defaults but the reset did not change
that either.  The retailer I purchased from said they would gladly
replace it but also warned me they are receiving approx 75% of the ETX's
back with drive failures.  My question is, have you heard that this
problem is that bad and would you suggest returning to the retailer for
another or should I send it to Meade and have them repair this one?
Shipping to the retailer is free, I believe I have to pay shipping to
send to Meade under warranty. I really like the features of the ETX PE
and am frustrated at dreaming about having this one for so long and now
having these problems.

Thank you very much for your time, 
Melissa
Houston, TX 

And:

Yes I did try Calibrate Motor.  It doesn't tell me if it does anything.
I press enter, the display goes blank and then displays "Calibrate
Motor" again.  Also, the only time I get the Motor Unit Failure message
is the auto align function when I try out of curiosity.

Thanks for quick reply!

And:

Thank you for your help. And so quick. Have a wonderful day! 

Subject:	ETX 90EC faulty horizontal slew
Sent:	Thursday, September 4, 2008 05:48:09
From:	C. Whittney (dolphinlingo@gmail.com)
First I'd like to 'thank you' for your great site! I have found so much
helpful information there, and now that I have a problem it has been a
real support system. Great job!

My problem is this; I had my 90ec in storage in the original box, safely
tucked away in a closet of my home for about three months while I was
away, at which time it was working perfectly. However, when I took it
out to use it again when I got back, the horizontal slew gear didn't
work at all, and hasn't worked since. There is no motor sound or
whirring whatsoever. This happens with both the autostar and telescope
controller. I opened the gear box to have a look and compared mine with
the pics you have, and I'm happy to say the gears and electrical on my
90ec seem to all be intact with no disconnect or corrosion. I also
checked the battery compartment, and this seems to be in perfect shape.
I have had my ETX since 2000, and all has gone really well.......until
this. I'm really stumped as to what could have happened to it. No one
used it or even took it out of the closet. And I"m even more stumped
about how to fix this problem. I'm hoping there's something I can do to
correct this and get it working well again, really miss my tele!

I would really appreciate your opinion on this, and any advice you could
offer.

Thanks for your time,
Chris

Subject:	Question about ETX 90 EC
Sent:	Wednesday, September 3, 2008 15:58:33
From:	nilsenbianca (n.fokkenrood@chello.nl)
Maybe a stupid question
 
Can I mount an ETX 90 on to a ETX 70 motorized  base?  Does it fit??
 
I'm asking this because I  recently  got my hands on  a nice ETX 90 EC
telescope but it has no base and I can buy an complete ETX 70 for very
cheap.
 
Thank you,
 
Nils

Subject:	Meade ETX125 Electronic Focuser
Sent:	Monday, September 1, 2008 10:46:41
From:	jwatkins (jwatkins@omantel.net.om)
I have lost the gear to my electronic focuser (ETX125) and saw that a
gentleman in Aberdeen Scotland had written about making these.  His name
is Niall Saunders.  Do you have his email address, as I would like to
find out if he still has any of the gears left.  Hard to get parts here
in Oman, and we don't have a local Meade dealer.  Actually didn't see
anywhere on the Meade site where one could order parts or even send in a
part for service.
 
Thanks,
 
John Watkins

And:

Thanks,

Will do that.

Cheers,

John

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