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Is Meade ETX 90 good for astrophotographers?

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#1 jstafford

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Posted 10 October 2024 - 05:31 PM

If so, I have a Nikon D7500. What would I need to get a good start?



#2 Tulloch

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Posted 10 October 2024 - 05:33 PM

It's not ideal, and neither is your choice of camera (for Planetary imaging anyway). Have a look through the FAQ (link below) for more details.

 

https://www.cloudyni...september-2024/

 

Andrew


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#3 dswtan

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Posted 10 October 2024 - 05:40 PM

+1 Tulloch (and I have both an ETX-90 and ETX-125). I do like them for solar though. You need a proper "full aperture" solar filter of course. Can also work well on the moon.

 

Such bright subjects overcome the otherwise dim focal ratio. Bonus, you also get "close up" with the long focal length.

 

For OP, just in case useful -- the main Forum at CN for these scopes is here:

 

https://www.cloudyni...zed-telescopes/



#4 Foc

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Posted 10 October 2024 - 09:07 PM

I have used the ETX 105 for planetary in 2018, but only with a lighter dedicated (though primative) planetary cam. Quite awkward and unsteady in winds on the standard field tripod but a sense of achievement when you get your images. I am sure you have seen etx 90 planetary images on the Meade thread so that is also doable

#5 RedLionNJ

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Posted 12 October 2024 - 08:59 AM

If so, I have a Nikon D7500. What would I need to get a good start?

In the context of high-resolution planetary photography, an ETX-90 coupled with a DSLR is not a particularly effective combination. The aperture is too small and while you might be able to get good data (non-interpolated, non-lossy compression, reasonable cropped frame rates) with some Canon DSLRs, Nikon's offerings feature very poorly in that respect.

 

Additionally, once you hang a DSLR off the rear port of an ETX-90, the tracking may well start to suffer. The motors and gears may not be up to the task.

 

If, on the other hand, you could mount the ETX-90 OTA onto an equatorially-mounted (typically larger) scope, and attach a real planetary camera (e.g. asi224mc) to it, you might be in with a reasonable chance of competing with results possible with a 3-inch refractor.




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