First look at Meade's upcoming ETX-LS model

[MikeyB (Michael)]

I haven't seen previous mention of this new 'does everything' scope on IIS, so here's two articles with brief descriptions and a picture:

Gizmodo
TechDigest

[dannat (Daniel)]

the OTA looks a bit small..

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

looks like a very cool...toy

[Wavytone]

Looks like its yet another one with a measly 90-120mm aperture... "Toy" is what it is...

... if it was 200 - 250mm aperture it might be more interesting.

[Kal (Andrew)]

My first scope was what the majority of forum users here would consider a 'toy', yet the Meade ETX90EC with it's puny 3.5" of central obstruction blocked aperture showed me around 40 deep sky objects in about 2 hours one night when I clicked on it's "tour" function. Any telescope that introduces newbies to astronomy without frustrating the user with confusing aspects such as collimation & navigation to objects gets a thumbs up from me.

By the time you add large aperture to the fucntionality provided by this sort of package you are really moving beyond the novice and aiming the product at an intermediate astronomer, which misses the point entirely. Most people only want to get their feet wet in astronomy on a small budget after all.

[coldspace]

Originally Posted by Kal

My first scope was what the majority of forum users here would consider a 'toy', yet the Meade ETX90EC with it's puny 3.5" of central obstruction blocked aperture showed me around 40 deep sky objects in about 2 hours one night when I clicked on it's "tour" function. Any telescope that introduces newbies to astronomy without frustrating the user with confusing aspects such as collimation & navigation to objects gets a thumbs up from me.

By the time you add large aperture to the fucntionality provided by this sort of package you are really moving beyond the novice and aiming the product at an intermediate astronomer, which misses the point entirely. Most people only want to get their feet wet in astronomy on a small budget after all.

I'll second that, I started out with the ETX125 and it really impresses me with the views for its 5 inch aperture. Apo refractor like performance.
The optics of this Mak are very,very sharp and it gave me alot of fun for the first year till I upgraded to a 12 inch meade. But still love the little Mak for grab and go stuff.
This scope gives beginners no time wasting and lets you get on with observing, this new model they say comes with ACF optics so it may be a SCT and not a Mak and it may come out in a few different sizes, so I am sure this new one will be a winner and hopefully inject some cash flow back into Meade to help keep this innovative company going.

Regards Matt.