Meade ETX90EC Telescope w/ UHTC, Autostar Controller (497) and Tripod (884)
Domain Name Com's - : Meade ETX90EC Telescope w/ UHTC, Autostar Controller (497) and Tripod (884)
List Price: $921.06Price: $529.00 You Save: $392.06 (43%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 4-5 business days
Aperture Modes: 80mm-90mm
Batteries: 8 AA
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Meade
EAN: 0709942990553
Label: Meade
Manufacturer: Meade
Model: 3/21/3514
Publisher: Meade
Sales Rank: 6009
Studio: Meade
Features:- Includes AutoStar controller and deluxe field tripod
- UHTC coatings are on all optical surfaces for enhanced detail
- Cordless motor drive for fully automatic tracking
- Maksutov meniscus corrector lens of Grade-A BK7 optical glass
- Includes a Meade Series 4000 Super Plvssl 26 millimeter eyepiece for 48 times magnification
Accessories:
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
- Electronic Level Sensor -- - High Precision Clock -- - Red Dot Viewfinder -- - Electronic Magnetic North Sensor -- A stunningly beautiful, ultraportable, and highly versatile telescope system of unprecidented optical resolution and performance. The ETX-90 PE model is built on the original ETX concept to create the most advanced electronically-contolled telescopes-including automatic GOTO object-location with the Autostar Computer Controller. And yet without sacrificing any of the user-friendly features that started the ETX revolution. -- Meade's new ETX 90 PE automatically levels your telescope, determines North and sets the time. You just enter your location or zip code. After your ETX completes its patented Level North automatic alignment procedure, it will point to the first alignment star. Use the new wide-field SmartFinder to center the red dot over the alignment stars for the ultra-precise pointing accuracy. -- ETX Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes produce superlative, diffraction-limited optical performance and resolution. Optics so high in contrast, image brightness, and resolution that ETX-90 PE models often outperform many telescopes of larger apertures. -- The AutoStar computer controller helps you quickly find and GoTo over 30,000 objects in the night sky. View plants, stars, galaxies, nebulae, comets and more-all at the push of a button. Go to the Tonight's Best tour in your AutoStar and it automatically selects the best objects in the sky for that particular time and location! The AutoStar controller can be updated -FREE- over the internet. Keep your AutoStar up-to-date and your ETX telescope will grow with you for years to come. -- Optical Systems: ETX Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes produce superlative, diffraction-limited optical performance and resolution. Optics so high in contrast, image brightness, and resolution that ETX-90 PE models often outperform many telescopes of larger apertures.
Amazon.com Review:
The little Meade ETX90EC, one of the most popular telescopes ever made, is a 3.5-inch f/13.8 Maksutov-Cassegrain designed for maximum portability while also delivering outstanding images. It certainly succeeds on both counts, and at a terrific price. The telescope comes with a 26mm Meade Super Plössl eyepiece, an 8x21 finderscope, a very nice screw-on dust cap, a fork mount, an adjustable tripod, and a built-in computer for finding and tracking sky objects.
Images through the ETX90EC are absolutely textbook perfect. The excellent optical quality produces some wonderful views of brighter sky objects, such as the Moon and naked-eye planets. Meade's recently introduced UHTC optical coatings further strengthen optical performance by enhancing image contrast. Given the amazing low price for what you get, the ETX90EC is a great triumph in low-cost, mass-production optical fabrication techniques.
| | The computer-driven hand controller makes it easy to find 14,000 celestial objects. | Once properly set up and initialized, the onboard Autostar computer control can guide users to more than 14,000 sky objects. I have always found the Autostar navigation system to be extremely accurate, even if it does include many more targets than a 3.5-inch telescope could possibly see under the best conditions.
As good as the optical assembly is, the finderscope leaves something to be desired. I find it difficult, if not impossible to look through because of how closely it is mounted to the tube of the telescope. The problem only gets worse as the telescope raises in altitude, causing my nose to scrunch up against the eyepiece. I would recommend augmenting the finder with a small one-power aiming device, such Orion Telescope's EZ Finder II Reflex Sight. Another drawback is the focusing. Although the focuser's movement is smooth, the small, aluminum knob is very difficult to grasp when looking through the eyepiece.
