Posts Made By: Mark Mittlesteadt

I own the 9mm, 15mm and the 20mm Expanse EP's. I have the Orion Shorty Plus Barlow as well.

I only use my Expanses. With the Barlow I basically have 4.5, 7.5, 9, 10, 15 and 20mm EP's...all with a wider field than Plossls.

I think they are all quite clear to the edge with alot of contrast. It is so nice to have higher magnification and yet have a wider field and good eye relief.

I really want to get some premium EP's (both 1.25" and 2"), but until I can save up some money for those, the Expanses are great for me. I'm very happy with the views through them, although I don't know about the 6mm.

I own an LX50. The RA backlash you noticed is normal (shouldn't be, but it is). If you set the slew speed to it's slowest (i.e.- for photography) it is hardly there.

The Dec fix you talked about can be purchased from Scopetronix.

I've noticed the same thing.

Perhaps they are buying on impulse and have changed their minds or their lifestyle situation changed.

I bought an SCT when I was single and in a matter of a couple of years, I went from having all the time in the world to having almost none at all. I went from staying up all night to only having a few hours between sundown and maybe 10:00 or so.

It could be that they made the purchase and then financial problems arose (because of the purchase?).

Interesting though. I too, wonder why they would buy such an expensive item (which one would think requires a certain amount of consideration before buying) and then turn around and sell it almost immediately.

Someone's loss is surely someone else's BIG gain though!

I was in the same boat. I'm mostly into the planets and the moon (though I do like DSO's too), but I wanted something that was an easy grab'n'go setup.

My small wide field refractor was easy to haul around...but the Astroview mount was a pain. It's not that heavy but it is rather bulky and not that easy to haul out of my house.

My 8" SCT needs to be kept in my bedroom closet upstairs as I have three small children and I can't afford to leave it out. Hauling it downstairs and out to the back yard was a pain. That's one trip and then another for the accessories. I thought my "small scope" was easy...and it was were it not for having to haul out the mount and tripod as well.

So, I got an ETX105 that I use. I don't even need a tripod. I take it all out in one trip. My scope, in it's case with all my accessories all comes out in one trip and I'm up in no time, viewing.

Nothing could be easier than the ETX series. The scope and mount are all in one so it's one easy to use package. It's not the ideal planetary scope, but it is in the sense that I now take it out and use it. The views of the moon are very sharp and the planets are well defined for the smaller aperture.

Now I take my ETX everywhere, whereas before I wouldn't lug around my SCT. I considered the ETX125, but again, I wanted something portable and I found that the ETX105 was the perfect combination of aperture and portability. Bigger than the 90, but smaller than the 125.

I would suggest the ETX125 out the ones you mentioned only for the convenience of it. You don't need a tripod or mount. You just need a flat surface to put it on. This means you only need the scope and few accessories which are all easily kept in a light case for travel.

The newer ones are better built. The newer ones also come with the Autostar and the 884 tripod.

I don't know that there are any distinguishing features visible on the outside. Someone else might know.

You could also check out Mike Weasner's ETX site, it's got every answer to any question.

http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html

I've got a tripod similar to yours, but mine is aluminum with the same type of lock.

However, I built a wooden tripod and for leg locks, I drilled a hole through the upper leg and inserted a "T-Nut" on the inside of it. The bolt screws into the outer leg (and into the "T-nut") and presses against the inner leg. Very secure.

I don't know how to fix those cheap leg locks, but on a wooden tripod, you could replace them all this way and never worry about it again.

The picture doesn't really show how it's put together, but you can see the bolt with the plastic knob. It works great...I even use that tripod for my 8" fork mount SCT and it's solid. I can even stand on it and the legs won't slip.

There is always Kendrick dew systems...but after reading a review here, I went out and got Dew-Not heaters to work with my existing Kendrick controller.

You can find them at http://www.dew-not.com/

I e-mailed them and John custom built my dew heaters for my ETX, so that the cords are the EXACT length I wanted them. Now there are no cords hanging all over the place.

They are almost half the price of Kendrick heaters, though Dew-Not does not supply controllers. Their heaters do work with a variety of controllers however.

The LX90 replaced the LX50. It will probably be around a for a good long while as it is the only "entry level" GoTo SCT they have.

You'd be safe with any of the LX200 SCT's as they are the flagship scopes of Meade. You wouldn't go wrong with any of the LX200's, though keep in mind anything over 8" will be heavy and the 12" and 14" are monsters to move.

You can simply use a 110v to 12v converter. It plugs into your 110v electrical outlets, but then converts the power to a 12 volt output.

Then you can plug any 12 volt device into the convertor. You can get a 12 volt splitter so you can plug multiple 12 volt devices into it.

You can find them almost anywhere electrical supplies are sold...like Radio Shack, etc.

...When you come from a light-polluted back yard in the city, and your first view of a dark sky leaves you wondering where your contellations went.

Two years ago I went up to the UP of Michigan and for the first time in years I saw a truly dark sky. I was so astounded I hardly looked through my scope. Just admiring the Milky Way left my jaw hanging open.

There were so many stars I couldn't hardly find any constellations. From my light polluted back yard, good nights are when I can see the major stars of the constellations and very little else. All my points of reference were lost in a myriad of stars and the Milky Way that I had forgotten were even there.