GENERAL FEEDBACK Last updated: 31 October 2003

Subject:	considering a second "pipe"
Sent:	Friday, October 31, 2003 11:14:30
From:	JRUA@miamidade.gov (Rua, Jose (DHS))
My spouse and I have had great success with our ETX 125 UHTC since
buying it last Christmas.  Your book and site have been a great help,
thanks!

We are currently considering a complimentary scope to the 125 that has a
wide field of view, is photographically fast, is portable and has large
aperture.  We are considering the Meade LXD 55, 10" with UHTC.

Any feedback or recommendations?  
 
Thanks,
 
Jose Rua

And:

Thanks for the feedback.  How can the "slightly too large scope for the
mount" affect the use of the scope?  Can it make it difficult to track?
Does it make the scope unstable? Can it cause the scope to be easily
damaged?

Thanks for your help.  We are armature-"armature" sky gazers.

Jose and Drusilla Rua

And:

Do you think these would be serious considerations to dissuade casual
observers like us from purchasing such a scope.  We have easy access to
very dark skies- Fl. Everglades but want a second scope which has a
large aperture yet is easy to transport.  Can you recommend something
else also?

Subject:	An article that might be of interest
Sent:	Thursday, October 30, 2003 11:11:29
From:	jay@jayware.com (Jay Moynihan)
I have written an article (that is bound for Cloudy Nights) that may be
of interest to etx 125 users.

it is at:
http://www.jayware.com/makfranken2article.html

Jay Moynihan
Ashland, WI

Subject:	RE: #884 Tripod Thread Size
Sent:	Wednesday, October 29, 2003 10:06:47
From:	Gareth@GDEvans.org.uk (Gareth Evans)
Further to my email on 20th October, I can now confirm that the thread
on the bottom of the #884 tripod is indeed a non-standard M12 with a
1.5mm pitch.  After hunting around various garages and car accessory
shops in the UK, I was directed to an agricultural machinery workshop. 
They produced the correct nut in seconds!  It appears that a lot of the
Japanese tractors use these bolts.

Many thanks

Gareth

Subject:	Happy (Belated) 7th Birthday!
Sent:	Tuesday, October 28, 2003 15:42:21
From:	ben@wooding.org.uk (ben)
Congratulations on an excellent site!
I regularly visit your site, clear skies or cloudy. It's been nearly 2
years since I bought my ETX90 and your site has been fantastic.
Informative, helpful, clear and easy to use. You've helped me directly
by E-mail (thanks for that!) as well as through reading other peoples
problems and advice. I'm still finding new information that makes me
itch to get outside.

I've had an enforced break from the telescope over the summer. The kids
are too young and the skies to bright too late in the night for me to
stay up into the wee small hours and then be up at the crack of dawn the
next morning. Now we're out of daylight saving I'm hoping for some clear
skies. I'm still a novice and it's taken this long for me to get to
grips with the basics.

I'm now discovering Dr Clay's Guided Tours - Splendid!

Anyway, a few thoughts......
I've NEVER had any problems aligning my ETX, just lucky maybe, but
here's what I did/do.

Read the manual from cover to cover several times and played with the
'scope indoors before even venturing outside.

I used an OS map to get my co-ordinates as accurate as possible.

I calibrate and retrain the 'scope on a regular basis and reset from
time to time.

I use rechargeable batteries and recharge them after every use.

I set the 'scope in home position as level as possible using a spirit
level and (heaven forbid!) a compass (magnetic north doesn't seem to
make any difference!).

Then it's easy align and away we go.

I've fairly recently started using High Precision mode from the autostar
menu (select item-setup-telescope-high precision) and that just makes it
easier still.

The ETX is a fabulous piece of kit. As long as you're aware of it's
limitations in terms of aperture, you can't go wrong for ease of use and
portability. I've never been disappointed in what I've seen using it.

AND finally, I wear glasses and am not happy with the difference with
and without them, despite what my optician says about being able to
compensate with the focus knob (with Scoptronics Flexifocus). I can't
get to grips with folding back the rubber cup and the poor field of
view/eye relief. So, bought some contact lenses! Only for the one eye
that I use. It's been great and only 60p a throw here in the UK!

Cheers,
Ben.

Subject:	RE: power vs binary splitting
Sent:	Monday, October 27, 2003 09:32:02
From:	ejdeltoro@email.uophx.edu (EMILIO DELTORO)
To:	aprieto@amper.es ('aprieto@amper.es')
Regarding your email that Mike posted in his great ETX site, here is
part of an S&T article about double stars that may help answer your
question:

"I've found that doubles look their best at a magnification that is
approximately 750 divided by the separation in arcseconds. For example,
Eta Cassiopeiae's components are separated by 12.5" - 750/12.5 yields an
optimum magnification of 60x. Similarly, since the unaided eye can
resolve stars as close as about 300", the minimum magnification for a
split is 300 divided by the separation. In the case of Eta, that would
be around 24x (300/12.5)"

The website http://www.carbonar.es/s33/ is dedicated to double stars and
almost all observational notes mention the magnification required to
split the doubles. You'll see that expensive APOs need much less
magnification. I have found that my ETX-105 needs an extra 50X to
achieve the split :(

Clear skies.

Subject:	ETX125 - viewing through a laptop
Sent:	Monday, October 27, 2003 06:35:17
From:	rwebster@adesaimpact.com (Rick Webster)
I recently bought an ETX125 and I absolutely love it. My family also
loves looking at the stars, planets and other deep-space object. The
problem is that we're always crowded around the eyepiece.

Question - Is there a way to hook up a digital camera using the
T-Adapter and then view the images on a laptop screen so that many
people can look at once? I've thought about a CCD on the telescope, but
don't have the funds for something that expensive and I know I could get
more use out of a digital camera for obvious reasons.

Do you know if anyone makes a camera that can be hooked up to the
telescope AND to the computer at the same time so that we can view items
on the laptop screen?

Thanks much,
Rick Webster

And:

Thanks Mike. 

Great web site!!!

Rick

Subject:	ETX 125 Hard stops, continued
Sent:	Sunday, October 26, 2003 16:21:09
From:	RLibby@aol.com
Well, after removing the bottom plate, I can see nothing amiss...No
wires where they shouldnt be, etc.

But where are the hard stops, and how to I get to them? Or is this a job
for Meade to attack?

Ralph Libby

From:	drclay@arksky.org (P. Clay Sherrod)
The hard stops in the ETX are in no man's land....do not go there.  They
are amidst a tangle of wires and other goodies that are surely to become
stripped and torn getting to them within the innards of the turntable. 
Once in there, the stops are not clearly defined either and your can do
way more damage than good just getting to them.

This is purely a job for Meade; I do not even attempt to repair or
replace RA hard stops any more; too much sweat and worry involved.

Dr. Clay
Arkansas Sky Observatory
10 Observatory Hill Drive, Petit Jean Mt.
drclay@arksky.org
MPC/cbat Obs. H41 / Petit Jean Mountain
MPC/cbat Obs. H43 / Conway
MPC/cbat Obs. H44 / Cascade Mountain

And:

Thanks for the quick response...A call to the Meade people is scheduled
for the AM.

Subject:	Dubhe Ursae Majoris
Sent:	Sunday, October 26, 2003 15:06:16
From:	ElisesilE@aol.com
My son's science class is studying stars.  I'm trying to find out
specific information on Dubhe - its distance from the sun.  Do you know
where I can find this?  I'd appreciate any help you can give me.

Elise

And:

Yes, I have been doing a web search, but all the information I found
does not indicate how far the star is from the sun.  I don't have a mac.

Subject:	Tripod Question - Meade ETX 105
Sent:	Sunday, October 26, 2003 09:19:58
From:	stephpaul@ntlworld.com (paul&steph)
I have just purchased a new 105 Meade deal, I have a problem with their
instructions about connecting the scope to the 884 tripod.  It says in
their book to line up the mounting hole on the base of the telescope
marked high latitude leg with the attachment knob that is closest to the
latitude control bar, which is fine and I have done, when I turn the
scope clockwise until it hits the hardstop and then turn it back again
so the fork arm with numbers is above the on/off switch the scope is not
pointing North it is pointing South, but in their book it says to have
the tripod latitude control bar pointing North.  Am I doing something
wrong?  Or has Meade printed it wrong?  Although this is easily
rectified by picking up the whole scope and tripod and turning it all
round to point North, I just can't help thinking i'm missing something? 
Other than that all seems fine and i'm really happy with it.

Kind Regards

Paul

Subject:	RE: ETX-90 Motors don't work
Sent:	Sunday, October 26, 2003 04:22:39
From:	ali.maleki@verizon.net (Ali Maleki)
To:	rseymour@wolfenet.com ('Richard Seymour')
Richard,

Thanks for the suggestions. 

I opened up the base and discovered that one of the 4 thin wires (red)
that goes to "the metal thing with teeth, in the center of the base" (RA
clamp screw ?) was caught in the teeth and frayed.

The saleswoman at the Discovery Channel store exchanged the scope for a
new one, since I had had this one for a month.


Mike,

Thanks for the great site. I don't know what I would do without this
valuable resource.

Ali

Well, it's unfortunate that it happened, but i'm happy to hear
the Discovery Store  exchanged it for a new one.

good luck
--dick

Subject:	A question for Clay Sherrod
Sent:	Saturday, October 25, 2003 23:44:02
From:	svanzo@pacbell.net (Scott Vanzo)
Again, thanks for the site and forum.

I wish to have Clay Sherrod qualify a statement he made in his EXT-125EC
EXPERIENCES article entitled "A complete Review and Field Test of the
ETX 125". He claims that the EXT-125 "put the 7" Questar to shame".  I
am a novice, but I have read many superb descriptions/reviews of both
Questar optics and mechanical assembly to doubt or at least call into
question the knowledgeable Doctor's rather vague statement. Perhaps he
can elaborate?

Regards,

Scott Vanzo
Los Angeles

From:	drclay@arksky.org (P. Clay Sherrod)
My evaluation was concerning the optical performance of my ETX 125; it
is absolutely perfect in every respect and except for less resolution
due to aperture, it exceeds the optical quality in my opinion of the
Questar 7 that I used for two years and finally returned to Questar. 
When properly tweaked, the optics of the ETX 125 are among the very best
I have seen.

Mechanically, there is much to be desired and you are well aware of the
mechanical excellence of the Questar; but there again, it is NOT a GO TO
telescope!  Imagine the price tag if it were.....

Clay
--------------------
Dr. P. Clay Sherrod
Arkansas Sky Observatory
Harvard MPC H41 (Petit Jean Mountain)
Harvard MPC H43 (Conway)
Harvard MPC H44 (Cascade Mt.)
http://www.arksky.org/

Subject:	RE: etx125 at Discovery On-line
Sent:	Saturday, October 25, 2003 23:22:20
From:	jacktu@sbcglobal.net (Jack Tu)
You guys are great.  When I saw that COMDIG message, I immediately
placed my order thru Discovery.com.  Order went thru.  I could buy the
ETX-125EC at the local Discovery store without paying shipping fee but I
would not get that 15% discount at the store.  So I am still paying less
with COMDIG after paying shipping.  Thanks!
 
