Telescope Reviews: Re: ETX-80 coming...what else shall I get?

Thanks to everyone so far for the advice....I received my scope on Monday, but so far the weather has been terrible...clouds mixed with rain, when we do get sun it's through thin clouds (scattered with thicker clouds). It's been that way since Monday and forecast is for the same for the next 10 days at least!

I have purchased a few accessories so far...I picked up the Orion Skyglow (used on ebay for a very good price), Orion Steadypix (again used...), Baader solar filter, dew shield (TC model doesn't come with one), Meade 6.4mm Super Plossl eyepiece and an Orion V-block filter. I went again and purchased these items, figuring that I can also use them on the Dobsonian I would like to get later in the year (even the V-block...my research shows it's also a decent filter to use on Jupiter to bring out detail in the spot and belts).

I did finally get to use it this morning...we had a break in the weather (only very thin clouds), so I did a bit of solar observing. No spots were to be seen, but it gave me a chance to play with the goto (I really like the tracking....makes observing very relaxing). I also noticed that when using the built in barlow, it does take a lot of turns to refocus, but I can live with it for the time being. In the future I'll probably get an external barlow as the reports are that they require much less refocusing. Nicest image of the sun seemed to come from the 26mm eyepiece with the barlow flipped into position. Good eye relief and decent magnification

Interesting thing about the solar observing...a few decades ago I did solar observing with my Newtonian. It had a solar filter that screwed onto the eyepiece (dangerous I know...but that's what they gave us back then:yikes: ). Anyway, seems old habits die hard. Even after close to 30 years since looking at the sun through a telescope, as I approached the scope to drop in the eyepiece, or would go to change eyepieces, I found myself closing my eyes. :rolleyes:

Thanks again....I'll keep you all filled in on how this scope turns out...I'm happy with it so far...the image of the sun was crisp with less chromatic aberartion then I expected (just a bright greenish line around the suns edge...rather attractive actually).
Craig

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Craig
Ancient Tasco 4.5" (from back when Tasco's were good)
Meade ETX-80
Orion XT10i
Meade Super Plossls 6.4, 9.7, 15 & 26mm
Meade #126 Barlow, Opt(GSO) 2.5X short barlow
Zhumell Z Planetary 3mm
Agena Ultra Wide 30mm

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