MEADE ETX 125, Give me your experience please, thoughts.

[SGT_Ranger_1/75]

Does anyone have one? Can you take exposures of galaxies with it? Also if you can, could you please post some shots that you have taken.

Please give me some input, experience preferred with this equipment or just expert opinion.

Im going to upgrade from my MEADE 70AZ finally and my budget is no more than $1000US.

Please help me choose, doesnt have to be MEADE but I prefer MEADE as I have used some of thier scopes, especially the LX200. I would love to buy one of those but its a bit out of my price range.

Thanks in advance!

Shawn

[astro_dt]

Hi Shawn

I have an ETX125 and I like it because it's portable and easy to set up and align (after some practice). I have some images on my website taken with the 125 but I haven't spent much time on glaxies. It really needs a wedge to get the kind of performance needed for very long exposures. It's not the most accurate tracking but good for the price range.

However, if I upgrade I will go for the most expensive equatorial mount I can buy and then have the flexibility to load any OTA.

Hope this helps

Danny

[SGT_Ranger_1/75]

So due to the tracking would you recommend it for long exposures then?

[brianb]

Quite honestly, if you want to image with a ETX, defork it, throw away the mount & stick it on a decent equatorial. The basic scope tracking is just about good enough for webcamming planets with a 2x barlow. Provided the wind is calm.

The long focal length (1900mm, f/15) is entirely wrong for imaging faint objects like galaxies, anyway.

Sorry to be so negative, but I'm afraid there are no cheap solutions to DSO imaging ...

[Helen]

So due to the tracking would you recommend it for long exposures then?

No I wouldn't recommend it for long exposures, from my experience the motors and tracking aren't up to it.

For your budget I'd suggest something like this

Product Categories

You'll get a reasonable aperture a decent mount.

Helen

[johninderby]

The ETX 125 does indeed have excellent optics, shame about the rest of the scope though.

You can buy a scope with excellent optics AND a good mount as well for the same money so you should look elsewhere.

John

[John]

Try and think outside of the Meade box if you can. Celestron and Orion (US) offer some great scope choices. I believe that you can also order direct from Orion within the US:

Orion Telescopes: Save on Telescopes & Binoculars! - Telescope.com

[russ]

defork it, throw away the mount & stick it on a decent equatorial.

That's exactly what i did with my ETX90. After replacing the handset, controller cable and fiddling with the fork and getting no where, i ripped it off the fork and put it on an EQ2 initially. But i mainly used it with an EQ5. Didn't see the point of GOTO with a small Mak anyway.

Only one of my Meade mounts has worked 100% and that was the LXD75. The rest (LX200, LX90 and ETX90) all had problems.

Russ

[NickH]

OTA wise it's a great planetary and double star scope. The mount though...hmmm

[Iris]

I am almost a little reluctant to comment here one because I am a noob to practical astronomy and two because my experience of this particular model is also rather limited but hey it is still my expereince lol

I had one of these for one weekend - I got it as a replacement/upgrade to an ETX 80 on which the focusing system disintegrated, I used it in anger only twice.

At the time I had come across many reviews where the owner had a great experience with the scope - for the 125 in particular almost all praised the optics - but in amongst there were a significant number maybe 15% (subjective) who had problems - specifically with build quality and durability - and a few cases where the innards of the motors required remedial work - but I ignored those - well every manufacturer is bound to have probles right?

Anyway I went ahead and got the ETX - 80 to start but when it broke I traded up to the 125 as I said (which was what I really wanted more or less anyway).

So I used it the once for a few hours of proper observing and was really chuffed - the optics seemed to me to be excellent (remember though I am inexperienced here) and naturally the portability was super. I found the goto easy to align and use and in practice for visual perfectly adequate - putting the desired target close to the centre of the FOV every time.

The following day I was taking a look and Jupiter and The Moon and when trying to sharpen the focus on Jupiter - the focus spindle went slack and nothing happend. From being a smooth firm focusing instrument to a 5" paperweight in an instant - it seems the spindle detached from the mirror.

Whilst discussing its replacement with the vendor he mentioned that he had heard of another 125 user who had also expereinced the focus spindle detach from the mirror.

I was sad of course because the scope is insanely portable, goto was good for me and the optics seemed to live up to the promise hinted by the many reviews of owner who were satisfied with their purchase.

But it is clear to me that Meade certainly have their share of build quality issues - for me it was a case of twice bitten thrice shy and instead of anothe Meade I replace it with a Celestron SCT - uptrading once more to an 8".

I have only had that for a couple of weeks and only took it outside this weekend so in fairness have only had two sessions with it - but so far I am very happy the optics are good and the build quality seems first class - especially the focusing spindle which is industrial class compared to the Meades.

My view is that every supplier/manufacturer has its own share of build problems - my feeling is that with Meade and the ETXs at least whether you get a good scope or a turkey seems more a matter of chance than with other makes at the moment.

At the end of the day though you pays your money and you takes your risk.