Jack

Subject:	your eyepiece collection
Sent:	Saturday, October 25, 2003 14:14:29
From:	EddieDTS@aol.com
I wrote to you before about my high power meade 4000 eyepieces having
bad abberation for single or double stars,  could i ask what eyepieces
you use for your telescopes so that you can view these stars without
fear of image breakdown, as i am getting a bigger scope to go with my
etx and would like various respected peoples opinions on good eyepieces
for etx90 and a scope like your LDX8

i know your choices cant reflect my choices but its a start.
   tnx for your time, eddie

Subject:	Your Site
Sent:	Saturday, October 25, 2003 12:35:17
From:	fxmerc@fuse.net (frank mercurio)
I just found your site by Google.  It is too great!  I can't believe all
the information that is on it.  I just purchased an ETX-90 and so far
everything works fine.  But then there are always those questions that
are not too clear from the manuals - your website is clearing up a lot
for me.

Thanks,

Frank Mercurio

Subject:	ETX 125 Focus Problems
Sent:	Saturday, October 25, 2003 07:04:09
From:	N2MWE@msn.com (kieran OHagan)
I've been reading about people having problems with image shift in the
ETX 125. One thing I noticed...I had the problem for one night, and I
figured out why. If you do not give the scope enough time to cool down,
there will be big time image shift. It was just this one night that I
didn't let the scope cool down to air temperature. Every night
afterwards, no problem.

Clear skies

Kieran O'Hagan

Subject:	Re: Help ID'ing Autostar controller
Sent:	Friday, October 24, 2003 23:44:57
From:	hawkdaddy839@earthlink.net (david lee hawkins)
Thanks for the info, a tech a Meade confirmed that it was a 494 when I
told him the part number. However, I'm still going to try to get the
telescope even though the 494 will be useless. With those plans in mind,
I bid on and won a brand new 497 on eBay today for $107.50.  The
telescope comes with the 883 field tripod, the feedback I've read on
your site seems to indicate this tripod is understrength for the ETX125.
Hopefully I'll be able to sell that 494 and tripod back through eBay and
upgrade to a stronger tripod. I'm new to astronomy, I guess a bug bite
me. If you don't mind, can you advise me on what a good package should
consist of for a beginner? I don't want to go out and get accessory
crazy and buy up stuff that isn't necessary. Thanks for your help, and
the website is great!!

Subject:	RE: How to get image from ETX-120 realtime
Sent:	Friday, October 24, 2003 22:41:15
From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (Richard Seymour)
To:	james_li1105@hotmail.com
Meade's Lunar Planetary Imager (a part of the Autostar Suite package)
operates in real time, to a maximum of two frames per second.
(and a minimum of one frame per 15 seconds).

It's now being shipped.  (mine arrived)

Baby's first frame attached.

Before people see that image and decide the LPI is lousy,
let me add the details:

That's a single frame, no enhancement, from the 10" LX200gps,
taken directly over Seattle's central urban area,
on a night with -horrible- seeing (even stars straight up
were fuzzballs), low elevation, haze, heat ripples.
Frame time: 0.12 seconds.
The combined image on the screen was clearer.

The LPI pretty much captured what my eyeball saw: Blob.

have fun
--dick

Subject:	Re: Re:  Re: Re:  Motor trouble with the etx 90-ec
Sent:	Friday, October 24, 2003 11:34:07
From:	kvikkstad@webmail.no (Kvikkstad Tor Arne)
sorry to once again disturb you and i am sorry for my stupidity. i meant
of course (allthough i admit i wrote the opposite) that both axes were
locked when i tried to move the telescope with the autostar hand
controller. it works to slew it both to the left and right and also
downwards, but not upwards when the axis are locked. it was only in the
beginning i tried to move the telescope with the axis unlocked. and then
the telescope of course did not move, but after i unlocked it, it
worked, also in the upwards direction. but now it does not work to move
the telescope upwards when both axis are locked and my original question
was wheter or not the fact that i tried to move the telescope when the
axis were unlocked in the beginning is the reason for the problem i now
have. and whether or not i have ruined the warranty in that case?

i thank you for your patience so far and hope for a last answer.

greetings from scandinavia once again

Subject:	Meade ETX EC-AT
Sent:	Friday, October 24, 2003 07:41:59
From:	DOCCUS@aol.com
Is there a difference between the EC and AT scopes? Thanks

John

Subject:	power vs binary splitting
Sent:	Friday, October 24, 2003 01:56:08
From:	aprieto@amper.es
Is there any way (formula) to know in advance the power needed to split
a binary in fonction of its separation?

Subject:	Specs for 12V power plug for ETX-125
Sent:	Friday, October 24, 2003 01:34:35
From:	jonatha@qx.net (Jonathan Edwards)
Does anybody know what size jack fits the 12V DC input?  I've got a
5.5mm OD 2.1mm ID plug and the ID appears to be too small...

Subject:	Thanks
Sent:	Friday, October 24, 2003 06:23:35
From:	mday@amgen.com (Day, Mike)
To:	etx@me.com ('etx@me.com')
I would like to thank you for maintaining such a great site.  I spend
most of my lunch hours hunched in front of the computer looking at the
pictures on your site.  I've had an ETX-125 for about 18 months.  I
haven't gotten into astrophotography yet, but I'm hoping there is a
webcam or Meade LPI in my future.  I'm hoping I can produce pictures
like Job in the Netherlands. WOW!

I recently did an overhaul on my ETX per recommendations in your book
and on the website.  May I say its made quite a difference.  I was
having an impossible time doing goto's prior to the overhaul.  Things
are working much better now.

Keep up the good work, and glad I could help support the site.

Mike

Michael R. Day, P.E.
Longmont, CO  80503

Subject:	Movement of Hard stop on ETX 125
Sent:	Thursday, October 23, 2003 17:48:40
From:	RLibby@aol.com
The hard stop on my ETX has migrated from its former position of SW to
approximately NE.

This is while turning CCW, as usual.

Anyone else have this problem, and more importantly, anyone know how to
fix it (and prevent it from happening again)

Ralph Libby

Subject:	How to get image from ETX-120 realtime
Sent:	Thursday, October 23, 2003 16:30:49
From:	james_li1105@hotmail.com ( )
How can I get image from ETX-120 in realtime into PC? Thanks!

James Li

Subject:	ETX70 Eyepiece Question
Sent:	Thursday, October 23, 2003 09:40:35
From:	colophonic@yahoo.com (Greg)
I believe I read somewhere that there is an eyepiece (or filter) with
cross hairs that makes centering objects during alignment easier.  Do
you have any recommendations for this type of accessory?  I couldn't
locate it on the site.

Thanks,

Greg

Subject:	ETX Feedback General
Sent:	Thursday, October 23, 2003 03:34:00
From:	Dieter.Wolf@DNSint.com
want to give an answer for Ali Maleki's problem 'slewing does not
start'.

I know the problem Ali described from my ETX-125EC too.
Especially if ...
- it's cold outside
- the batteries are low
- the OTA is unbalanced
it may happen that the scope does not start slewing.
I don't care about it if it happens and just switch off power,
redistribute grease and move the OTA into a different position. I never
had to do this more than twice to start slewing even with old batteries
or low temperatures.

Clear skies,
Dieter

Subject:	Re:Your ETX book in Sydney
Sent:	Wednesday, October 22, 2003 23:29:05
From:	aus99a@hotmail.com (B F)
I bought my copy from Dymocks in George St. You can check online for
availability via their web-site.

Regards
Bill Farmakidis

Subject:	Choice Between ETX and Nexstar
Sent:	Wednesday, October 22, 2003 21:38:22
From:	rhondaandtim@cox.net (Tim and Rhonda)
My name is Tim Neely.  I was the novice who introduced himself to you
after your recent presentation to the Orange County Astronomers club. 
Since your presentation hooked me on astrophotography, I have begun
looking for a telescope.  I visited Scope City in Costa Mesa and
compared the Meade ETX and Celestron Nexstar products.  They only had
the ETX 70 in stock and said that the 90 and 125 models were on three
month back order.

I also looked at the Celestron Nexstar 4 that they had in stock and was
impressed with how solid it was on its tripod compared to the ETX.  I
understand that the Meade allows manual adjustments whereas the
Celestron requires the electronic motor drive to slew to targets.  Also,
during your presentation you lauded the ETX motor drive for being so
quiet that you weren't sure it was working.  The Celestron drive is
certainly louder than the ETX.

The reviews I have seen on the internet suggest that the Mak/Cas optics
on the Celestron are high quality.  I'm not sure if there is any
significance between the ETX refractor versus the Celestron Mak/Cas.

I also read some reviews of Autostar on the internet that indicated
there had been or are some problems with the ETX 105's ability to
interface properly.  Is the Celestron GoTo software more or less free
from user problems?

I would appreciate your thoughts on whether or not to hold our for the
Meade or to go with the Celestron.  At this point I haven't formed a
strong preference and could probably be satisfied with either scope. 
Would it be a big mistake to select the Celestron?

Thanks again for the wonderful presentation.

Tim

Subject:	re:  ETX-90 Motors don't work
Sent:	Wednesday, October 22, 2003 21:33:08
From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (Richard Seymour)
To:	ali.maleki@verizon.net
Other possibilities include:

A bad Autostar cable.  
Wiggle its ends, or simply reverse it end-for-end.
If that changes the symptoms, get a new cable, or
 visit a telephone or computer network store and have them
"squeeze" the ends of the cable to improve the connections.

The other is that a plug has pulled loose inside the base.

You can open the base by:
(a) remove batteries
(b) remove rubber feet.  The screws are under the feet.
(c) unscrew the three screws and -CAREFULLY- remove the base plate.
(the battery wires are very short and FRAGILE)

Inspect for a loose connector.

If you see one: DO NOT PLUG IT IN until you can determine the
correct orientation.  If you get it backwards you WILL destroy 
the telescope.  Meade does NOT always follow a convention of
"red wire is positive"... they frequently reverse it or use
other colors.
If you browse through Mike's Telescope Tech Tips page, there are
many articles with photos of opened ETX90's... inspect them
carefully to determine cable colors, or call Meade or your dealer.

good luck
--dick

Subject:	YEEAAA HAA I got My ETX 90
Sent:	Wednesday, October 22, 2003 19:47:45
From:	me@tomhutchins.com (Tom Hutchins)
Well actually I got 2 of them now 1 on Ebay and 1 from Vanns site (Long
story)... Any way I checked and In case anyone wants to also know You
can't get the 99.00 Lens set with the ETX90RA scope from Meade. Darn.
O'well I went outside with the 26mm and started looking around I saw
Mars. Wild thing was as I was looking at Mars I saw a flicker go by and
My guess it was a satellite because I followed it across the Horizon .
So now what lens should I get First I want to see M57 and  Saturn . I
already ordered a Barlow 2X . Do I need to get the 6mm ? I also will be
hooking up a digital camera to the etx90 . Any recommendation on where
to buy my Lens from.. Also One more question  I want to look at the sun
I want to make sure its safe what is the name of the filter you would
use to look at the sun ?

Thanks Again 

Hutch

And:

Thanks Mike , I think Ill start out with the recommendations of the
Scoptronics site

Subject:	Your ETX book
Sent:	Wednesday, October 22, 2003 07:27:07
From:	webmaster@joltz.org (Joltz)
Any idea who in Sydney sells your book? Ive looked everywhere in the
past week and cant seem to find it. Cant buy from amazon etc either as I
don't have a credit card.

Thx for any help.

