Telescope Reviews: ETX-80, the best and worst of nights!

Hello, last night was both the best and worst night ever that I've had with my little ETX-80. First the good news. I arrived at my "darker sky" sight at a little before midnight. Skies were clear, temperatures in the upper 50's and a light breeze that kept the dew at bay. I could easily see stars down to mag 5. I set up the scope (with some difficulties, more on those later). For alignment it chose Capella and Vega. First target for the night...I thought I'd try for a dark nebula. I entered the coordinates for Barnard 168 into the autostar database and then bid it to take me there. First glance through the eyepiece was incredible! Using the 26mm, the entire FOV was a carpet of stars! Right in the middle of it all was a knotty band of dark clouds that reminded of thick rope. This rope crossed the entire FOV. Incredible! I'd looked for dark nebula before with limited success but this one just jumped right out at me. It was hard to miss as it lied across that carpet of stars. I stared at this for at least 15 minutes...it was simply beautiful. Who would have thought something that is jet black could look so good?

Next target, I thought I'd try for the Veil Nebula again. I bid the autostar to slew there and it did it's thing. First look in the eyepiece didn't reveal much, although I thought there may have been a hint of ghostly light in the FOV, but it was washed out by the bright star (sorry, I don't recall it's name) that shares the FOV with the nebula. Then decided...how about the other half of this nebula? I scanned up a bit and there it was! An unmistakable arc of ghostly light! I removed my EP (the 26mm) and added an Astronomic UHC-E filter. Just beautiful! The arc of light easily stood out against the jet black background and I could even see a faint star (maybe mag 9 or 10) almost dead center across the width of the nebula and about a third of the way in from the left end. The arc extended across maybe 70 percent of the width of my FOV. Using averted vision, I felt I could even make out wisps of a tattered texture to the lower edge of the nebula. I stared at the nebula off and on (too long in one stretch and it would seeme to fade) for at least 20 minutes, taking it all in and trying to gain hints of more detail. It was utterly beautiful. I had never expected to find it, yet it seemed to jump right out at me.

With the luck I had with the Veil, I decided to try the North American Nebula again. Last time I viewed it, it was barely there. Tonight there was no mistaking it's presence. It wasn't as distinctive as the veil, but it was there and seemed to extend beyond my FOV (still using the 26mm EP with UHC-E filter). What really struck me this time was not the emission component of the nebula, but the dark nebula that makes up the Gulf portion...it really stood out and gave me the impression of a dark coal sack superimposed upon the faint nebula. Again, I spent a little time on this one, simply taking it in and attempting to catch more detail.

Next up, I decided to try an object that had eluded me the last time I tried it (although, I had attempted it from considerably more light polluted skies): the M33 galaxy. I commanded the ETX to take me there. After it stopped, I had a peek in the EP, fully expecting to see nothing or just maybe a faint glimmer of light. I was floored! Just of center from the FOV was an oval glowing patch of light. There was no mistaking that this was the galaxy nor it's orientation (face on). I removed the EP and (what I thought would be just for fun) inserted the Astronomik CLS-E filter. They claim that broadband filter is okay to use for cluster and galaxies to enhance contrast, but I was skeptical...especially in an 80mm scope. Was I ever mistaken! The increase in contrast made a significant difference and now I thought I could even make out hints of variation in it's brightness across its face due to the spiral arms. The combination of the right filter and dark skies really can work wonders! Unfortunately, the autostar didn't tell me how far away this one was, but I looked it up later. This little guy is the 3rd largest member of our local galactic neighborhood and lies next door to Andromeda, but a little further down the street at 3 million light years.

It was here that my troubles began. I decided to shoot for M15 again to see if on this night I might be able to resolve some of it's outer stars. I commanded the ETX to take me there and the scope promptly slew to what I knew was the wrong direction. Pegasus is NOT west of Jupiter.

I thought that perhaps it needed to be realigned, so I ran the alignment again. This time, it was going in the general direction of the alignment stars, but was always off a bit in azmith (altitude seemed okay). After getting it aligned, I could always slew okay to my first target, but after that it would be way off for the next one...even if I told it to take me back to one of the alignment stars. This pattern continued over the next couple of hours. Another problem I noticed during all of this is that the light on the autostar controller would seem to flicker ever so briefly...I'd never noticed this behavior before. I wondered if it was related to the problems I had during set up. Just before setting out for the night, I installed a fresh set of batteries. When I went to turn on the scope nothing. It was dead. I removed the battery holder and touched my tounge to the contacts. Nothing. I wiggled the batteries a bit and tried again (with my tounge). I could feel the tingle, so I reinserted the battery pack. Nothing. I took them out again, wiggled the batteries yet again and replaced the battery pack. This time the scope fired up. Very odd....

So...today I built a custom cable so that I can run my scope directly off of my jump starter battery (or the car cigarette lighter). I eager to see if this cures my problems. If it doesn't, I suspect the scope may have developed a loose connection inside somewhere. I've read of similar behavior over on Weasner's sight in the ETX-125 and his problems (of erratic azmith slewing) were caused by wiring harness that had pulled loose due to the scope's operation. I suspect that could be the case here.

If it is, I'll have to decide whether to repair it myself or send if off to Meade since it's under warranty. Seems a shame to send it off if that's all it might be, but on the other hand I'm reluctant to open it up while it's still under warranty.

So...that was my evening. Fortunately, I feel the good overshadowed the bad and I'm more excited then ever about the potential for this little scope.
Craig

Edited by caheaton (09/19/09 09:12 PM)