ZAASTRONOMY « SKATOFIX

A First Impression of a brand new Telescope MEADE ETX-125PE out-of-the-box.

By D. Zambra

Hi folks, I just wanted to share my first night out with my brand new MEADE ETX-125PE. This is my first “real” telescope so I didn’t know what to expect. My observing location is from two balcony at my home. I’m at 40 miles away north from Milano near Malpensa Airport (Northern Italy) so skyglow , glare and light pollution are real problems here.

I was a photographer and my background in optics is fine but new to astronomy and telescopes; before to buy the “mighty” I was spending a lot of time on the web and asked a friend owner of a Celestron. My friend says that he don’t have any Autostar and for this he want to change the telescope to a easy Go To version.

I have some Camera equipment but I frequently use the Nikon Coolpix 8800, the Canon Powershot of my son and a Logitech QuickCam, at the moment I do not want to use Reflex cameras.

I pick up the ETX-125PE because of: the 125 size for much light, the “un-portability” (two big alloy cases and a tripod bag!), the #884 tripod stability in place of the quaking #883, the Autostar, the convenient KIT Price of the Italian reseller included the #884 tripod, Dew Shield, the funny gun (?), SW, cables and 2X Barlow.

Maksutov-Cassegrain fully-coated optics: 125mm (5.0″) aperture, 1900mm focal length, f/15 focal ratio. Guaranteed diffraction-limited optical performance. The meniscus corrector lens is Grade-A BK7 optical glass. The primary mirror is low-expansion Pyrex. There are standard aluminum coatings on the primary mirror and on the secondary mirror spot on the rear of the meniscus corrector. Both aluminized surfaces are overcoated with silicon monoxide (quartz) for long life. Magnesium fluoride antireflection coatings on both sides of the corrector lens provide high light transmission.

With its f/15 focal ratio and 1900mm focal length, the ETX 125 would seem to be a specialist lunar and planetary scope. It certainly excels on the Moon and planets with sharp, colour free and detailed views but with the standard 26mm Plossl (73x), open clusters and globular clusters are also easy and satisfying targets.

OUT OF THE BOX

I received the ETX in a big carton box came from USA (Los Angeles)via my national reseller with all accessories enclosed. The first night I was late opening boxes , checking and accommodating the new equipment in the aluminum cases.

The ETX pack is well suited for a telescope, no parts came broken or loose. The box of the ETX125PE is very interesting: is like an entire accessories color catalog, see pictures. Only the 2X Barlow Lens came without any package.

I removed the mount and scope assembly out of the box and gave it the once over. Fit and finish is immaculate. No flakes, paint globs, burrs, or other issues. It’s absolutely pristine. I screwed the lens cover off and found myself amazed to discover it’s a solid metal cover, and not a high impact plastic.

The front lens is very bright and clear. My ETX-125PE came with the new upgraded Red LED Smartfinder, Automatic alignment and LNT (Level North Technology) Module, which finds North, the level, and tilt of the telescope. Also, it keeps track of the date and time so you don’t have to enter it everytime you turn the telescope on, but not first time easy to use.

I have looked through a telescope without UHTC (Ultra High Transmission Coatings)and I think that the UHTC is a big enhancement. UHTC has been reported to give a 10 – 15% improvement in subjective visual testing, and a better than 20% improvement in measured light throughput, the ETX came with a UHTC decal on the low side of the OTA.

My first question was “how stable the #884 tripod mount is for the ETX-125PE”, I would say very! I never had any problems with it. Also, the ETX has great focusing power, I have an idea for a modified homemade Flex-Focus (stay tune).

Before mounting all the equipment I read all manuals provided by Meade (what a confusion!) in English and Italian version, but I find the English version more useful, I see improvements in Meade’s manuals but far from the state-of-the-art.

Two evident omissions from the ETX package are a dew shield and a bracket to hold the Autostar controller. The corrector lens dews up rather quickly. The dew shield also stops stray light from shining onto the corrector and reducing contrast – a major issue for any backyard observer. A decent dew shield is essential for getting the best performance out of the telescope and is highly recommended. The MEADE 125 dew shield is made in black thin plastic and threaded to screw into the front lens. When screwing the shield be very carefully to center right or you can damage the threaded surface, do not overtighteen. When Unscrewing the shield be sure to not rotate the Black Retaining Ring of the front lens or you can damage your OTA. The shield can be reversed on the scope when storing in the aluminium case. The lack of bracket for the Autostar handbox is a brainless omission by Meade, especially on a Premier Edition!