Subject:	ETX "AT"
Sent:	Tuesday, October 21, 2003 20:52:55
From:	jay@jayware.com (Jay Moynihan)
What is the difference between ETX 105 & 125 "AT"'s and the EC's? Do the
AT's have metal forks? how about the bases? Please email answers if
possible, may not get back to site for awhile
thanks
jay

Jay Moynihan
Ashland, WI

Subject:	Mars Viewing on a ETX90, ETX60
Sent:	Tuesday, October 21, 2003 17:35:55
From:	MICROFAB@aol.com
I have tried serveral times with my ETX90 and ETX 60 to view Mars.  I
have used a 12.4 mm (100x) and 9.9 mm (128x) on the ETX90 which
according to Meade should make Mars appear the size of the moon viewing
by eye.

My view is much smaller, with Mars being about 4mm diameter in the
eyepiece.  It appears as a white disc with no details discernible.  I
thought it was perhaps the ETX90 so I switched to my ETX60 with about
the same result.  Is Mars just that much smaller now (as compared to the
comments made by Meade in August), or am I just doing something wrong. 
All I can figure there is to change is to drop in an eyepiece and focus
to the sharpest circle possible.

Jim

And:

Thank you for the comparison, I will keep working at it...

Subject:	ETX-90 Motors don't work
Sent:	Monday, October 20, 2003 20:06:08
From:	ali.maleki@verizon.net (Ali Maleki)
I was wondering if you've heard of this problem:

My one month old ETX-90 doesn't move in either direction. The telescope
and Autostar lights come on. The Autostar functions normally and thinks
it's slewing but there is no movement or sound. I have tried using the
regular controller with the same results.

I was slewing horizontally when the scope hit (or I thought it hit) a
dead stop. I turned the power off and rotated the scope
counter-clockwise. I turned the power on and attempted to do an easy
alignment. The Autostar thought it was slewing but nothing was moving.

Thanks,
Ali

And:

No. It doesn't matter how loose or tight they are: no sound or movement.
Btw NEITHER motor works.

Subject:	Mirror Position for Transport
Sent:	Monday, October 20, 2003 13:01:30
From:	don_sutherland@yahoo.ca (Don Sutherland)
When transporting an ETX, should the focus knob be turned fully CW or
CCW or left in the last focusing position?

What is the best orientation for the optical tube, level, pointing up or
pointing down?

The Meade manual doesn't cover this. Does Meade realize how much money
your website has saved them? I guess we all benefit since they don't
have to allow much  for customer service when they price their
telescopes.
 
Thanks for your great site.
 
Don Sutherland

Subject:	Re: Re:  Motor trouble with the etx 90-ec
Sent:	Monday, October 20, 2003 11:41:06
From:	kvikkstad@webmail.no (Kvikkstad Tor Arne)
sry, i dont mean to be pushy, but judging out of your answer it is clear
to me that i was very unprecise in my question. What i meant with the
"unlock the vertical and horizontal lock before i used the autostar
controller to move the telescope" was that i only forgot this the first
2-3 times i used the telescope. i never forget it now, and i unlcok both
the axis before i use the autostar controller. and the motor drives work
both left, right and down. the problem is that when i try to move the
telescope upwards with the autostar controller (with still both axis
unlocked) the telescope wont move allthough i hear the enignes running.
my question was if the reason for this malfunction could be due to the
fact that i tried to move the telescope with the autostar controller
while the axis were locked the 2-3 first times i used the telescope.
and, if thats the reason, wheter or not i have ruined the warranty?

Subject:	question about tripod for ETX
Sent:	Monday, October 20, 2003 08:23:00
From:	swlradiofan246@yahoo.com (Clay)
Hi, my name is Clay.  I have a question for you, I found your great
website and feel that you would be a good person to ask.  I bought a
meade ETX90 about four or five years ago, it's the older model without
the electronic drive.  Anyway, lately I have been pricing tripods for
it, and the only one I've found is the #884 made by Meade which costs
around 200 bucks.  I'm a poor college student, and really don't have
this much money right now.  I was wondering if their would be any
alternative, perhaps a used one or maybe a cheaper one by some other
maufacturer.  Any ideas?

any help is greatly appreciated, 
Clay; St. Charles, MO 

Subject:	#884 Tripod Thread Size
Sent:	Monday, October 20, 2003 08:18:20
From:	GEvans@mjgleeson.com (Gareth Evans)
Do you know what the size of thread is on the bar protruding from the
centre of the #884 deluxe field tripod?  This is the bar onto which the
shelf / leg stiffener attaches.

I have measured it, and it appears to be an M12 with a 1.5mm pitch.
However, the standard for M12 is 1.75mm pitch.  Also I thought you guys
in the USA were still using imperial measurements, so it suprised me
that none of the imperial sizes fit!

I want to hand a small 5" TV from it to plug into my electronic
eyepiece.
 
Many thanks
 
Gareth Evans

Subject:	Re: Meades QC sucks
Sent:	Monday, October 20, 2003 07:32:49
From:	jaywward@gate.net (Jay Ward)
Just an update on the ETX125 saga. I got the scope back finally. And it
seems to be in fine shape. It was too early in my light polluted skys to
get a decent  two star alignment so I lined up on Mars, did a
synchronize once I had it centered, and everything worked great. I
picked up 6 new Messiers (only 59 more to go).

Thanks again for the moral support and the great website.

Jay Ward
S. Florida

Subject:	computer control of ETX 105
Sent:	Sunday, October 19, 2003 20:52:57
From:	javao@singnet.com.sg (christopher shaw)
Do you have any experience in using planetarium type software like
'TheSky' or 'Starry Night Pro' to control the ETX 105? Which program do
you recommend in using to control the ETX 105? What cables do you need
to hookup your ETX to a laptop computer?
 
Best regards,
Chris

And:

I currently have an Autostar Serial Interface Cable, but my laptop
accepts only USB. DO I need to buy a Serial to USB adapter?

Subject:	Polar alignment
Sent:	Sunday, October 19, 2003 18:46:17
From:	manighsr@msn.com (MARVIN NIgh)
Recently I sold my Celestron C8 because it was too heavy to move each
time I used it. I had used the C8 for about 20 years but now I am 79
years old and don't have the muscle to keep moving it. To replace it I
bought the Meade ETX 125 and have been very interested in the material
found on your website.

Until now I have always used polar alignment and have found the bar with
the latitude marks on the 884 tripod to be less than satisfactory in
setting up the telescope. While looking through your site, I happened to
see a company that sold a replacement latitude rod which was threaded
and would be a safer way to adjust for latitude. My problem is that I
failed to bookmark that site and have looked for it for hours without
success. Would you happen to know the site I am looking for?

Thanks,

Marvin Nigh
Hudson, FL

And:

Not yet, but the 884 tripod reference may work. There was a picture of
the rod with the wing nut adjustment. Thanks for the tip.

Marvin

Thanks for the tip. I found it easily. The web site is
http://www.atozastro.com/Products/884/884_mod_kit.asp

Subject:	meade high power eyepieces
Sent:	Sunday, October 19, 2003 17:38:23
From:	EddieDTS@aol.com
i recently got my full set of meade plossl eye pieces, i have noticed
that when i use from 12mm 9.7 & 6.4mm on my etx90 and look at a single
bright star or a double star that its not a precision point of light but
there seems to be a little flare to it as if you are looking through
less than perfect atmosphere yet when i view saturn through even the 6.4
this dosentappear to happen and the image is fine, i was viewing in my
garden on a clear cold night in england, could this be actually the
steadyness of the skies, atmosphere, interference from nearby buildings,
or could it be not so perfect eye pieces? do you have the same thing
happen to your high power eyepieces? all the other eye pieces show the
points of light as sharp points with no distortion/flare whatever u
might call it, this is not real bad problem but it would be nice to view
double stars like castor or alberio or mizar with sharp points of
pinpoint light rather than in castor's case the flares from the double 
overflowing into each other, even when viewing the ring nebula with the
12mm piece the image was clean, maybe its just the way it is with single
or double bright stars and high power???

hope u can shed some light, tnx for your time,
  eddie

And:

in a follow up to your reply about my highest power eyepieces, i checked
what u said and there is no sound of any rattling or any sound and
nothing is loose, and the flare problem is right at the centre of the
fov as well as anyother part, would u recommend looking again on a
steadier night or do you suspect i have some faulty eyepieces, (only
this dosent explain why saturn or the ring nebula wasnt flared) what i
find strange tho is that its only the high power ones and not random
pieces from my set, could it simply be that the smaller the object
(1star) combined with possibly an unsteady night would cause this ?

And:

tnx for reply, i was out about an hour or 2 but as you mentioned thermal
equilibream could this be my problem,  i keep my eye pieces in there
little greyish holder and in the aluminium meade case, so when i put  a
new eye piece on its really come from the warm case and used
immediatley, or does thermal equilibream only apply to letting the
telescope adapt to the temperature? yet again i apply this to my lower
power pieces too and they are ok,

Subject:	Random Slewing EXT 90
Sent:	Sunday, October 19, 2003 07:23:44
From:	mt@mcain.freeserve.co.uk (Margaret Cain)
I bought my ETX 90 a couple of months ago and at first all was fine. 
But during the last few times of use I have encountered a random slewing
problem with the dec axis.  I align the scope successfully using easy
align,then use the GOTO which normally works fine, but then after about
15 mins the scope develops a mind of its own and slews way off target.
It only seems to be on the dec axis and seems to be worse when trying to
observe Mars. I have tried re training the scope but this has'nt helped.

Has anyone else encountered this problem.  I'd be grateful for any
ideas.

Thanks for the great site, I'd be lost without it.

Margaret Cain
Lancashire 
England

Subject:	Thanks
Sent:	Saturday, October 18, 2003 19:55:45
From:	gjenn@earthlink.net (Gerald Jenny)
Thanks for a great site if I known that Mead and especial 90 ETX were so
much problems I would not have bought one but alias I did and your web
site has saved my butt Thanks Jerry Ps why does not Meade have good
customer relations ther e-mail and phone service stinks !!!!!!!

Gerald Jenny

Subject:	Barlow help
Sent:	Friday, October 17, 2003 23:07:35
From:	chrisnutter@comcast.net
Bought a 125 and the Meade eyepiece special. I want a Barlow, but I'm
confused.

Scopetronix, Televue, Meade and 2x, 3x, variable, long barrel and short
barrel??

$ not an issue and I want to take pictures as well as observe. I'm
learning that this hobby has no shortage of "accessories." Can you help?

Chris Nutter

Subject:	Problems with new ETX-125
Sent:	Friday, October 17, 2003 11:03:38
From:	ed_andresen@hotmail.com (Erik Andresen)
I'm having two problems with my new ETX-125.  I have asked on the
ETXASTRO Yahoo Group and I would greatly enjoy you comments on my
problems.

1. When I use my power adapter (#541) and my AutoStar together (with the
batteries in), the telescope will not turn on.  It works fine with the
AutoStar working on just the batteries.  I started wondering, I then
tried my original Electronic Controller with the power adapter and it
works fine.  I also tried the AutoStar and the power adapter without the
batteries in, it still would not work.  Some of the guys on the Yahoo
Group said something about the AutoStar software.  I'm using Ver. 26Ec. 
I know that it is over a year old, but I don't want to spend a lot of
unnecessary time on it if it needs to be returned to be fixed.  What do
you think my problem is?

2. Next, when I rotate the Azimuth (the lock loosen) it seem to hit,
like, a bump every 90 degrees.  I went to setup the telescope, pointed
the controls towards the west, went to the hard stop counterclockwise
(just short of south), and turned it about clockwise 120 degrees to face
north (hit two of the bumps along the way).  Lock down the Azimuth,
turned the telescope on, and during the alignment, when it move from
star to star it hits those same bumps every 90 degrees.  It seems to
stop the motor for a split second and then continues on its way.  It
doesn't make any difference if i run it at different speeds, it still
does it every 90 degrees.   What do you think my problem is?

