Starlighter
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/03/07
Posts: 4820
Loc: Sunny California
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ETX-LA at CES
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Celestron C4-R 102mm achromat
Celeston Nexstar 6SE SCT
Meade 80mm APO Triplet
Televue NP-101
Televue TV-85
Vixen A70Lf
Vixen A80Mf
William Optics 66mm Zenithstar Patriot
Celestron CG4 EQ mount
Orion Skyview Pro AZ mount
Televue Gibraltar 5
Vixen Portamount
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Starlighter
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/03/07
Posts: 4820
Loc: Sunny California
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Here's another look:
ETX-LS
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Celestron C4-R 102mm achromat
Celeston Nexstar 6SE SCT
Meade 80mm APO Triplet
Televue NP-101
Televue TV-85
Vixen A70Lf
Vixen A80Mf
William Optics 66mm Zenithstar Patriot
Celestron CG4 EQ mount
Orion Skyview Pro AZ mount
Televue Gibraltar 5
Vixen Portamount
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nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 5994
Loc: London UK
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Thanks for that - most informative video  I see the built-in camera at the base of the scope is highlighted and, as suspected, has a tiny lens and wonder if it's much use beyond locating the bright >mag 2 stars for initial 2-star alignment  How much would it cost to use a bigger/faster alignment lens to go 'deeper' for widefield views 
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+e-finder+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9+Lodestar CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR/Hitachi HD+Disgo Video Fun cams
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-my videos
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Arthur Dent
Galactic Hitch-Hiker
Reged: 10/23/08
Posts: 1474
Loc: A damp South Yorkshire, UK
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Hmm
Am I correct in thinking that this camera if fixed in position below the OTA - or does it slide up and into the OTA?
It looks like it is fixed in position.
If so, I would worry about alignment issues.
If it is a sliding feature, I would worry about dirt & grit entering the OTA.
Art
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If I like it, the wife says that we can't afford it!
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Meade ETX105 & Celestron NexStar 6SE with Bob's Knobs
6-26mm EPs + Hyperion 8-24mm
MRF and Antares 8x50 RACI finder scope
Canon EOS 400D DSLR (un-modded) and SPC900 webcam. Finally climbing the AP Learning Curve!
<img width="600" height="300" src="http://7timer.y234.cn/exe/apanel.php?country=UK&adm=UKL9&site=0&en">
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Rat
sage
Reged: 10/13/06
Posts: 215
Loc: USA
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Looks like a great scope........hopefully it works trouble free.
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nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 5994
Loc: London UK
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Quote:
Hmm Am I correct in thinking that this camera if fixed in position below the OTA - or does it slide up and into the OTA? It looks like it is fixed in position.
If so, I would worry about alignment issues....Art
Before pics were published I did surmise [in another post] that perhaps [from the description] the cam could be used at the focal plane of the main scope. Clearly this is not so. And there'd be no alignment issues as the camera sensor+lens [and thus image scale] are presumably factory calibrated to coincide with the main scopes central field of view. 
I've been using an electronic finder for months to 'manually' find alignments stars at startup on my Meade LX200 here and it works fine with a much larger fov than a regular optical finder so alignment stars are always 'there'
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+e-finder+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9+Lodestar CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR/Hitachi HD+Disgo Video Fun cams
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-my videos
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jgraham
Postmaster
Reged: 12/02/04
Posts: 7062
Loc: Dayton, Ohio
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I thought read in the Meade literature that the electronics in the mount would also support a DSI-series camera which would allow you to mount a DSI on the scope itself, control it through the mount, and display the image via the video out or stored on the SD card.
Yep, I just checked the Meade web site at...
http://www.meade.com/etx-ls/index.html
...and under the More Infor tab on page 3 it describes the built-in support for the DSI.
Neat stuff.
