"md" not given to avoid spam wrote in
"Paul Lawler" wrote in message

You didn't specify that you were talking about portability,

then please reread this thread, I was reacting to a message by
alexander avtanski who explicitely mentioned portability

Okay sorry... misunderstanding. I was referring to the OP, who was talking
about his father in law.

excellent. I consider the difference of a few minutes setup time not
significant though, in the situation of transportation by car: it is
not significant in comparison of an hour drive to a dark spot.

agreed. well, except when it starts raining, and then the "take down" time
becomes VERY significant. g

You still haven't explained the point in switching your ETX on if you
are not going to level and align it.

I thought that was pretty obvious: in that way I can easily keep
objects centered with a low slew speed.

Yes, yes... I understand that... I just don't understand why you would do
that with an ETX since the only (okay, most) useful part of the ETX is the
GOTO computer.

btw... are you in the Netherlands? There's a young person (I'm not sure what
age) on alt.astronomy with a lot of genuine curiosity. Can you recommend any
observing clubs there?