I just bought the telescope a week ago from Discovery.com and I can
return it (I hope it doesn't come to that).  If you have and idea to fix
it myself, I'm up for that, as long as it doesn't void my factor
warranty.  I my need it down the road.

Thanks a lot,
Erik Andresen

Subject:	ETX 105 Problem - Collimation?
Sent:	Friday, October 17, 2003 03:10:51
From:	andystentiford@blueyonder.co.uk
I purchased an ETX 125 a few months ago, and have been delighted with
it's performance.  However, recently I've noticed that it's hard to
achieve a sharp focus with a star, and pinpoint images, even of Mag. 2
stars, are eluding me.  With the moon as a target, it is still very easy
to achieve a sharp image.  However, it's not possible to see any surface
detail on an object like Mars - At best, all I get is a defocussed red
ball (and It's not dust storms!). I've not done anything to the scope -
It is VERY well looked after and stored in a proper ETX hard case.

I've tested the collimation with a de-focussed star image, and get a
perfect 'doughnut' both inside and outside of focus.

I'm using a low power eyepiece, have good seeing conditions, and my
optics are clean.  Any ideas?

Also, last night - for the first time, I suffered the fate of many ETX
users - The metal end-cap became stuck! As I tried to unscrew it, the
entire front section started to turn (the 1" black end to the blue tube)

I assume this has rotated the entire Maksutov plate and the secondary
mirror, which brings me to another question - How can Meade provide
accurately aligned 'scopes if the entire Mak plate and secondary mirror
is just screwed in at some stage?

Although I returned it to it's original tightness, I'm hoping it's not
affected the alignment of the optical train (or my warranty)...

Any help you guys can provide is MUCH appreciated.

Congratulations, Mike, on having the best - as well as the most
longstanding - ETX site!

Andy S - Edinburgh, UK

And:

I've tried to avoid any focus-shift by testing the scope in Alt-Az and
observing stars on the same Dec setting as the moon, avoiding any mirror
movement.

Strangely, I've noticed that when I focus on the moon, I have to
re-focus to get a sharper star image.  Although the collimation test
looks good, the 2nd. Mag. star images are still not pin-point.

I've even tried focussing on stars at the Zenith to give me the minimum
amount of atmospheric turbulence...

Have you come across this kind of thing before?

Thanks for such a speedy reply,
 
Andy

The rotating corrector lens will not affect collimation seriously on a
MAK; you would have to nearly completely unscrew it loosely to achieve a
problem there.

1) what was the seeing like when you tried to focus?
2) what magnification were you using; on nights of poor seeing, high
magnification just enhances an unsteady image.
3) are the 2nd mag. stars overhead or are they low in the dense atmosphere?
4) are you allowing the telescope to cool down before using; a Mak
requires about 1.5 hours before using and sometimes will never reach
thermal equilibrium on some nights.

I strongly suspect a combination of all of the above.  Bet on an
excellent still night the telescope will achieve a sharp focus.

NOTE that Mars looks like a round orange fuzz ball right now in ALL
telescopes....it is small, low in the sky (particularly from your
location) and very much affected by poor seeing; what little detail is
visible is very vague and of extremely low contrast at this time.

Best of luck...

Dr. Clay
--------------------
Arkansas Sky Observatory
Harvard MPC H41 (Petit Jean Mountain)
Harvard MPC H43 (Conway)
Harvard MPC H44 (Cascade Mt.)
http://www.arksky.org/

Bingo! I'm not giving it time to reach thermal equilibrium.

Although I always used to do this with my old Refractor, I don't know
why I forgot about doing it with the Mak - It's so obvious!  I'm a city
observer - with no garden - so my observing consists of storing the
'scope in my warm house, driving to a dark site in my warm car, setting
up and becoming increasingly disappointed.  The Mak was purchased back
in summer, where higher outdoor ambient temperatures would have meant
the thermal imbalance was less apparent.  Now winter is on it's way, the
problem is more obvious

Last night I set the 'scope up and gave it over an hour to cool -
Immediately, the brighter stars were perfect Airy disks, and the Mag.
4-5 ones were pin-sharp.

Thanks guys for this one!  As a techie I should know to "check the fuse
before dismantling the unit" - You've saved me from possibly doing
something stupid (I'll not go into detail :o)

Also, good news about the Mak plate...

Clear Skies,

Andy

Subject:	Re: ETX105 (maximum magnification)
Sent:	Friday, October 17, 2003 03:51:19
From:	colferkevin@hotmail.com (Kevin Colfer)
I`m sure you could help to clear up this question, once and for all.

What`s the maximum magnification for an ETX105?  I have been told
the rule of thumb is a bit less than twice the opening of the telescope,
in this case 105mm x 2 = x210, so around x200.

I bought my ETX105 in Germany, and it came with two sets of
instructions, one in German and the other in English.  One set says
x420 and the other x210.

I would be interested to know, so I don`t go out and buy an eyepiece
that`s no good to me.

Many thanks

Kevin Colfer
Germany

Subject:	Repairs and parts 
Sent:	Thursday, October 16, 2003 20:41:37
From:	johntwi01@comcast.net (JM)
I have recently purchased a used EXT 60 from ebay for my daughter

The pan motor does not engage the large lower gear?

If I push the Worn gear against the gear using a thin screwdriver
through the mounting hole this will temporally resolve it??

Any advice, a web sight and a place to possibly buy parts would be
appreciated.

 
Thank you,
 
John 

Subject:	"Light Pollution" Filters for ETX-125
Sent:	Thursday, October 16, 2003 11:11:50
From:	Bill.Hebenstreit@ElPaso.com (Hebenstreit, Gary W (Bill))
Do you have any suggestions for a light pollution filter(s) for my
ETX-125?  I live in the northern Houston suburbs and have a street light
right next to my house.  Any ideas would be appreciated!
 
Thanks again,
 
Bill Hebenstreit
Conroe, Texas

Subject:	ETX-125 not tracking smoothly intermittently
Sent:	Thursday, October 16, 2003 08:28:07
From:	pepperm@umsystem.edu (Pepper, Mike)
First of all thanks for a great site, with tons of information.

I have a ETX-125 that I am starting to get concerned with. The scope is
not tracking smoothly all of the time. Some times it tracks just fine,
others, it lags behind, then jumps to get caught up. It can do this as
rapidly as every 5 seconds or so. It won't let the object get out of the
FOV even at high magnification, but it gets to be quite frustrating when
attempting to study an object. I have noticed it more on the Planets,
(Mars, Saturn, even the Moon) from what I can recall, I don't recall
putting up with it while observing DSO's. I set the scope up in Alt Az
mode. I happen to live in a town that is in the Autostars Database,
(Columbia, Missouri) and am somewhat anal about getting the scope level,
and pointed North during set-up. I have recalibrated and trained the
drives on Polaris. That may have helped for a little bit, but again it
is intermittent. I have not noticed the jumping in alt, just azimuth. A
possibly related problem that I have not attempted to recreate for a
while is that when I was attempting to observe Polaris, and even Mizar,
that I got a Motor Unit fault. I could reinitialize the Autostar,
realign, and observe in a different part of the sky (Eastern sector)
without any problem. But if I attempted to slew back to Mizar, it would
go there, and attempt to track, that is when I would get the motor unit
failure. I checked to make sure that nothing was binding, the path was
clear. The only thing that could have gotten in the way was the focuser
shaft. I made sure that it was out of the way. I called Meade, and he
told me to recalibrate and retrain the drive. I have not called back
since, and thought that I would ask you if had heard experienced this,
or knew of someone who has.

Thanks in advance, and again great job on the site.

A little about the equipment...
ETX-125 UHTC
Astrozap Slide-on Dew Shield,
Scopetronix flexible focus shaft
Scopetronix accessory tray with holder for the Autostar, (screws into
the holes for the optional polar legs)
Meade #884 mount w/wedge
Meade #497 Autostar with 26e firmware

Mike Pepper

And:

Mike, thanks for the reply.

I forgot to tell you that I use one of the 300 Amp Everstart batteries
from Wal-Mart and run it off of DC. After the jumping started, I put in
8 fresh AA's. That was no help.

As far as the scope sitting, about the longest that it ever sits is
around 2 weeks, at the most 3 weeks. But I will rotate it back and forth
attempting to redistribute the grease.

Yesterday after send you the message, I upgraded to 3.0Ed. Of course the
rains set in so I was unable to test it, and properly train the drives.
Hopefully, I'll be able to that tonight.

Thanks again.

Mike

Subject:	How To Question
Sent:	Thursday, October 16, 2003 05:07:09
From:	LBIKAT@aol.com
I am considering 2" EPs for my low power viewing with my 125, I am not
happy with the FOVs with my TV 40 & 32 Plossls.  I understand that I
have to change the rear cell to accommodate a 2" diagonal. What should I
be looking for and what manufacturers would you consider for this? Also,
will I be able to observe at Zenith with this kind of set up?

Need your expertise.
Thanks,
Al Koff

PS I use some Panis and a Nagler for my higher power viewing and love
the FOVs they offer.

And:

Once again, I thank you for your quick and accurate response. I do polar
align so the SCT adapter ring with the 2" diagonal is a possibility. I
will also look into the field widener option.
Regards,
Al Koff

Subject:	Difficult to focus DS90 AT
Sent:	Wednesday, October 15, 2003 19:57:23
From:	cdycus@sc.rr.com ( J & C Dycus)
I'm new to this fascinating subject and have recently purchased my first
telescope, a Meade DS90 AT. In addition, I bought some 1.25 Plossl
eyepieces and a #937 diagonal.

I've tried several times to view Mars but cannot seem to get the
telescope focused. The knob seems very difficult to turn and this causes
the telescope to shake, sometimes moving off of the object sighted.

Is the focus something I need to "feather" in or should I be able to
just turn the knob and easily see the object come into focus?

I've put the telescope outside at times more than an hour before trying
to use it and I've tried a 6mm, 9mm and 15mm Plossl (I used a 2x Barlow
with the 9mm & 15mm).

Also, I've tried several different filters.

I was able to focus on the moon. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

John

Subject:	crosshair eyepiece
Sent:	Wednesday, October 15, 2003 19:51:55
From:	tomvitacco@webtv.net
this is in response to the query about add-on crosshairs for eyepieces..
there is a guy selling them on ebay and they're great... he takes a
brand new series 4000 26mm plossl and adds wire crosshairs.. the
crosshairs are sharp and foucused..  they are also very easy to see when
aligning on a star (at least using my 10" lx200gps)..  i think they're
about 45 bucks plus shipping.. i've had mine for a few months now and
love it..  if you search ebay using "crosshair eyepiece" you should find
them..

tom

From:	kit@bruczkowski.com (Kit)
I had exactly the same problem (high price of Meade cross-hair
eyepieces) so a couple of weeks ago I consulted it with a colleague in
the office who used to be a professional astronomer and got me into this
ETX thing...  He says that there IS a place in every eyepiece that will
be in focus, it is a place where there is a kind of mask around the
perimeter of the barrel, it's function is to give us that sharp edge of
field.  Now in most eyepieces that mask is between some lenses and thus
hard to get to without taking the thing apart.  But some older types of
eyepieces (I think he mentioned Kellner) have the mask on one side of
the set of lenses and you can actually get at it without taking the
eyepiece apart.  If you find an old eyepiece like that, what you need to
do is glue on two strands of a spider's web onto it. Nothing else will
be both strong enough and thin enough, for the spider's web is the
strongest substance on this planet (the US Army has even been
experimenting with "milking" the spiders to obtain enough strands to use
it in some prototypes of a super-light bullet vest).

