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Anonymous
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Greetings All,
I've just been noticing ads in a few Internet Astronomy shops for the ETX 90RA for less than $200. Looking at it, it appears to be a (much) less expensive knock off (almost) of a Questar.. (especially if you buy the dew shield) quite nice looking.. and several reviews say that the optics are good. It seems incredible to me that a Mak-Cas with pretty good optics could be sold that inexpensively... so I'm thinking about picking one up as a nice portable scope for some planetary viewing.. I'll still reserve major events for a larger aperture scope but I was curious to hear what people are saying about it. IS it significantly different from the EC model? How is it's durability? As an alternative I had considered an Astroscan for my "porta-scope".. 
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Anonymous
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RLKorb,
I owned an ETX90RA last yr. It does have nice optics for its price range. Great views of the moon and Orion nebula etc... It works well with the older eyepieces too with its high fl. Extremely portable too, can be carried in the hand. What I didnt like was the finder, it is useless but you can replace it easly, and it must have a cable focuser added as well called an Easy focus. Other than that if the small aperature isnt a prob its a keeper and it is sharp to look at as well as thru. It has a battery driven RA drive that is ok for viewing and the tabletop legs are ok if you setup on a good solid table that wont shake from vibrations. I liked mine and only sold it because of aperture fever, of which I still suffer from today and probably always will. It had nice pinpoint stars but a small FOV, typical Mak, a bit too small for any real planetary work tho, but if the moon and the brighter DSOs are the main interest its not too bad for a starter if the small FOV dosent bother you, its color free something you wont get with a small widefield achro refractor, so thats a plus....To be honest if auto go-to is wanted more aperture would be a whole lot better for DSOs like at least a 5" or larger OTA. A lot of the objects on a go-to routine are pretty small and faint to begin with. Dave
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Anonymous
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I have owned an ETX90 EC. I am very impressed witht the optics. M42, M45, and M31 look great. Mars was great, too.
If you want a small scope, these are hard to beat.
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Anonymous
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It is a great spotting scope as well. Around $200 the only good spotting scope is a 60mm Nikon which can’t compete in magnification with the ETX90.
It is definitively a good deal but a good tripod is a most for enjoying this little scope. The tabletop tripod looks like a good idea, but a very frustrating experience at night.
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Anonymous
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Yea,
the field tripod is nice. I finally bought one for mine before I sold it, a very nice tripod indeed for the small scope. The supplied legs on the ETX were just awkward usually since you couldnt adjust the angle or height but the price was right for just quick views and sometimes the tripod was a pain to setup verses the lil legs for just a quick 10min peek. Dave
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Anonymous
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OK.. So I'm in the market for for an ETX 90RA even though Westernman's comment woke me up to the fact about the FOV.. I guess it's the same with all maks.. I've also heard that Edmund's Astroscan is a great value portable scope.. even though it looks a bit bizarre, but apparently has a wider FOV.. but no tracking of course.. Well we'll see... maybe it'll be 2 small portable scopes??? ...
Thanks for the replies.
Bob
Edited by RLKorb (11/14/03 10:54 PM)
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Anonymous
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I own a bizarre astroscan and have enjoyed many nights viewing the sky. Just recently I was showing the scope to a "friend" and they removed the eye piece and forced it into the opening backwards. I can't seem to get it out, Help!
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Anonymous
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Quote:
IS it significantly different from the EC model? /quote]
it should be the same as the EC version, except with only RA tracking motor and no possibility of GOTO (you should probably check if it's available with UHTC coatings too.
Carlos.
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