Rating: Summary: Best all-around scope Review: The biggest thing about this telescope is its size, not how big it is but how SMALL it is. Small means easy to carry, and that means you'll be more motivated to take it out and look at things. More importantly you will take it to good 'dark sky' locations. Even with the Meade deluxe tripod this scope is easily carried with one hand, that and a simple set up make it fun to use. The Super Plossil Zoom eyepiece is a great accessory, and the astrostar lets even clutzs like me find cool things to look at.
Rating: Summary: ALEX Villa Review: The ETX 90 is one of the best thing to hit telesopes in a long time. At a great price you can have a telescope like this.If you would like this telecope i would recommend thing like a tripod,autostarcontrol,and some eyepieces.Other than that i give a great telescope to start off, amazing viewing power.
Rating: Summary: Optically excellent, mechanically...well... Review: The ETX is in many ways a marvelous little scope. Optically, it's far and above most 90mm catadioptric scopes, like the Celestron 90. Mechanically, though, it leaves a bit to be desired. There are a few too many flimsy plastic parts, the clock drive is not terribly accurate, and the drive clutch has way too much slop in it.The human engineering aspect leaves a lot to be desired as well. The finder scope is almost impossible to use as set up. The mount makes it impossible to view though the scope or finder in many orientations. What Meade tried to do here is create a clone of the $4,000 Questar at a bargain price. Optically they've done well (though it still falls short of a Questar) but in copying the mechnical design opf the Questar they had to leave out precisely those details that make the Questar such a pleasure to use. The $599 price is a little misleading. While designed for tabaletop use, unless you have a cast concrete tabletop you'll need a solid tripod to support it, so you can add another $150 right there, bringing the actual cost to more like $749. And for that price there are a lot of good choices around. They make not look as slick, but they're a lot more usable.
Rating: Summary: cool, but really need optional eyepieces! Review: The ETX-90EC has magnification of 48X; great for looking at the moon. However, if you want to look at any planets or stars, you _definitely_ need the optional eyepieces so you can have some control over magnification. Without these optional eyepieces, you have no control over magnification.
Rating: Summary: easy to use and expandable Review: The ETX-90EC was a breeze to set up. Within 20 minutes I was viewing the moon in my backyard. The optics are fantastic for the price and the standard eyepiece is great for terrestrial peeking as well as stargazing. The motor works well and the variable speeds are very effective, but mine is a bit noisy. It tends to growl as it idles and I have not been able to determine if this is normal or not. Other downsides are the vertically exposed eyepiece (I ended up using a plastic cylinder as a protective cap) and the six screws on the spotting scope, which make centering very difficult. You definitely need the tripod because the standard base is unstable unless you are placed on solid rock, so prepare to add another $200 to the price. And the erecting prism is a must for terrestrial viewing. All in all this is a great scope. The few limitations are far outweighed by the line of eyepieces and accessories available for the ETX-90EC such as Autostar and the 35mm camera attachment. This is a great deal for beginning and amateur use, expandable enough that this could very well be the only scope you will ever need.
Rating: Summary: Take a Dim View Of The Universe Review: The ETX90 will likely not disappoint those who have never looked through a telescope before. It provides serviceable views of the moon and five of the planets. These objects are of great interest to the uninitiated and the experienced alike, but there are only six of them. The ETX90 also shows deep space objects; it just doesn't show them well. My God, even the Orion Nebula looks dull! It looks better through binoculars, for crying out loud! If you view the Lagoon Nebula through this instrument, you don't know it's a nebula at all. It too looks better in binoculars. This isn't a deep sky scope. Not with any eyepiece. Period. Other problems: The field of view is noteworthily narrow - to the point of tunnel vision. (This is a 90mm f13.8 instrument.) The mount allows the scope to jiggle unacceptably - particularly at high power. (Teflon tape in the ALT bearings is helpful but not miraculous.) The finder scope is useless for anything not near the horizon. The focus knob is also useless for anything high in the sky, because one cannot reach it when the scope is in such positions. The Autostar GoTo attachment available for it isn't accurate enough to reliably put objects into the narrow field of view. For similar reasons, it is hard to find objects manually with the Etx90. Most of all, the views of deep space objects are deficient in brightness and contrast. On the plus side, this scope is portable, and many people like it for some reason. I wish I liked the ETX90. I did when I was new to astronomy. I just don't anymore. Buy it and you'll take a dim view of the universe.
Rating: Summary: A reply to the person who lives in the caribean or minnasota Review: The reason you most likly didn't see anything with the scope it because you have alot of light pollution around or you just didn't give it time. You can't automaticly walk outside and expect to see a billon stars your eyes have to adapt to the dark. Try being outside on a dark, moonless night and wait about 20 mins before you look though the scope. As for the alignment problem its mostly because you arn'y aligning it up right to start with, it doesn't do it it self. Hope this helps...
Rating: Summary: mild caution Review: The verticle lock broke on first use but was quickly replaced for free. The spotter scope is in a really stupid six point screw mount that is hard to adjust. There is no eyepiece holder cover to prevent crap from getting into the main optics(I put a small plastic bag over the opening). That aside it's a nifty and easy to use scope.
Rating: Summary: Reality bits Review: There is no substitute for ETX 90EC, simply is the hotest and user firendly telescope ever built!.. Of course you need to buy many more eyepieces but thats true in all the telescopes any size, any price!... Is a little scope but with Maksutov-Casegrain optics easily overcomes 114 newtonians...
Rating: Summary: BAMF: if you can afford it to introduce you to astronomy Review: This ...is awesome if you can afford it! It was definitely a better quality and quantity telescope over the Meade 2114 model that I just returned. Seeing the outline of Saturn and her rings was a moving experience. Then again, Jupiter's body and her 4 moons were pretty impresive too!
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