Of course this would require great precision and may be too difficult to
pull off in the end, but other materials like an extremely thin wire or
human hairs may work out.  This got me very interested, so last week I
tried to harvest some of my wife's hairs only to find out that they are
very thick - she's Chinese and Asian hair tends to be thicker than
Europeans'. In the end I managed to obtain several hair samples from my
co-workers, focusing on blondes in the office in the belief that blond
hair will be more visible against the night sky.  Of course most of my
co-workers must now think me a loony, but then isn't that the general
society's opinion of most of us, sky-gazers?

Anyway, I selected the thinnest samples and now I'm looking for an old
Kellner eyepiece on the 2nd hand market.  When one comes along, I'll
report to you on the results of my homemade cross-hair eyepiece project.

Best Regards,

Marcin Bruczkowski
marcin@bruczkowski.com

Subject:	Meade Electronic Focuser Wiring Diagram
Sent:	Wednesday, October 15, 2003 07:56:49
From:	Chris.Brown@zf.com (Brown Chris NAO F-Duncan Systems)
My electronic focuser for my ETX 125 recently quit working and after
some troubleshooting I found that the little card in the motor box had
gone bad.  I drew a wiring diagram, took the card out (by cutting the
wires) and ordered another card from Meade.  The problem I have is that
I lost my hand drawn wiring diagram.  I called Meade to see if they
would give me one but they said they were not allowed to send out wiring
diagrams and they referred me to your site.  Anyway, just wanted to see
if you might have what I need here.
 
Thanks,
Chris Brown

I actually found the diagram on your site a while after I e-mailed you.
Here is a link to it, just for your information.

http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips/elec_focuser_mod.html

Thanks,
Chris Brown

Subject:	ETX90 - strange effects
Sent:	Wednesday, October 15, 2003 01:16:54
From:	joachim.seibert@web.de (Joachim Seibert)
First to say: Very nice page of yours!

Recently I obtained a used ETX90EC. Two rather strange observations:

1)  It shows a reflex of the  primary mirror in the middle of the view
field when observing large and bright objects (see attached eyepiece
projection of the sun, taken with an Identiview filter). With smaller
objects, I am getting "nice" psychodelic interference effects at the
same position. Infra- and extrafocal diffraction pattern showing
collimation. Do you have any idea what this could be caused by or what a
possible cure could be?

2)  This instrument appears to be extremely sensitive to stray light.The
cone in which stray light received is disturbing the view completely is
rather large (moon tested, when looking towards deep sky objects). For
me it appears that the "light absorbing" groovings on the tube's inner
surface rather reflect the light than absorb it. I know that a dew
shield could help to reduce the angle affectted... Are there experiences
using black felt inside the tube?

Both "effects" could not be seen in my ETX125, thus I was thinking that
both effects might not be flaws of Meade's Maksutov design, but curable
maladies of this specific instrument.

Best regards, Joachim

PS: The image of the sun does not appear in it's best shape seen, my
digital camera insists calculating a focus based on some pattern
computations, causing this lack of focus and thereby hiding several sun
spots visible in the scope.

Subject:	Screw on crosshairs for eyepiece?
Sent:	Tuesday, October 14, 2003 05:00:19
From:	manicduck@hotmail.com
Please excuse my ignorance on the subject, but I was wondering if you or
one of your readers has come across a screw on accessory that will place
cross hairs in the eyepiece of a standard 1.25 inch eyepiece. I have
tried to play with an old screw on filter, but have only achieved very
limited success! I have even taken apart a very old finderscope!

I find myself unable to run to the price of the Meade Reticule units,
but would find a simple cross hair or even centre cross extremely
useful.Any comments you might have ref purchase or projects would be
most helpful.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this

Best Regards

Andy

Subject:	old but important ETX trick
Sent:	Monday, October 13, 2003 17:58:04
From:	geheniau@xs4all.nl
I want to say to all the ETX users that to get the desired object right
in the middle of your FOV , always set the High Precision mode to
ON.(under setup/telescope)

Even with not the best allignment this option works very good. The ETX
first goes to a star in the neigbourhood, centre in the middle,
enter...et voila. Very useful for webcam exposures. It's an old 'trick'
but I doubt if every ETX user knows about this option.

Greetings,

Job Geheniau
The Netherlands

Subject:	Motor trouble with the etx 90-ec
Sent:	Monday, October 13, 2003 12:20:40
From:	kvikkstad@webmail.no (Kvikkstad Tor Arne)
Because you seem like a very busy man, maintaining your large website
(which helped me choose the right telescope by the way, thank you) i
shall try to be brief.

I got my first telescope, a meade etx 90-ec, a few months ago. It has
been my dream to have my own telescope for many years. But already i
have experienced some trouble with the motor drive(s). Both the
horizontal drives work, and the "down"-drive. but when i try to use the
autostar control to slew the telescope upwards, the telescope does not
move at all, allthoug i hear the engines running. i have tried to
callibrate the motors and also to reset the system, but it does not
help. the first two-three times i used the telescope i forgot to unlock
the vertical and horizontal lock before i used the autostar controller
to move the telescope (it took a few seconds before i understood the
fault and then unlocked). I was just wondering if that could be the
source to the problems i am now experiencing? have i in that case ruined
the warranty?

if you have the time to answer that would be very nice. thank you anyway
for a good site.

Regards from Tor-Arne from Scandinavia
 
ps: forgive my poor english

Subject:	Webcam astrophotography
Sent:	Monday, October 13, 2003 00:25:00
From:	LOGIACCO_MICHELE@LILLY.COM
Thanks for your reply, Mike.
But I'd like to know what follows:

Where can I see my thread in your website ?
How can I write in the website ?

Thanks a lot, Mike.
Regards
Michele

Subject:	hi :-)
Sent:	Sunday, October 12, 2003 15:56:40
From:	james.jefferson@ntlworld.com (james.jefferson)
Im thinking of Upgrading my ETX70 to a ETX90EC ... is this recommended ?
or should I go futher up ?

How much different is it really ? i'd appreciate a honest answer as I
know you would :-)

Great Site BTW, learn so much from it ! 

James(UK)

Subject:	How to Verify UHTC
Sent:	Sunday, October 12, 2003 09:25:44
From:	lcaltman2001@yahoo.com (Larry ALtman)
Just purchased a ETX125EC with UHTC. The outside packing has a sticker
Indicating it is UHTC. However, the actual telescope packaging itself
does not indicate UHTC. How can I verify I received one with UHTC. Also
regarding the bearings, the box indicates the Declination Bearings are
nylon, and the Right Ascension are Ball Bearings. Searching through your
threads, I have seen several comments about the older models not having
Ball Bearings and wondering if I have received one of those older
models.

Subject:	 
Sent:	Saturday, October 11, 2003 19:57:07
From:	dark_matter_7@yahoo.com (Hisham Al-Dhukair)
I'm sorry about the many question i asked you

but i have one more question if you don't mind...

I observed The orion from my backyard (in the  city) with my ETX-70 AT

but I was not able to see the orion nebula or the horshead nebula from
my telescope

what was the problem?

is there something wrong with my telescope?

or the ETX-70 so small that i can't observe them at all?

or I should observe theme out of the city (in desert)?

thanks

BEST REGARDS

Subject:	re: FOV
Sent:	Saturday, October 11, 2003 18:50:35
From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (Richard Seymour)
To:	aprieto@amper.es
I just tried http://www.csgnetwork.com/telefov.html
with Netscape v4.79 (java active enough to operate Yahoo ads)
and also see a blank screen.

There simply are some sites (usually written with "Publisher" or
"Front Page") which older Netscapes cannot display
(try "View Page Source") 
I see that this page was written with "CoffeeCup".

With Internet Explorer 5.0  it operates properly.

good luck
--dick

Subject:	re:  Idea for your ETX website
Sent:	Saturday, October 11, 2003 18:45:02
From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (Richard Seymour)
To:	webmaster@joltz.org
Although he's too modest to admit it, Mike Weasner is an active member
of the Yahoo ETXASTRO forum, (and probably others).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETXASTRO

(yes, it has ads, but it's effortless...)

have fun
--dick

From:	webmaster@joltz.org (Joltz)
that wouldn't surprise me :) has a legend and wealth of knowledge when
it comes to the ETX

Subject:	etx-60 azimuth encoder LED gets no power
Sent:	Friday, October 10, 2003 21:43:58
From:	5schaefers@sbcglobal.net (Lisa & Matt Schaefer)
Cool ETX site!
 
I just got my first GOTO scope, a used ETX-60 with a 494 Autostar. It
always gets a motor unit fault when beginning alignment. I searched your
site and tried the various suggestions - new batteries, reset, retrain,
recalibrate - nothing helped. I also noticed that while the Alt. motor
would obey the slew speed setting, the Az. motor would slew at max speed
no matter what the setting. I couldn't find much about that problem on
your site.

Thinking the problems might be related, and being the curious type, I
took the scope apart and started probing around the motor control
circuit board with an oscilloscope while I ran the motors. I got a nice
waveform off the Alt. motor shaft encoder phototransistor, but flatline
on the Az. encoder output. I pulled the Alt. phototransistor out, and
the Alt. motor would now too only run at max speed. Aha! I pulled both
encoder IR LEDs out, got out my camcorder (to "see" the IR light) and
saw that only the Alt. encoder LED was lit up. I put the Alt. LED into
the Az. encoder and the Az. motor would now obey the slew speed setting.
Double Aha!

I measured on the circuit board and found only the Alt. LED was getting
power. The Az. LED gets no power. I tried to trace the circuit, but
after fumbling around the surface mount components with a flashlight and
magnifying glass, I gave up.

Is there a solution other than getting a new motor circuit board? Are
any schematics available? I thought about just driving both LEDs with
the Alt. circuit, but I don't want to risk overloading anything in the
circuit.

Thanks!
 
Matt Schaefer

Subject:	Please could you add my site to your list of links....
Sent:	Friday, October 10, 2003 03:54:35
From:	skyshed@btinternet.com (skyshed)
I have been an avid fan of your site for an age, and was hoping you
would look at my site and possibly add it to your site link...

Thanks 

Lee Harris

www.skyshed.btinternet.co.uk/

Subject:	Motor Unit fault
Sent:	Friday, October 10, 2003 02:47:56
From:	mikelcook@lineone.net
My problem with motor unit faults is realy bugging me,i have tried
calibrating the motors,and training them and have even removed and
checked them,the only thing i can think now is that there may be a
problem with the Circuit board.The problem is when i slew  left or right
using either Autostar or normal hand paddle after about 10 deg the motor
stalls,if using the Autostar i get a motor unit fault alarm,when using
the handpaddle repressing the slew button starts the process again.it
would seem as if the feedback does not know where it is,any ideas would
be appreciated,do you know where i could purchase a replacement
board,apart from Meade as i live in the UK.

  Regards Mike Cook

And:

Yes i have tried all you suggest but still getting the same problem.

Subject:	Meades QC sucks
Sent:	Thursday, October 9, 2003 22:08:28
From:	jaywward@gate.net (Jay Ward)
Just an update on my continuing ETX125 woes.

