ETX 125 with a different mount.

[pluton]

hello,

anyone have using a etx 125 optical tube with other goto mount different to a etx goto mount'?

thanks

regrads

paul

[Highburymark]

It is possible to take the ETX off its original mount - involves some force as well as unscrewing so best to get advice on this. The best website to help you is weasners mighty ETX site. Many ETX owners have experienced fragile motors and gears over the years and have disassembled the mount - just make sure you knkw what you're doing

[ronin]

If the OTA is off then it is simply a Mak that needs to be mounted, where it came from is pretty close to immaterial.

You will need a pair of scope/tube rings and a dovetail, then the other mount.

If there are still ETX bits on the OTA that cannot be removed they may be a bit troublesome, they may not allow the OTA to be orientated in the best position. Thinking of the plastic moulding at the rear and which joins the OTA to the fork mount. As the moulding is I think part of the rear assembly it may not be removable.

[Highburymark]

It's funny that the ETX - one of the biggest selling telescopes of all time - was bought by most people (me included) for its go-to properties - but in fact the best thing about it was the OTA - wonderful optics, that are as wonderful today as they were 15 years ago. My go-to never actually went-to anywhere, so I've always used my ETX 105 either manually or just using the handset to slew around the sky. But this thread has got me thinking - might be fun to separate the OTA from its parent moorings, stick a dovetail on it and use it on a photo tripod.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Have you checked this out... ETX105-EC Disassembly? It is on YouTube.

When I disassembled/removed my back from my ETX, I attached a dovetail to the OTA using 2x Jubillee rings/clips, (with a strip of self-adhesive felt on the inside), as I did not fancy drilling/tapping threads the tube and/or having protruding nuts or bolts. If you search the DIY Astronomer sub-section for My 'modded' ETX105 - part 2*. The outer diameter of an ETX105 is approximately 124mm. The nearest off the shelf rings are by Vixen and they are 125mm diameter and will need some packing to fit. I found that the Jubilee rings/clips were a lot cheaper too!

* Yes - that is my ETX! 

[Highburymark]

Useful info Philip - thanks for posting

[Mike22335]

I have the ETX125 OTA mounted to an Ioptron pro cube mount. You have to defork the OTA from the Meade mount and either get a set of rings or just buy a vixen style dovetail and screw it to the two female screw holes on the base. Either way you do it the 125 OTA will mount to just about any kind of mount that accepts a vixen style dovetail and a lot of the mounts do accept this type of mount.