The tube assembly comes mounted on a miniaturized, clock-driven, fork equatorial mount made mostly from molded plastic. The DC-powered clock drive runs for more than 20 hours on eight common AA-size batteries. The clock drive tracks the sky quite accurately after it has been properly initialized.
Consumers should note, however, that since the tube is longer than the fork arms, the telescope cannot swing all the way through the mount. This could limit the telescope's ability to look low in the sky, depending on how and where you have it set up. What that point is exactly will depend on the angle at which the ETX is tilted for polar alignment, but it worsens as you head south. I also feel that the plastic fork mounting is just barely solid enough to support the weight of the telescope. It is certainly not strong enough to hold both it and a camera.
Overall, despite the weaknesses mentioned above, the ETX90EC is a well-made instrument and has an amazingly low price. Computer tracking and slewing coupled with outstanding optics in such a compact package would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. Yet, here it is. --Phil Harrington, author of Star Ware
Pros: - Outstanding optics
- Compact size
- Amazing value for the money
- Accurate computer control and tracking
Cons: - Poor finderscope
- Weak plastic mounting
- Focusing knob very close to eyepiece
- Small aperture only suitable for the brightest sky targets
Amazon.com Product Description:
This telescope includes a free Autostar computer controller and deluxe field tripod with this ETX-90EC--a value of $349. And with the ETX-90EC, Meade brings a serious telescope into the price range of the casual consumer. The ETX-90EC Astro offers extraordinary optics at an affordable price. It combines a high-resolution optical design and diffraction-limited imaging with microprocessor-controlled, precise celestial-object tracking, all in a nicely styled, highly portable package. The Autostar controller turns the ETX-90EC into an automatic celestial-object locating system. Just plug the Autostar into the telescope's HBX port in place of the standard-equipment electronic controller, do a quick telescope alignment, and you're ready to observe any object in the Autostar's 30,000-object database.
The UHTC Difference
 | | Each time light encounters a mirror (above) or lens (below), some light is lost. In the case of a lens, light is lost at both the entrance to and exit from the lens. UHTC dramatically decreases this light loss. | Image brightness in a telescope is crucially dependent on the reflectivity of the telescope's mirrors and on the transmission of its lenses. Neither of these processes, mirror-reflectivity or lens-transmission, is, however, perfect; light loss occurs in each instance where light is reflected or transmitted. Uncoated glass, for example, reflects about 4% of the light impacting it; in the case of an uncoated lens 4% of the light is lost at entrance to and at exit from the lens, for a total light loss of about 8%. Meade standard mirror and lens coatings equal or exceed the reflectivity and transmission, respectively, of virtually any optical coatings currently offered in the commercial telescope industry.
Ultra-High Transmission coatings (UHTC), recently developed at the Meade Irvine coatings facility, however, have permitted the vacuum-deposition of a series of exotic optical coatings precisely tuned to optimize the visual, photographic, and CCD imaging performance of Meade telescopes. This telescope includes primary and secondary mirrors coated with aluminum enhanced with a complex stack of multi-layer coatings of titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide. The thickness of each coating layer is precisely controlled to within 1% of optimal thickness. The result is a dramatic increase in mirror reflectivity across the entire visible spectrum; at the important hydrogen-alpha wavelength of 656nm. - the predominant wavelength of emission nebulae -- reflectivity is increased from 89% to over 97%.
This telescope presents dramatically brighter images on the full range of celestial objects — from emission and planetary nebulae such as M8, M20, and M57 to star clusters and galaxies such as M3, M13, and M101. Observations of the Moon and planets, since they are observed in reflected (white) sunlight, benefit in image brightness from the full spectrum of increased transmission.
And more
The ETX-90EC also includes high-torque DC motors on both telescope axes, permitting electronic operation from the handheld controller. This pushbutton electronic controller has four dual-axis drive speeds: slow, 8x for image centering at high power; medium, 32x for image centering at lower power or for pushbutton tracking in altazimuth mode; moderate, 0.75 degrees per second for image centering in the viewfinder or for terrestrial tracking; and fast, 5 degrees per second for fast scanning across the sky.
The Meade ETX-90EC is specially designed to be portable and used in the field. It offers cordless operation, allowing you to use the telescope's dual-axis drive system for more than 40 hours on eight AA batteries. At approximately 8 pounds, and 15 inches in length, it packs a lot of power into a compact unit.