I bought an ETX125EC UHTC in mid June from B&H in NY. When I got it
there was a minor problem with the setting circle band that runs around
the base. It was too large and would not fit in the track. I thought
this was minor and was thrilled to have found a scope after waiting 4-6
weeks so I kept it. 16 days later (2 days after the B&H return
policy expired) the Dec motor gear box stripped out. Back it went to
Meade AT MY EXPENSE. They refused to send a pick up tag claiming it was
my responsibility to pay for the return. I got it back five weeks later
on August 26th. I was Thrilled. Setting circle was fixed, dec motor was
fixed, even some of the slop I had noticed in the fork had been fixed.
One week later while observing, I noticed it seemed to be taking a long
time to slew to a new object. Turns out the Alt/Az motor had completely
quit. Back It goes to Meade, at least this time they paid the shipping.
Of course they paid for the cheapest form of shipping they could get
away with. It took from Sept 17 to the 30 before they showed it as
received in their repair process. It apparantly set on their dock for 6
days. Now they tell me it will take 3 - 4 weeks in service before it's
shipped back from repair (again, slowest way possible). When I asked to
speak to a manager, I got shuffled to a voice mail recording, promising
me a response within 24 hours. That was a week ago, guess what NO CALL
BACK.

I bought the scope  on 6/17
I returned it the first time on 7/18
I got it back on 8/26
It went back again on 9/17

Here it is 10/10 and I've had the scope in my posession 53 days since I
bought it 122 days ago and have been told not to expect to see it for
another 4-5 weeks.

Caveat emptor

Jay (pi##ed of in Florida) Ward

And:

I've wanted to do that but can find no email address's listed on their
website, other than for HR job postings.

Can you suggest names to address this to? Just writting or calling tech
support has gotten me nowhere.

And an update:

You know, a funny thing happened. I sent an email similar to the one I
sent you, to four addresses at meade. I noticed they tend to use
firstname.lastname@meade.com for their corporate addresses.  I
looked up their CFO and CEO, and VP of sales and marketing's names.,
Their HR department contact was actually listed on the site. Two names
bounced, the others went through, at least they did not bounce back.
Within 12 hours there was a message on my answering machine saying my
scope was done and shipped today (Friday). This is really strange, since
I was told on Tuesday it would be 3-4 weeks. Amazing what a little
squaking will get you.

Jay

Subject:	Dew on ETX-70
Sent:	Thursday, October 9, 2003 14:53:49
From:	electra188@netzero.com (Tim Haller)
Quick question concerning the long term effect of dew on the scope
(ETX-70). Two nights ago after a three hour session, the scope was
drenched with dew. I use a dew shield so the problem is not with the
optics as much as the scope is covered with dew. I leave the scope on
the porch after the session and wait until everything warms up before I
bring it in and wipe down the exterior. I never touch the objective, I
just let it warm up and air dry on its own. This has happened 30+ times
in the last six months and I'm wondering what the long term effect might
be on the scope. I know this is a common question so if you can steer me
to the proper section on the web site I would appreciate it.

I also have an ETX-105 with UHTC, anything special about the long term
effects of dewing on this scope?

I thank you again for your expertise and tireless dedication to amateur
astronomy and especially the ETX crowd.
  
Sincerely,

Tim Haller...electra188

Clear Skies

And:

Thanks for the quick response Mike.

It's as I expected with the heavy dew. I'll try to limit the exposure
but that can be difficult at times. I observe from the mountains of West
Virginia and middle Tennessee. These places are conducive to dew
formation most times of the year. Hopefully my scope won't give up the
ghost to quickly. If it does, I'll have to invest in a 10" LXD-55 SN or
something like that...lol. The only problem with that scenario is the
mobility issue. It's tough to beat that ETX-70 and 105 for portability.

Thanks again Mike, take care of yourself.

Sincerely,

Tim Haller...electra188

Clear Skies

Subject:	ETX 90 Question
Sent:	Thursday, October 9, 2003 14:13:57
From:	Rick.Foster@tusd.k12.az.us (Foster, Rick)
I visited your site, but did not readily see the answer to this
question.

I asked my wife to take off the dust cover to a 90ETX EC.  She
complained that she still could not see anything through the eye piece,
I was busy imaging with my Lx200 and told her to use our Celestron until
I could look at it.

When I did, I saw that instead of unscrewing the dust shield she had
unscrewed the whole top glass corrector assembly.  I screwed it back in
but did not see any index marks to stop at, at least obvious enough to
see in semi-darkness (red light), so I just tighten it up.

Are there any index marks that I should look for?  Are the corrector's
and subsequently the secondary matched to the primary mirror?  If so, do
you have instructions on how to re-match them?
 
Thanks,
Rick Foster in Tucson

Subject:	Solar viewing
Sent:	Thursday, October 9, 2003 11:49:32
From:	HANDLIN@comcast.net
If I use a reputable full-aperture solar filter for my ETX, is it safe
for me to hook up the Meade Electronic Eyepiece to the telescope to show
a group of people the sun? Could this possibly cause any damage to the
eyepiece or the scope?

Subject:	ETX 90 and 125 available at  Wal-Mart stores & Walmart.com
Sent:	Thursday, October 9, 2003 10:02:30
From:	paulp@mindspring.com (Paul)
I have been following your site since the beginning and it just keeps
growing and growing. You are providing an excellent service to the
astronomical community and I as well as many others thank you. . . . .

I Walked into Wal-Mart last weekend and saw an ETX90 complete with
autostar 497 and field tripod neatly packaged for $549. I would have
bought it if I didn't already own one. Looking thru their telescope
display I had also found an ETX-125ATC complete with deluxe field
tripod, Autostar 497, UHTC coatings!!, tripod duffle bag and 2 Meade MA
eyepieces (25mm & 9mm). I purchased it for $938.00 plus tax. This store
only had one and had just received it in. Wal-Mart's web site is now
selling both 90 & 125s as regular stock. Low cost shipping plus
excellent return policy (return to your local store) and of course the
price makes this a very viable alternative to the usual mail order
houses. Check your local store for availability first since some
selected stores will carry them as they become available saving you on
shipping. Meade will also honor the $99 eyepiece special with this
purchase as per a phone conversation with their customer service. Simply
send in the warranty card with a note requesting the eyepiece special
and a check for $99.

I disassembled parts of the base to verify the newer design (full
bearings ect.) to be sure that these are not left over first generation
models. They are current, including the current version 30e software.
Note that the UHTC coatings are not mentioned anywhere on the packaging
(surprising) but is indicated by a tag on the bottom side of the OTA.
The Wal-Mart web site does indicate the addition of UHTC in the product
description. Star tests proved nearly perfect optics and collimation.
Even with an almost full moon being about 5 degrees from mars there was
no glare or reflection in the image. At 200X, mars was clearly visible
showing the ice cap and surface markings like I have never seen (twenty
years observing). The object was much larger then in my ETX 90 and much
clearer than in my 6" Celestron Newtonian. After loosening the RA
bearing slightly do to what I felt was an over tight condition, the
GOTO's were consistently centered and tracking was dead on for almost  2
hours. This is better than I had expected for a scope under $1000.

Hope this will be of use,

Paul

Subject:	re: gps reciever upgrade for etx, lxd55, lx90
Sent:	Wednesday, October 8, 2003 17:32:52
From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (Richard Seymour)
To:	NICKELSONS@peoplepc.com
The GPS receiver you see from Scopetronics is **NOT** an Official Meade
Product.  It is a totally independent development by another hobbiest.
The home page for it is http://www.stargps.ca   ( <-- ca not com )

(unless, of course, Meade came out with one while i blinked... but i doubt it)

have fun
--dick

Subject:	Scopetronix Thread On Solar Filter For ETX 125
Sent:	Wednesday, October 8, 2003 12:49:33
From:	LBIKAT@aol.com
Just tried this new thread-on Scopetronix class A solar filter and the
results were very nice. Two very fine sunspots were clearly evident in
my 125 using a Panoptic 24 EP, our star was just a tad less than the
observable field. I do like the safety of this thread-on design and
would give this item two thumbs up. $99 for a 125.
Clear skies,
Al Koff

Subject:	How can I tell if my ETX is damaged?
Sent:	Wednesday, October 8, 2003 12:37:59
From:	easyryder1001@yahoo.com (Ryder)
I just got a new ETX and accidentally loosened the declination lock,
which caused the scope tube to suddenly drop down onto the base. Checked
out the scope on the outside and it looks OK, and checked that night
whether I could see the objects in the sky, and that seemed OK as well.
I'm pretty new to telescopes and stuff and I'm worried that perhaps some
minor damage was caused that I'm not seeing right now (such as lenses
slightly out of alignment or other minor damage) because I'm not using
the full potential of the scope yet (the damage may be more obvious when
looking at deep space objects, for instance...if I would only know where
to find them---like I said, I'm pretty new to all this).

Is there some sort of way to determine if my clumsiness caused any
damage at all? Some kind calibration test perhaps that's not too
difficult to pull off?? Reason why I am asking is that if any damage
exist, I rather return the scope to the store I bought it from and
exchange it before it's too late.
 
Thanks for your time.

Subject:	Idea for your ETX website
Sent:	Wednesday, October 8, 2003 08:14:32
From:	webmaster@joltz.org (Joltz)
Ive become a frequent user of your ETX site, basically been going there
every day, checking out the photos and reading tips etc.

It then sprung to me, you obviously must receive alot of email in
regards to questions, tips, photos and general feedback, so... why not
make it abit easier and throw a forum on your website where everyone can
interact in real time post they're photos themselves, ask questions and
be answered by people who may know etc etc, I have a real great forum on
my site at www.joltz.org they're very easy to setup.

You then could have a few people or yourself moderate any posts through
the administration panel.

Ive been thinking of adding my own astronomy section to my site not 100%
definite yet. If you wanted to, I could create the forums, you could
link them from your site, Ill give you moderator access and we could do
it together if that makes it any easier, that's totally up to you
though.

If you want to create your own and your not sure how to, ill be glad to
help you, just let me know. 

Anyway, take care.

Ignatius

Subject:	ETX 125
Sent:	Wednesday, October 8, 2003 07:57:05
From:	ajguzman@prtc.net (Arturo J. Guzmn)
I have just purchased an ETX 125 with the AutoStar and I am new to the
technology. When the alignment instructions refer to the "home position"
they indicate the tube must be level and pointing North. Do they mean
that you must adjust the tripod legs to make the entire telescope level
if as in my case I place it in sloping terrain, or do they mean that
only the tube must be level?

Your help will be appreciated.

Regards,

Arturo

And:

Thank you very much for your help. Congratulations on your site!

Regards,

Arturo

Subject:	RE: New 125 and Autostar trouble
Sent:	Wednesday, October 8, 2003 00:15:20
From:	calley@ore-inspired.freeserve.co.uk (Calley Wilkinson)
To:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (Richard Seymour)
Hi Both.

Update on new 125 & autostar trouble.

I received the replacement scope last week and tried the 360 degree
test!!!!!! GREAT, spot on. Finally got a clear sky last night and
aligned perfectly. After which I had a great time, grand tour/ goto.
Skyview Optics have been absolutly great in there service and assistance
in this problem, and I cannot praise them enough.Of course without
yourselves I would have struggled on for a lot longer getting more
frustrated and annoyed with Meade.

Great site,Great help, and best regards to you both.Heres' to the future
of clear skies and next step astrophotography.

