rigel123
member
Reged: 06/29/09
Posts: 37
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I've had the scope out 4 nights now since it was returned. GPS location takes less than 1 minute now and total alignment once I turn on the scope takes from 5 to 7 minutes. Did some imaging even though the atmosphere was pretty active. Fun to find planets you haven't seen before!
Uranus on the 18th
Edited by rigel123 (10/19/09 04:42 PM)
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yabby
newbie
Reged: 10/16/09
Posts: 4
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Last night was a perfect night for viewing and so is tonight.
At last I've seen my ETX-LS find 3 satellites from my Balconey position, and again tonight. So at least that part is working ok. I can't get an auto align and now believe the problem is with the True Nth. Well, let's say with interference in getting a true Nth. Nevertheless, with a 2 star manual alignment I have a great night looking at the guided tours.
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rigel123
member
Reged: 06/29/09
Posts: 37
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I could have stayed out all night long tonight with my LS. Still learning with my DSI III, but got a pretty good shot of the Dumbbell.
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ETX-LS 6"
8" Meade Dob
DSI III Pro Monochome
LPI
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geminijk
member
Reged: 04/03/08
Posts: 87
Loc: TN
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Those are some wonderful images rigel123! Curious, what do you use to power the LS? I've heard the battery life is 3-4 hours, but with it getting colder, I suspect that time to decrease and I was wondering how long your observing sessions have been and your experience with battery life.
john
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Celestron Ultima 8 PEC w/GSO 9x50 RACI Finder
6" Meade ETX-LS
6" Orion Intelliscope Dob
http://twitter.com/geminijk
http://amateurastrotech.wordpress.com
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orbitman
journeyman
Reged: 08/18/09
Posts: 5
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I have owned the Celestron nexstar 8 and was satisfied with it until my wife bought me the Meade 8-inch LX200R (LX200ACF). The Celestron was a really good telescope, but the optics on the Meade were much better. My reason for getting the ETX-LS6 is for transporting to viewing sites. The Meade LX200R is just too heavy to keep moving around and setting up on a tripod (about 90 pounds together). The ETX-LS6 weighs about 50 pounds together with the tripod and the optics are really good (the same as with the LX200R). With the ETX-LS6, you may get a good one out of the box. I was not so lucky. Mine was sent to Meade and replaced only after I sent an email to their Chief Financial Officer (the only email address I could find to complain about customer service). This one works and just needs some tweaking. I need to reflash the handbox with the latest software and this should take care of minor nits. However, I can still manually align this scope and it performs really well. All of this just depends on what you want the scope to do. You will see more with the 8-inch, but I believe Celestron's coated optics do not compare to the Advanced Coma Free optics of Meade. Also, the camera built onto the ETX-LS is used as a startracker to do the alignment and the only photos you can take with it are fixed focus. I would suggest you get a planetary camera like the Meade LPI or the NEXSTAR Planetary camera. Both are good and you will need a camera for the Celestron if you are imaging. The construction of the ETX-LS is really good, really beefy compared to other ETX scopes. If you go with the ETX-LS, you will be better off to buy the AC adapter and not use batteries.
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brianb11213
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/25/09
Posts: 2075
Loc: 55.215N 6.554W
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Quote:
I believe Celestron's coated optics do not compare to the Advanced Coma Free optics of Meade.
Visually there is very little difference between "conventional" SCT optics and Meade's ACF unless the collimation is out - in which case the ACF perform better but still benefit from getting the collimation spot on.
Meade's UHC coatings and Celestron' XLT coatings perform exactly the same so far as I can tell.
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rigel123
member
Reged: 06/29/09
Posts: 37
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I used batteries once just to see how they would work and I probably got about 3 hours. I use the power adapter all the time and set up on my patio for most nights since I have a clear view of about half the sky from there. I also have a 100 foot extension cord I use to go to the middle of my back yard and then I can get about 75% of the sky. I may end up getting a portable 12 volt battery if I want to go out in the country but for now, even with all of the lights I have to contend with, I'm happy with the images I am getting. There are enough bright nebula, galaxies, globular and open clusters to keep me busy for a long time. Not to mention the moon and planets. For portability I got the JMI case made for the ETX-LS and that is nice since you can just roll it in the case and it also stores other accessories like my focal reducer (which I highly recommend for any deep sky photos), the power adapter, and some objectives.
Lately I've been going out about 8:30 and packing up at 10:30, but I've been known to go until 3 AM!
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ETX-LS 6"
8" Meade Dob
DSI III Pro Monochome
LPI
Edited by rigel123 (10/20/09 11:07 PM)
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edgley
member
Reged: 01/22/05
Posts: 50
Loc: Surbiton, England
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kabes, what are 1 minute subs please? I have a D300, and whilst I only have an etx125, I would love to try to do the same.
Thanks.
Edited by edgley (10/21/09 09:03 PM)
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AlexDJ30
sage
Reged: 09/02/08
Posts: 275
Loc: Monterrey, Mexico
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edgley if you want to imagine DSO's with a etx-125..i think sadly you have a not very good scope for this, you will need a focal reducer imperative and coupling with a D300 makes the etx-125 wooble (i have and etx-125 and face the same stuff, sadly i buy a gem for DSO only) , if you want to imagine planets then the etx-125 its fine using a nextimagen or LPI.
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Equipment:
- ETX 125 AT
- C6 ASGT
- WO 66mm SD
- 2.5X ED Barlow, 8-24mm Zoom Eyepice
- Canon EOS Rebel XSi
- Celestron Nextimagen
- Orion Starshoot CCD cam
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orbitman
journeyman
Reged: 08/18/09
Posts: 5
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I know that I am late on getting this posted. I ended up locating a corporate officer at Meade to express my concern about how long it was taking to repair the scope. I have had some issues with customer service. The officer at Meade looked into my complaint and had my problem resolved within a day and a new scope sent to me. Since that time I have not had enough time to adequately setup the scope due to my work situation. However, a quick check with the scope operation proved that the scope was able to align itself very close to perfect alignment. I have since upgraded the handbox with v1.2g and everything works great. Please note that I only resorted to contacting a Meade corporate person when my telescope had been there for over a month with no estimate in sight for return to me. I was also informed of the "First Light" guarantee on the scope, that Meade would replace it within 30 days if anything was wrong. The corporate person was very concerned about the customer service and really got involved in addressing the problem. 
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oldsalt
Astro Philosopher
Reged: 02/12/05
Posts: 8660
Loc: Pa - between starparties
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We have veered very much off topic, as this thread was to deal with ETX-LS reviews. Thread will now be locked.
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There are no winners in war, only bigger losers.
Jim
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