OUT ON THE BALCONY

I mounted all the pieces having a nice time and after a put the scope out-on-the-balcony for temperature stabilization (10°C delta difference IN-OUT requires min 30’). After the scope was stable I try the movements by the Autostar.

The difficult was to align the LNT module because of cheap plastic construction. The LNT has two little knobs: one for lateral and one for vertical alignment. I start aligning a light pole but it was too closer and I take 2 very distant poles and a church-cross. Moving and checking alignment finally works fine and centered. I think that the LNT have a tolerance in order to prevent coarse alignment. Can be the LNT influenced by buildings or fences, poles when detecting north ?

After the scope and the tripod were leveled, tilted and aligned the Autostar does the right job.

The ETX requires some effort and attention to detail to get it working well. Before starting an observing session you need to calibrate the motors and then train them to compensate for lag and backlash. The mount has to be leveled and true North aligned and the tube must be leveled before you start the alignment procedure, for this reason I find helpful a Bubble level attached to the rotating plate. The more accurately you complete the manual setup, the more accurate subsequent alignment and GOTO results will be.

The PE has Meade’s LNT system. That’s a red dot finder that incorporates level sensors and an electronic compass. It also has a battery to keep time date current. In use, it’s like a GPS without a GPS. Unless you move to a significantly different locale, all you have to do is put the scope in a simple home position and turn it on. It gets time/date from the LNT, levels, finds north, and then heads for the first of two alignment stars. You center these two stars, and you are ready to go. This has worked very well indeed on my 125PE the first times.

I use a dirty-cheap “Magnetic Compass” to align manually the Telescope-Tripod assy, I was late the night of 27 September trying different fault alignments, because of the start home position wasn’t north oriented!

The motors seems noisy when slewing at night on the balcony (at the 8-9 max speed) but from a few metres away, you realize that they aren’t all that loud. A “Quiet Mode” reduces the slewing rate (and thus the noise) if the neighbors’ start to get rebellious. Tracking is visually smooth and accurate.

Don’t expect the telescope to welcome you with open arms. The more you work with it, the more you will love it and understand it. Don’t expect the GOTO to work perfectly the first times. You will have calibrate the motors, train the drives, etc.

“First light” for the ETX-125EC occurred on 24 September on a “little cloudy” night. From this first light night I see that the optics were excellent on this ETX-125PE (seems that the UHTC works fine), with no collimation errors and a little image shifting during focusing (maybe wasn’t leveled).

I put the GO TO on the MOON first and I was impressed about the quantity of details given and sharp contrast, considering light pollution and atmosphere. Late I see Jupiter and its four moons.

Finally I take some shots by the Eyepiece with my son’s handheld Canon Powershot only to see if it was possible. I was happy with the results considering the conditions. Stay tune for next pictures.

ETX Resources

Total ETX solutions, Mike Weasner’s ETX site at www.weasner.com/etx the mother of all ETX sites. The Mighty ETX Site, More than a telescope. It’s a community. Google™ Meade ETX and you’re sure to run into

Mike Weasner’s Mighty ETX Website. There you’ll find a group of ETX enthusiasts who are as into their ETXs as some people are into their cars or computers. By sharing tips and techniques, these people have discovered that the ETX is mighty indeed. In Mike’s words, “These telescopes can do amazing things. They are little telescopes that act like much bigger ones.”

On The Meade website www.meade.com Manuals and Autostar software available for download.

NEXT Things to buy:

• A red-light head torch,

• A real Magnetic Compass,

• A real Binocular,

• Series 4000/5000 Eyepieces,

• Adapters,

• A small 11” laptop with Stellarium and map charts.

NOTE: My english is not very fine and for this, parts of this report were taken on the Web from other review, from different authors: Duncan Rosie and A. St. Claire @ Cloudynights, Weasner @ Weasner, G. Seroni @ Sky&Telescopes, M. Dinatale @ MVAgusta, if something wrong or unlike, please authors contact me.