Calley Wilkinson. Leicestershire.UK

Subject:	Re: Re: FOV
Sent:	Tuesday, October 7, 2003 23:20:59
From:	aprieto@amper.es
I have Javascript activated. I am using Netsacape 4.5. Still can't see
anything

Subject:	Heartfelt Congratulations!!!
Sent:	Tuesday, October 7, 2003 18:56:53
From:	bobcath28@msn.com (ROBERT Derouin)
Hi Mike!, I've been takin' it easy since the Martian close approach last
August!!I'll be back soon with more stuff/images!!I would be thrilled to
take this moment to congratulate you on the awesome success of your ETX
website...for the last 7 years!!!You've really helped me out and have
even given me a little much needed confidence in getting some of my
astro-images posted on the web!!Thanks to you,Mike!!I really appreciate
the patience you've displayed with my "so-so" photos!!You sure know how
to make a 'budding'astrophotographer feel wanted!!!Thanks again, Mike
and best wishes on your site for another great seven years!!!        Bob
Derouin,Johnston,RI

Subject:	etx125ec
Sent:	Tuesday, October 7, 2003 17:59:28
From:	hoosiersnoopy@earthlink.net (Kevin And Sara Brown)
I just found a 15% off coupon code for the Discovery Store (sorry I
didn't find it a little sooner Rtpilk@aol.com) it is
"COMDIG" and is suppose to be good until 10-27-03.

I just used it on my order, and have a etx125 with uhtc on it's way!

Kevin

Subject:	Galileo Illuminated Finder
Sent:	Tuesday, October 7, 2003 10:28:28
From:	ThurberHK@Npt.NUWC.Navy.Mil (Thurber Hiroshi K NPRI)
Anyone familiar with the Galileo Circular Illuminated Reticle Finder
offered by Apogee?

Hiroshi Kevin Thurber

Subject:	 
Sent:	Tuesday, October 7, 2003 06:41:21
From:	gavin.billington@baesystems.com (Billington, Gavin (UK))
Very quick question which i am sure has been covered a thousand times
before, I have just got a ETX125 UHTC which has 2 finger marks on the
lens, not over big but enough to big the hell out of me....

Should i try and remove em and maybe make a mess of the coatings or just
leave em alone as i have no idea how long they have been on either.... ?

Mr Gavin Billington
Lancashire UK

Subject:	Focusing movement on the ETX
Sent:	Monday, October 6, 2003 17:23:16
From:	AnthonyRukcic@aol.com
I noticed last night, that when I focus in or out, the image I'm
centered on moves a little to the left or the right. Like there is a
little play in the focus mechanism. Its not bad to where I have to
recenter the image. Just curious why it does that. I'm just using the
orginal focus knob. Also that was with about 144X  anything around 75X
and you cant tell. My Orginal ETX 90 RA did it also.  Any Ideas?  By the
way the scope is 125ETX

Thanks
Anthony

Subject:	Meade LPI Imager
Sent:	Monday, October 6, 2003 11:45:20
From:	David.Gasch@goldsmithgroup.com (David L. Gasch)
Just was wondering if you have heard anything about Meade's new LPI
(Lunar Planetary Imager)Software Suite?  Cost is $149.00, and it looks
simple enough to use and install.

Has anyone used this new suite for making images and if so have they
sent you any results?

Thanks for a great site, I've received more info from your web site than
all others put together, keep up the good work Mike.

David Gasch

And:

Subject:	Autostar Suite and LPI
Sent:	Monday, October 6, 2003 23:59:18
From:	KlaraColli@aol.com
Has anyone tried the new Lunar Planetary Imager and Autostar Suite? 
Does the tracking feature just rely on Autostar or does it work like a
guider and control the drives?  It looks like it could give rewarding
results on a budget.

Tom 
Chatsworth  

Subject:	change from altaz to polar mode
Sent:	Monday, October 6, 2003 11:38:42
From:	thebostons@cox.net (thebostons)
My 105 works so perfectly in altaz I hate to switch. Everything I GoTo
lands in my 26mm EP. But, I want to try astrophotog. Is there a simple
way to switch to polar? Or, can it be explained briefly & simply? A
friend set my scope up for me so I'm not as familiarized with the
procedures as the normal user. Thanks for everything past & future.

And:

I plan to use a Cannon SLR and try to take photos of everything from
luna &r, plainatary to deep space objects which will require extended
exposures. I understand the placement of the scope and the adjustments
that have to be made to it. The only thing I think I need to know are
the changes necessary on the Autostar.

Subject:	FOV
Sent:	Monday, October 6, 2003 08:08:19
From:	aprieto@amper.es
What is the formula to calculate fov in fonction of aperture and focal
length of the eyepiece?

And:

Sorry but no result in the URL

Subject:	Meade eyepiece problem
Sent:	Monday, October 6, 2003 06:23:16
From:	mike@flocean.com (Mike PearlmanMike)
My 40 mm eyepiece that came with the Meade offer seems to have something
wrong with it.   All of the other eyepieces are fine with my ETX-90,
they give sharp images and round concentric star test circles on both
sides of focus.  However, when you look in the 40mm, if you move your
eye a tiny bit, the whole field of view becomes black, and it is very
hard to position your eye to see the image as opposed to having it
disappear.  Also, if you look in the eyepiece from certain angles, it
almost looks like you can see that round donut type image you would see
with the eyepiece removed.   Can eyepieces be misadjusted or is this a
quality control problem with the glass?   I don't have this type  of
issue with any other one.

Thanks,

Mike Pearlman
Largo, FL

And:

OK, it was probably my viewing position then.  Thanks, good news.  
Thanks again for the great web site.

Mike

Subject:	New ETX!
Sent:	Monday, October 6, 2003 04:01:38
From:	webmaster@joltz.org (Joltz)
Well ive finally decided to buy my new etx125 and sell the etx70. All
thanks to a nice windfall from a poker machine win on the weekend which
should fund the total price of the new telescope $2100 here in
downunder.

Im really looking forward to the upgrade and hope it will make a much
better difference compared to the 70mm, which im sure it would. Cant
wait for more late night star gazing in the now warm summer nights.

Could you tell me, the etx125 uses the 1.25mm plossl's like the etx70
right? Im hoping to keep all my other lens ive bought for the 70 and
just use them with the 125.

Take care champ!

Subject:	gps reciever upgrade for etx, lxd55, lx90
Sent:	Monday, October 6, 2003 00:48:16
From:	NICKELSONS@peoplepc.com (jason Hughes)
I enjoy the sight very much and thanks for all your hard work in
providing info on etx scopes. I own the etx125ec.  I'm impressed what
this scope can do. But anyway to the point scoptronics and meade have a
new gps reciever available for $170. for etx, lxd55, and lx90 series
scopes. thought you would like to know, if you hadn't heard. thanks
again for the website. mike nickelson. defcon7y2@hotmail.com.

Subject:	#825 Finderscope Alternative?
Sent:	Sunday, October 5, 2003 14:04:03
From:	rjahnke@wi.rr.com (Rick J.)
The stock finderscope on my ETX-90-EC is a backbreaker.
The Meade #825 seems a bit pricey to me. 
Are there other companies that sell a compatible scope or must I pony up
the $47 for the Meade one?

Thanks,
Rick

Subject:	Mars-Lightning on Spaceweather.com
Sent:	Sunday, October 5, 2003 09:05:00
From:	divenuts@gte.net (divenuts)
Hi all,
I justed wanted to toot my own horn a little I just had my first
photo 'published' on Space weather.com. It's on the lower right of the
front page.
http://spaceweather.com/
Thanks for looking,
Chuck

Subject:	ETX-125EC Newbie Question
Sent:	Saturday, October 4, 2003 23:54:45
From:	Anonymous
I just purchased a brand new Meade ETX-125EC from a local Discovery
store here in Houston, Texas. Immediately after I came home from the
store I wanted to try it out and perhaps in all my excitement and
anticipation of viewing heavenly objects, I didn't read the manual
thoroughly before setting up the scope and for one reason or another,
loosened the knob on the side which accidentally made the tube swing
down from a normal straight 0 degrees and instantly hit the plastic base
of the scope. Of course I was freaked out at first but after a cursory
look on the outside of the scope and tube in particular, everything
looked OK.

OK, to make a long story short, after I took the scope outside to view
the first object in the sky (I picked the moon since it's hard to miss),
I was able to center it in the eye piece without problems. However, and
here comes my problem, it's just VERY FUZZY! I have tried to play with
the focus knob on the back of the scope (up to about 6-8 revolutions
counter-clockwise from fully tightened) but the moon just appears as a
big fuzzy ball. I'm using the standard 26mm eye piece. I also let  the
scope climatize to the outdoor conditions but again, still  fuzzy. Am I
doing something really wrong here, or is the scope (or eye piece)
potentially at fault? What about the little accident of the tube
swinging down--might this have hurt the scope and cause the focus
problem?

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Subject:	re:  An alien inside my EXT-90?
Sent:	Saturday, October 4, 2003 16:22:59
From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (Richard Seymour)
To:	POLLOCKB@aol.com
Since it is in the area between the main mirror and the corrector,
your only chance is to "simply" remove the front corrector.

Before you unscrew it, put a scratch mark on the dark metal ring
holding the corrector, and the blue barrel... when you put it
back together you want to stop the screw-down at that exact point.

Now put the front cover on, grab onto the exposed corrector plate
retaining ring, and unscrew it from the barrel.
(you may have seen "HELP!" postings on Mike's site from folks
who accidently unscrewed this because the lens cap was stuck.
You -want- to unscrew it).

Once it's off, dump out the moth and screw it back on.

You do want to stop shaking the moth around in there, 
since the moth will shed wing-flakes which will get on the optics.

Resist the temptation to BLOW into the scope to remove dust.
You WILL do more damage from your breath's moisture (ok, SPIT)
than any dust would ever do.

have fun
--dick (Comments about moth-eaten scope omitted)

Subject:	MARS PHOTOGRAPHY ETX90EC CANON EOS
Sent:	Friday, October 3, 2003 06:04:41
From:	Clivemorris@gwynedd.gov.uk (Morris Clive TRY/TRE)
On 3 September,2003 at 22.00 UT(Universal
Time) I observed Mars using my ETX90EC. The magnification used was x129
and the C.M. of Mars was 237.4 degrees. A dark marking was observed on
the upper left hand portion of the disc.This marking was slanted 8am to
2pm as it would be seen on a clockface.My wife,Rita,confirmed the dark
marking. The polar cap was reduced in size from my obsevation of 12
August,2003. I have identified the marking as the Mare Cimmerium.

Mike,I have one question please. I have a CANON EOS 500N camera and a
tripod,and I would like to attempt a photograph. Reading Astronomy
Now(which the U.K.'s main Astronomy magazine) an article in the
September issue says turn the Autofocus off,after mounting the camera on
the tripod,and then focus the camera lens on the eyepiece image. Do you
have any advice for me please.

Finally,I would like to say thank you very much for your website,which
is inspirational!

Diolch yn fawr(Thank you very much in the welsh language),
Clive Morris,Caernarfon,North Wales,U.K.

Subject:	Re: Constellation guide "GoTo"...Gemini ?
Sent:	Friday, October 3, 2003 05:55:29
From:	drclay@arksky.org (P. Clay Sherrod)
To:	Ian
Hello Ian and thanks for writing....
One of my priorities this winter is to finish all of the northern
constellations AND Gemini - being one of my favorites - will be first;
as a matter of fact, it is on the drawing board at this time and should
be done before Christmas.

