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ETX-90RA

jordan20

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JohnnyD333

JohnnyD333

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Posted

I have an older ETX-90 and they are great grab and go scopes. They are a little slow, mine is F13, but lunar and planetary observing are very bright and detailed at 1200mm focal length. The scope itself is very small and very portable. For observing on the go, its great.

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NGC 1502

NGC 1502

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Excellent optically. Only downside is lack of very low power/wide field. But you can get your low power fix with binoculars. Make sure the drive is ok.

Another point to check with early ETX 90s is the secondary baffle. The secondary is a coated area in the centre of the front corrector plate, it has a plastic baffle that is glued in place. There was an issue with the baffle drifting out of place by slowly shifting its position. Easy to check by just looking.

Regards, Ed.

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NGC 1502

NGC 1502

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do you know of an image anywhere showing this ? and the drive is good its never been used but i did test it and it works. There was not even a speck of dust on the corrector. I think i may be able to get hold of it sub £200.

I'm having a look here, if I find specific info, I'll post a further link-

Weasner's Meade ETX/DS TechTips

Regards, Ed.

Edit - specific link here (took ages to load) no pic I'm afraid - http://web.archive.org/web/20050410052738/http://www.geocities.com/briansxx/Secondary_baffle_project.html

Further Edit - another link but again no pic - http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips/baffle.html

Please don't let this put you off an ETX, they are well worth having, and it is easy to see, just look at the secondary spot on the inside of the front corrector,

and it will be obvious if the black plastic baffle is not lined up with the aluminized area. HTH, Ed.

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Capricorn

Capricorn

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The Meade alignment is pretty easy. That is one area where they had a few decent ideas. You do not start on a star.

The "drawback" is that as the scope has a narrow filed of view that getting it reasonably level and pointing reasonably north just isn't good enough.

It will assume that it is absolutely level and pointing exactly North, then it trundles off to the first alignment star. If you are say 2 degrees out and the scope view is 1 degree then the first alignment star isn't in view. So you will need the finder to be well aligned to the main scope to get things in view.

One thing when it says tighten the clutch it does not mean hang off an 8 foot bar to tighten it, just firm so it doesn't slip. Think that most of the drive train problems were because of this idea.

Get a 32mm eyepiece to do the alignment with, the bigger the view the better. Get a bubble level as well to get it all as level as possible.

If you intend to use it at home visit maplins and get a mains adaptor for it, think it is 12v and a 1.5 amp supply should be OK.

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NGC 1502

NGC 1502

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think im going to get it just a matter of the price that i can get what would be a good price if all is well with the scope ?

In your earlier post you said you may be able to buy at under £200. If all's well with the scope, that's a nice buy. I paid £100 for just a

tube (in my sig) although it is the later UHTC version. I bought it with a dead mount (the owner had stored it long term with the batteries left in, and they had leaked big time)

The ETX90 RA was the first of that line, no computer control, just a motor for RA, hence the name. They are easy to recognise, there is a manual slow motion control on the top of the right hand fork arm.

Regards, Ed.

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Ender Of Days

Ender Of Days

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Just wondering,is the mount set up the same as an ETX 125 ?

If so its not too hard to get grips with,no matter how much the first star is out of the f.o.v (within reason) once you get it into the eye piece and press "accept" the 2nd star should be inside the f.o.v pretty accurately,

My 125 in just on the edge of being light enough to move around all the time :):)

JJ..

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NGC 1502

NGC 1502

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Just wondering,is the mount set up the same as an ETX 125 ?JJ..

Hi JJ, the scope in question (ETX 90 RA) was the first in the ETX line to be introduced. It had no computer control, just simple clock drive in Right Ascension. The dec control was manual. Objects were found completely manualy using the optical finder. The finder was tough to use, being so close to the tube, looking through it at high elevation was no fun at all (I had one). Some owners fitted a red dot finder instead, that stood further away from the tube.

Nice little scope though. They were consistently very good optically,

and brilliant for portability.

Regards, Ed.

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A McEwan

A McEwan

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I had a 90RA too and found it great fun and very good optically. Made some stunning observations of Jupiter one year and had my first "real" views of a lot of objects with it. Mine had an accurate motor drive and was good all round.

Ant :)

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