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-John
================================================
Homebuilt scopes from 4.25-16.5"
Meade LXD75-N6/SN6/SC8, DSX-90, ETX-60BB, ETX-125PE, DS-2130
Orion StarBlast, BinoViewers, Coronado PST
Rebel XT/XTi, DSI Pro (I, II, & III), DSI, LPI, Electronic Eyepiece, Phillips SPC900NC
Tasco 60mm Refractors
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nytecam
Postmaster
Reged: 08/20/05
Posts: 5994
Loc: London UK
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Quote:
I thought read in the Meade literature that the electronics in the mount would also support a DSI-series camera which would allow you to mount a DSI on the scope itself, control it through the mount, and display the image via the video out or stored on the SD card. Yep, I just checked the Meade web site
The built-in 'alignment' camera seems to be a webcam which will presumably limit exposure duration. Obviously an owner supplied cam usable at scope focus
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Nytecam 51N 0.1W
Meade 30cm LX200+ETX-70+e-finder+C8+Ha+CaK PSTs SBIG SGS+homebuilt spectrographs
Starlight SXVF_M9+Lodestar CCDs/Canon 300D DSLR/Hitachi HD+Disgo Video Fun cams
My observatory build-ETX-70 imaging-my videos
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cnstarz
professor emeritus
Reged: 12/22/07
Posts: 549
Loc: Kentucky, USA
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Sounds to me like the Autostar II software can drive the ECLIPS and DSI as an integrated AP system. Kinda neat really, but might be a pain navigating the (envisage or whatever) software through just a handset.
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Matt
Apogee 50mm BB scope
ETX-60 BB
Meade 70-az
5" DIY Newt (wip)
C6-N on CG-4 GEM
Gallery
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InterStellarGuy
sage
Reged: 06/25/08
Posts: 267
Loc: Nebraska
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Wow..could they have possibly made the central obstruction any bigger? heh :P
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Celestron C8 on ASGT
Celestron First Scope 114
Stellarvue 70ED
Celestron Nexstar 60
Celestron accessory kit
Celestron UHC 1.25 filter
Celestron UV/IR cut off filter
Celestron NexImage
Orion Starshoot Deep Space Imager Pr
Oron Starshoot Autoguider
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jgraham
Postmaster
Reged: 12/02/04
Posts: 7062
Loc: Dayton, Ohio
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The CO is dictated by the optical design and the size of the fully illuminated field. The CO of the 6" ACF looks about right. The largest CO I've ever seen was on a 6" folded Newtonian; a 50% CO! This was a homebuilt travel scope and the builder wanted to pack a Newtonian in the smallest possible package. Surprisingly it actually worked quite well.
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-John
================================================
Homebuilt scopes from 4.25-16.5"
Meade LXD75-N6/SN6/SC8, DSX-90, ETX-60BB, ETX-125PE, DS-2130
Orion StarBlast, BinoViewers, Coronado PST
Rebel XT/XTi, DSI Pro (I, II, & III), DSI, LPI, Electronic Eyepiece, Phillips SPC900NC
Tasco 60mm Refractors
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InterStellarGuy
sage
Reged: 06/25/08
Posts: 267
Loc: Nebraska
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Ah..well overall it seems Meade is going all out on this one. If it fails I suspect they will to. This scope would be tempting if they had a 8" model.
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Celestron C8 on ASGT
Celestron First Scope 114
Stellarvue 70ED
Celestron Nexstar 60
Celestron accessory kit
Celestron UHC 1.25 filter
Celestron UV/IR cut off filter
Celestron NexImage
Orion Starshoot Deep Space Imager Pr
Oron Starshoot Autoguider
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Starlighter
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/03/07
Posts: 4820
Loc: Sunny California
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Quote:
Wow..could they have possibly made the central obstruction any bigger? heh :P
It does look rather large. Perhaps it has to do with the ACF design.
The CO in my 6SE looks slightly smaller:
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Celestron C4-R 102mm achromat
Celeston Nexstar 6SE SCT
Meade 80mm APO Triplet
Televue NP-101
Televue TV-85
Vixen A70Lf
Vixen A80Mf
William Optics 66mm Zenithstar Patriot
Celestron CG4 EQ mount
Orion Skyview Pro AZ mount
Televue Gibraltar 5
Vixen Portamount
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PAW
sage
Reged: 10/12/06
Posts: 258
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Anyone know when the ETX-LS will be available?