Hope that this helps and thanks for the kind words; I know that a lot of
folks are using the constellation Guides and the Tours that go with
them.

Thanks for writing.

Clay
--------------------
Dr. P. Clay Sherrod
Arkansas Sky Observatory
Harvard MPC H41 (Petit Jean Mountain)
Harvard MPC H43 (Conway)
Harvard MPC H44 (Cascade Mt.)
http://www.arksky.org/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ian
> comments: Dear Clay,
> First off I would like to thankyou for the time & effort you have put into
creating the constellation guides. I have nearly managed to print them all
to use at the telescope, and have really enjoyed the tours that I have done
so far.
> I recently realised that there is no guide for Gemini and humbly ask if
you could apply you're knowledge and exprience to creating one (if there is
any time in between working,supercharging and generally helping telescope
owners!). I apologise if this is the 100th time you've been asked obout it.
> Thankyou and clear skies
>
> Ian

Subject:	An alien inside my EXT-90?
Sent:	Thursday, October 2, 2003 20:45:57
From:	POLLOCKB@aol.com
A week ago, I just happened to look inside the lense of my EXT-90 and
discovered what appears to be the body of a "miller" moth. Could this
moth have followed the light from Mars down and into my telescope?
Another possibility is that during the summer we had a large infestation
of these moths. When I bring my telescope in from a night's viewing, I
remove the eyepieces and cover the scope by a table lamp. I supsect the
moth flew inside the open eyepiece mount during the few seconds to put
the eyepiece in the case.

Can I remove this myself? Or, better to send it to Mead?  I do not see
it then looking through an eyepiece. But it's there-----

Bill Pollock
Santa Fe, NM 

And:

I tried that, but no luck. I can see it through the eypiece holder, but
I can't seem to get it shake out. It will bounce around.

And:

Thanks for the suggestion. I will see if I can access it. Looking rom
the aperature, the moth apears to rest on a mirror and will slide around
as I jiggle the telescope. I can see it through the eyepiece opening but
cannot access it. I have opened the port for a camera mounting and
turned the mirror, but cannot get it to fallout. It appears to be
trapped inside. Not being an expert on nomenclature, there appears to be
a post etween the miorror and the glass. I guess there is no major
prolem, since it is not seen when looking at stars.

By the way, last weekend I attended a star party at White Sands. Most
had large Meade 200s and various Dobsinians. But I thought my EXT-90
came off quite well. The sky was so great that one could see Andromeda
Galaxy with the naked eye. I looked thorugh some of the Dobsinians and
the Meade 200s. But I was still pleased with what I saw. When the
general public was present the second night, I focused on perspective
and showed the Butterfly Cluster and later the Pleiades, both of which
were welcomed by visitors who were tiring of Andromeda.

Thank you for your response. I regret that I no longer live in Orange
County, as I would like to have attended your presentation there next
week. But since moving to Santa Fe 2 years ago, i just step outside my
door and the whole sky is available for viewing--much better than what I
could see in Yorba Linda.

I enjoy your website and your book.

Subject:	RE: Would upgrading from an ETX70-AT to an ETX90 make it easier t o ge t some eye relief? 
Sent:	Thursday, October 2, 2003 17:09:19
From:	ERenger@harlandfs.com (Eric Renger)
I thought I would give you an update on this. I ended up getting an
ETX-125EC with UHTC. I had actually decided that the ETX-105 would be
the right combination of features and price for me, but the Discovery
Store does not carry the ETX-105, only the ETX-90 and ETX-125. They had
agreed to take the ETX-70 back as an exchange, but not as a return. And
if I was going to do it, they wanted me to do it within a short time
frame. So I was faced with choosing between the ETX-90 and ETX-125, or
trying to get my money out of the ETX-70 some other way and buying the
ETX-105 somewhere else.

Honestly, I can't really say I am all that sad about being forced to
trade up. This scope was more than I wanted to spend, but I think I am
really going to like having it. The weather has been poor since I made
the swap, but I have had it out a few times under less-than-ideal
conditions. I was able to make out the polar cap on Mars, and that was
through a light haze. I was not able to do so with the 70, even under
fairly good conditions. I also got good views of the moon and a few
items on the guided tour before the weather got impossible. Aside from
the aperture and focal length, which are of course the major
differences, there are other features that make a world of difference
between the ETX-70 and the ETX-125. Just having the finder scope is a
huge advantage. The tripod is a lot steadier. The motors seem to move a
lot more smoothly. The focuser is a lot easier to work.

The one thing that sort of irritated me, however, is the design of the
26mm eyepiece that came with the telescope. The whole idea of exchanging
the ETX-70 was to be able to get a telescope that would support some
decent magnification with eyepieces that would have some eye relief. The
26mm Meade Super Plossl that comes with the telescope is described as
having 18mm of eye relief. That sounded great to me. The 25mm MA that
came with the ETX-70 had less than that, and I could use it with my
glasses. However the design of this eyepiece is such that the lens that
is closest to your eye is actually about 3/4 of an inch down inside the
metal housing. It might have 18mm of eye relief, but all 18mm of that is
down inside the housing! What is the idea? I can't use this eyepiece
with my glasses. Even when I take off my glasses, I find I can really
see the entire field only by actually folding back the rubber eyecup and
getting so close that my eye seems to be inside the housing. It's a nice
view from in there, but I wish I could bring my glasses with me. At
least it's not as bad as it was trying to use the 6mm and 4mm cheapo
Plossls with the ETX-70 --- with those I felt like my eye was just short
of actually touching the lens. This eyepiece is a lot more comfortable
than those were. With this eyepiece, there is no chance of touching the
lens because you would have to crawl a mile down the tube of the housing
to even get within arm's reach of the lens.

Anyway, I am making do with this eyepiece for now, and I have ordered
some long-relief eyepieces today. I called OPT and described the
situation, and they were able to suggest several brands of long-relief
eyepieces. They had some fantastic-sounding Pentaxes ($340), some really
nice TeleVues ($240), Vixen LVs ($105 - $115), and Celestron X-Cel EDs
($65). All of these brands have 20mm of eye relief, but they all have
different fields of view and I assume varying levels of quality. I can't
afford to go crazy with this stuff, so the Pentax and TeleVue eyepieces
were out. The guy I spoke to said that I probably would not notice a
difference between the Celestrons and the Vixens, so I went with the
Celestrons. I ordered a 25mm to replace the 26mm that came with the
telescope, an 8mm for high magnification on nights with good seeing, and
a 12.5mm for medium power on not-so-good nights. The whole line is
parfocal, which should be nice. I am really looking forward to trying
them out!

Talk to you later, and thanks again for the advice. 

Eric

Subject:	ETX90 allen keys
Sent:	Thursday, October 2, 2003 16:54:16
From:	paul@paul-bradley.com (Paul Bradley)
First of all I know everyone who writes in seems to say this, but what a
great site, the internet is often a great resource for hobby info but I
don't think I've ever seen anything quite so exhaustive as your coverage
of these great little scopes, so thanks for helping me get acquainted
with mine.

I just brought a used 90mm and just about the only information I've not
been able to find on your site is the sizes of the allen keys required
to do a stripdown on this. I had the OTA off the other day with an
ever-so slightly ill-fitting metric wrench and seem to have done no
damage, but I don't really want to do it like that too often and it may
be coming off with regularity for use as a guide scope. I guess given
that I saw a mention on your site of the etx-125 ota retaining bolts
being imperial sizes the ones on the 90mm are too? Also there's a very
small allen bolt in the AZ/RA azis locking lever which I haven't been
able to find the size of. Are there any others I should also be aware of
if I'm going to strip the scope right down to do a clean/tune up?
Anyway, thanks again for the site and hopefully you'll be able to
enlighten me on these allen keys...

--
paul@paul-bradley.com

"At the age of 6 I wanted to be a chef, at the age of 7 I wanted to be
Napoleon, and my ambition has been growing steadily ever since" -
Salvador Dali

Subject:	Meade
Sent:	Thursday, October 2, 2003 12:19:06
From:	Leenjudi@olympus.net (Lee Leader)
I hope that this is not an imposition, as I really like your site and do
not want to cause you any agravation but, I need some help.  My ETX 90
(about three years old) now has a broker Optical Tube support.  You have
several articles describing this problem.  I contacted Meade to order a
reeplacement part, but was advised that I had to return it along with
$75.00 plus parts to them.  I contacted several dealers.  None could
help, but several were shocked to learn Meade's policy considering it is
a problem piece and they use to sell a replacement.  I followed up to
Meade's customer service with a letter, better then two weeks ago, but
still have not heard a reply.  I also tried Scopetronix, which use to
make a replacement part, but no longer makes them.  Do you have any
suggestions or do I just shell out the ransom Meade is demanding?

Thank you for your time and considerations - you sure have a neat site.

Lee Leader

And:

Thanks for the rapid response.  I surely tried to explain the part I
needed, both on the phone and in my letter.  Of course it would be nice
if somewhere there was a parts diagram to refer to, But!!!   I will call
them again and see if I can get a better reply.

Mnm, Many thanks for all you do.

Lee Leader

Subject:	RE: RE: ETX-105 rotates more than 360 degrees!
Sent:	Wednesday, October 1, 2003 10:35:12
From:	markck01@12move.nl (Kelleher)
Thanks again.

So does a Reset restore ALL settings to default please?

And:

Thanks for your help - I've just spent another few hours enjoying the
night sky and am really starting to like this new telescope. Thanks
again...

Subject:	re:  temperture and etx
Sent:	Tuesday, September 30, 2003 21:19:59
From:	rseymour@wolfenet.com (Richard Seymour)
To:	drwdavis@dialmaine.com
I have used my ETX90 down to about 20F, and i would've tried colder,
but Seattle didn't cooperate.

The telescope will not be -hurt- by being cold (within reason),
but operation will gradually degrade until you decide it's not worth it.

The first thing to degrade is the Autostar's display... liquid crystals
cannot "flip" rapidly as their liquid gets cold and dense (not too far
 below freezing).  If you keep your Autostar in a mitten or pocket
(or buy it a "handwarmer") it will keep operating happily.

The grease starts to bog down below about 15F, and if you are using
internal batteries, their capacity plummets, too.  So you have the
double-whammy of higher drag (cold grease) and weaker batteries
trying to overcome it.

The telescope will tell you when it's had enough.. but be sure to
put on the front cover and keep the eyepiece hole closed when
you bring it back indooors... otherwise the cold glass and metal
will -instantly- suffer a severe "dew" problem.

have fun, dress warm,
--dick

From:	drwdavis@dialmaine.com (W.Sumner Davis)
BUT>>>> would it be safe to leave the ext in the observatory? In Maine
tempertures can fall to -30F

Yes, i am aware from having visited a number of outhouses in mid-Maine 
in the dead of winter (and mountaintops, but the outhouses were colder)

The usual approach is to put a 25watt light  bulb (or a Golden Rod heater stick)
next to the telescope under a shared blanket 
in the observatory to keep the equipment happy.

You can replace the grease with a better grade of aircraft mechanic's grease
which will handle that temperature range a bit better.
You -will- have to take the Autostar itself to a warmer environment,
the liquid crystal display -will- freeze and damage itself.

Many of the ETX parts are only "consumer"-rated, so operation below
0 F is dicey, at best.  I would suspect that some of the plastic parts
would become quite brittle if cold-soaked.

have fun (stay warm?)
--dick

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