The ETX-90EC uses a 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain optical design. Meade also uses EMC super-multicoatings on all optical surfaces to maximize light transmission through the corrector lens and reflectance from the primary and secondary mirrors. The flip-mirror system allows for 90-degree observation of land and sky objects, straight-through observation using the optional 45-degree erecting prism, or photo-ready imaging using the optional T-adapter and your own 35mm camera.
The Nuts and Bolts
1. Eyepiece
2. Viewfinder
3. Eyepiece Holder Thumbscrew - Tightens the eyepiece in place.
4. 90° Eyepiece Holder - Holds the eyepiece upright for easy viewing.
5. Optical Tube - The main optical component that gathers the light from distant objects and brings this light to a focus for examination with the eyepiece.
6. Vertical Lock - Controls the manual vertical movement of the telescope.
7. Fork Arms - Hold the optical tube in place.
8. Focus Knob - Moves the telescope’s optical tube in a finely-controlled motion to achieve precise image focus.
9. Horizontal Lock - Controls the manual horizontal rotation of the telescope.
10. Computer Control Panel - A. ON/OFF Switch.
- B. Auxiliary Ports - Provide connection for current and future Meade accessories.
- C. Handbox (HBX) Port - for the Electronic Controller or the optional Autostar handbox.
- D. The 12v connector, designed to accept an external power supply such as the optional AC Adapter or Power Cord.
- E. LED power indicator light.
11. Base Housing - Supports the telescope for placement on a flat, level surface, such as a tabletop or optional tripod.
12. Holes for Optional Tripod - See your tripod’s instruction sheet for mounting information.
13. Right Ascension (R.A.) Setting Circle.
14. Flip-Mirror and Flip-Mirror Control Knobs - ETX telescopes include an internal mirror. With the flipmirror control in the "up" position, light is diverted to the eyepiece. With the flipmirror control in the "down" position, as shown in Fig. 2b, light proceeds straight out the photo port for photography.
15. Photo Port - Attach any 35mm camera with a removable lens to this port using an optional adapter.
16. Declination Setting Circle (on left fork arm).
17. Viewfinder Alignment Screws - adjust these screws to align the viewfinder.
18. Viewfinder Alignment Bracket.
19. Dust Cap
20. Battery Compartment (not shown, underneath base). |  |
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I have never had such a bad experience with customer service. My telescope broke after two uses. The horizontal drive mechanism is stripped. If I could get my telescope repaired someplace else, I would. I am absolutely furious at the complete failure on the part of Meade's organization to honor their commitment to repair my ETX-125. They took my money over two months ago now and have done absolutely nothing in return for my $150. This is the most pathetic interaction I have ever had with any ... Read More
Rating:  -
As a newby to star gasing, both my wife and my knowledge of the night sky was pritty much confined to IDing the moon. We found the autostar system easy to setup and use (once we could identify the north star). We learned more in two hours about the univers that either of us had learned in our more than fifty years. The autostar system can take you on a tour of the night sky that is extremly interesting. The scope its self is a delicate piece of equipment (as you would expect) I don't think it needs ... Read More
Rating:  -
I was under the impression that I had ordered an ETX-90AT (w. UHTC coatings)package for $499.00 (which is a $150.00 savings over standard price. I wondered if it was too good to be true. When I opened my package, the box said ETX-90EC on the outside and showed a picture of an 495 hand controller. I was dissapointed till I opened the box and saw an 497 AutoStar controller (w. Nov 2005 rev) and a deluxe field tripod (with carrying case). There was a note inside that said that this telescope had upgrades. ... Read More
Rating: -
the reason for one star is not the telescope it self or any part of it .... i like it its an excellent choice for a bigenner
but the offer represented above is only the etx90 with the autostar controller(497) with out the Tripod(884)
beware if you pay 499$ for this offer dont think you will get the whole set, no.even if you complain they will replace with the same order
buy them separate , it would be better
poor amazon
Rating:  -
A nice telescope that will disappoint. Polar alignment is almost impossible because of the location of the finder scope. Without polar alignment capabilities you can forget about photography. If you insist on buying this model then go ahead and order an angled finder scope for another $60. The straight through finder scope that comes with the ETX-90 is useless since you can't see through it while aligning on Polaris.
The optics are excellent with no noticeable color fringes.
The ... Read More
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