Small goto scopes

[Geoff.T]

I am looking at buying a small goto scope for astonomical and land use.
Would any one have experience with the Meade EXT-90pe scopes or the Celestron Nexstar 102slt. Looking for advise on what to buy
Geoff T

[Popeye (Bert)]

Depends on what you want to use if for, Geoff. I have an ETX90EC (and old version) that I use for a 'grab and go' scope and with a filter to use on the sun for sunspots only. I have a PST for seeing filaments etc.
I like the ETX and have had one before when it was my only scope and traded it in on a Meade LX90. But the EC model is a bit noisy in 'goto' mode.
For 'spotting' I think that the optics are excellent. I bought the special 45 degree erecting prism for this work. I can pick out individual leaves on trees and feathers on birds. Its mainly for birdwatching that I use this part of the scope. I am rapt with it for spotting.
On stars, lunar, solar (spots) and some planetary work it is also excellent but you won't get much of the planetary features with the small aperture. Splitting something like A Cent is easy and it makes a beautiful double at that power.
But for serious work - DS objects - I wouldn't go any lower than 200mm.
Good luck.
Cheers!
Popeye

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

Fun scopes, but I don't think these little Maks or SCTs make very good terrestrial scopes (too narrow FOV). I like my ETX, but I've said before that I would look at one of the Celeston SE scopes nowadays, which allows you to interchange an OTA. (GOTO is good, though, on these little wonders from Meade.)

[nightsky]

G'Day,
I have the Meade ETX 125,and it's a great little scope I use it when I'm at my weekender,very easy to handle and the GoTo is just great,you should be able to pick one up for about $600. Here's a link to the Meade Video on the ETX 125.BTW you can see deep sky objects with this little scope
http://www.meade.com/educational/etx...eos/index.html
Cheers
Arthur

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I love my little Ioptron Cube with the 80mm refractor.
For $465 for the basic model with a 5000 object database, it's great value.
http://www.sirius-optics.com.au/ioptron_refractor.htm
I've barely used my 10" dob since I bought it.

[Geoff.T]

Thanks for the info I basically want to use it when i go camping as my 10' GSO dob is a bit of a handfull to fit in the car with all the other camping gear.
Would also use it to find different objects in the sky as i am a novice in astronomy.

[Jen]

Hi Geoff and to IIS
cheers

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi

I bought my grandson a ETX125 a couple of months ago after the ETX70 (only a toy) broke. It is a little hard to get aligned for a beginner because of its narrow field of view but once this is done it works great. Goto's are excellent.

My grandson is absolutely hooked on astronomy now. He is now a proud member of the ASNSW. We have taken it up to Crago a few time now and we can see DSO's there that I can't see from my observatory with a 12" SCT. He can't wait for a trip to the really dark sky at Wiruna in December.

Barry