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InterStellarGuy
sage
Reged: 06/25/08
Posts: 267
Loc: Nebraska
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PAW, The ETX-LS is out in March.
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Celestron C8 on ASGT
Celestron First Scope 114
Stellarvue 70ED
Celestron Nexstar 60
Celestron accessory kit
Celestron UHC 1.25 filter
Celestron UV/IR cut off filter
Celestron NexImage
Orion Starshoot Deep Space Imager Pr
Oron Starshoot Autoguider
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Starlighter
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/03/07
Posts: 4820
Loc: Sunny California
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Beware the Ides of March! 
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Celestron C4-R 102mm achromat
Celeston Nexstar 6SE SCT
Meade 80mm APO Triplet
Televue NP-101
Televue TV-85
Vixen A70Lf
Vixen A80Mf
William Optics 66mm Zenithstar Patriot
Celestron CG4 EQ mount
Orion Skyview Pro AZ mount
Televue Gibraltar 5
Vixen Portamount
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jgraham
Postmaster
Reged: 12/02/04
Posts: 7062
Loc: Dayton, Ohio
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An olde rule of thumb for commercial telescopes was to use a secondary large enough to give a 50% fully illuminated field, or about 1/2" wide at the focal plane. Since the whole point of ACF is to give a flat field they may have designed it around a larger fully illuminated field (which would be nice for imaging), and hence a larger secondary.
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-John
================================================
Homebuilt scopes from 4.25-16.5"
Meade LXD75-N6/SN6/SC8, DSX-90, ETX-60BB, ETX-125PE, DS-2130
Orion StarBlast, BinoViewers, Coronado PST
Rebel XT/XTi, DSI Pro (I, II, & III), DSI, LPI, Electronic Eyepiece, Phillips SPC900NC
Tasco 60mm Refractors
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Starlighter
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/03/07
Posts: 4820
Loc: Sunny California
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Nice for imaging, but how about for just viewing?
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Celestron C4-R 102mm achromat
Celeston Nexstar 6SE SCT
Meade 80mm APO Triplet
Televue NP-101
Televue TV-85
Vixen A70Lf
Vixen A80Mf
William Optics 66mm Zenithstar Patriot
Celestron CG4 EQ mount
Orion Skyview Pro AZ mount
Televue Gibraltar 5
Vixen Portamount
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jgraham
Postmaster
Reged: 12/02/04
Posts: 7062
Loc: Dayton, Ohio
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Little or no impact. In the summer I do a lot of double star splitting and I've found the size of the CO has little obvious impact on the resolving power of a telescope unless they get really large. (The two scopes I use most often, my LXD75 SC8 or ETX-125PE, both deliver diffraction limited resolution.) For the manufacturers the size of the secondary is usually driven by cost, not performance. Way-back-when homebuilt telescopes almost always had larger secondaries than commercial telescopes because we knew the smaller secondaries were clipping the field and getting away with it since your eye usually not sensitive enough to notice the fading at the ede of the field, but with a full 35mm frame it stood out like a sore thumb. Most homebuilders shot for 70% fully illuminated fields for visual work and 90-100% for imaging, but it took a big secondary to cover a 35mm frame. Thank goodness for CCDs!
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-John
================================================
Homebuilt scopes from 4.25-16.5"
Meade LXD75-N6/SN6/SC8, DSX-90, ETX-60BB, ETX-125PE, DS-2130
Orion StarBlast, BinoViewers, Coronado PST
Rebel XT/XTi, DSI Pro (I, II, & III), DSI, LPI, Electronic Eyepiece, Phillips SPC900NC
Tasco 60mm Refractors
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Starlighter
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/03/07
Posts: 4820
Loc: Sunny California
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Interesting info. Thanks!
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Celestron C4-R 102mm achromat
Celeston Nexstar 6SE SCT
Meade 80mm APO Triplet
Televue NP-101
Televue TV-85
Vixen A70Lf
Vixen A80Mf
William Optics 66mm Zenithstar Patriot
Celestron CG4 EQ mount
Orion Skyview Pro AZ mount
Televue Gibraltar 5
Vixen Portamount
|
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