Well what can I say? As Richard Wilson might have it "I don't believe it!"

The weather once again had conspired against me to delay delivery of the nice new ETX 125 that I had ordered to replace the broken ETX 80 that I wrote about last time.

But the big cardboard box duly arrived on Friday. Excitedly I unpacked the goods and wasted no time getting the scope set up - even if clear skies were not forecast for a while it wasn't going to deter me from aligning the finder and just seeing how things fitted together. Once it got dark there were plenty of distant street lights to focus on :)

The first thing I noticed was how much better built the 125 felt than the 80 - the bearings seemed much smoother, the alt lock as much better and the noise! Well there was almost none at all - excepting for slewing at max power - the 80 sounded like an electric drill even while tracking. So far so good.

Saturday was the big day - the clouds cleared later in the evening and I wasted no time in setting up outside. I was well chuffed - the GOTO was a snap to set up as always and put the target in the FOV first time every time. M35 through M38 which had been all too faint the week before jumped out of the sky in crystal sharp relief. With the ETX80 I could only get a glimpse of a smudge of M81 with averted vision and M82, well I am not sure if I saw a glimmer of that at all through the gloom - but on Saturday they were both there well defined and easily seen - no hedging here! One after one the sights on my impropmtu tour tumbled; M103; the double cluster; M31; 32 and 110. M45 resplendent; Mars a crisp sharp disk - was that a hint of darker colour? And M42 - oh fabulous the finest view I have had of that baby without a doubt, with the nebula learly defined for once and the trapezium standing out right from the off.

I went to bed very satisfied and impressed with the optics of my new toy eager for the next clear night to linger a bit longer on a few selected targets.

Sunday was a nice sunny day and as tea time approached with the crescent moon in the SW and Jupiter just putting in a word in the pale blue sky, I decided to take a peek through the spare room window before they disappeared from view and the clouds swept in. The seeing wasn't great and the double glazed window didn't help of course. Neither target stood much magnification - with even my new 18mm Baader ortho too much. After tea I returned for a last glimpse of the big gas giant before it slipped out of view in the deepening murk. By now the 26mm EP was too much and I swapped it for a 40 - the focus was ever so slightly soft so I tweaked the spindle to return it to the pin sharp view I had come to expect from this little instrument.

Something was wrong! The spindle which until now had seemed a firm, smooth Rolls-Royce had become insipid - much like the rattling old trabant I had come to expect from the ETX 80 discarded days earlier. :eek: I stood there like a stunned mullet - deja-vu - almost the exact same thing all over again - talk about groundhog day. No matter how many turns I made on the spindle the focus wouldn't budge.

I had a second dead scope! I simply cannot believe it (well of course I can) two different models of scope from different suppliers failing in pretty much the exact same fashion just days apart.

It is squatting here now on the end of my desk tormenting me - my 5" paperweight.

It is a shame really because if it were reliable I would be very pleased with it - it looks the part; It is insanely portable; The Optics seem very good; In fact the only things I dont like about it are the flimsy finder which is just asking to get knocked off and the end cap which takes longer to put back on than it does to set everything up in the first place.

Well those and the fact that it doesnt bally well work!

If I exchanged it for a straight replacement I would be forever on tenterhooks waiting for the focusing spindle to fall out again so after a chat with the vendor this afternoon it is being consigned to the returns warehouse and replaced with another make and model once I finally decide which one.

One thing I am certain of the replacement will not be a Meade - twice bitten, thrice shy I say.

To a point it is my own fault, I had read plenty of horror stories about the build quality on the ETXs to question the wisdom of the choice if I am honest - but on the other side I had only seen good reports on the optical quality - and any manufacturer can have the odd bad batch no?

Well we learn from our mistakes.

Hopefully by the end of the week I will have a scope that will last longer than 36 hours of use! :icon_confused:

As they say - watch this space...