Meade ETX 90, ETX105 or ETX125?

Hi,
I suffer from arthritis I can't lift much therefore I don't want to lug
a large scope outside on a cold winters night. At the moment I've got a
Vixen Custom 80mm refractor which I'll probably keep. It's very light but
the tube is quite long and the aperture is limited
Thus I was thinking of buying one the ETX range.
Although I don't want to spend too much, I don't want to end up kicking
myself and wishing I'd bought the next size up.
What are the pros and cons of each models. Also any other scope
recommendations would be welcome.

Kind Regards

P.S.
I live in light polluted suburbia

Visually, the ETX90 won't gain you anything over the Vixen 80mm (I have the
same model). ETXs also have a narrow field of view and (in my opinion) seem
to suffer their fair share of electronic glitches. In your position I might
well consider the Celestron Nexstar 5 - operates at F10 and gives up little
in terms of optical performance to the maks.

Richard


"Ricardo" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I suffer from arthritis I can't lift much therefore I don't want to
lug
a large scope outside on a cold winters night. At the moment I've got a
Vixen Custom 80mm refractor which I'll probably keep. It's very light but
the tube is quite long and the aperture is limited
Thus I was thinking of buying one the ETX range.
Although I don't want to spend too much, I don't want to end up kicking
myself and wishing I'd bought the next size up.
What are the pros and cons of each models. Also any other scope
recommendations would be welcome.

Kind Regards

P.S.
I live in light polluted suburbia

In article ,
"Ricardo" wrote:

Hi,
I suffer from arthritis I can't lift much therefore I don't want to lug
a large scope outside on a cold winters night. At the moment I've got a
Vixen Custom 80mm refractor which I'll probably keep. It's very light but
the tube is quite long and the aperture is limited
Thus I was thinking of buying one the ETX range.
Although I don't want to spend too much, I don't want to end up kicking
myself and wishing I'd bought the next size up.
What are the pros and cons of each models. Also any other scope
recommendations would be welcome.

Kind Regards

P.S.
I live in light polluted suburbia

For awhile I owned an ETX125, and I frankly hated it. Optically it was
fine, although the field was narrower than I like. What bothered me
were the electronics and mount construction- a real pain. I finally
gave up on it and bought a TeleVue NP101. Built like a tank, perfectly
color-free, pinpoint star images and lightweight. Or, for substantially
less money, (either new or used) you could probably find a TV102, which
is also a wonderful scope. Very light and transportable, especially on
an altaz mount.

Or, how about a 6" dob? Substantially more light-collecting than an
80mm refractor, and again, highly transportable.

Starry Skies,
Rich

Thanks Guys.




"Richard DeLuca" wrote in message
news
In article ,
"Ricardo" wrote:

Hi,
I suffer from arthritis I can't lift much therefore I don't want to
lug
a large scope outside on a cold winters night. At the moment I've got a
Vixen Custom 80mm refractor which I'll probably keep. It's very light but
the tube is quite long and the aperture is limited
Thus I was thinking of buying one the ETX range.
Although I don't want to spend too much, I don't want to end up kicking
myself and wishing I'd bought the next size up.
What are the pros and cons of each models. Also any other scope
recommendations would be welcome.

Kind Regards

P.S.
I live in light polluted suburbia

For awhile I owned an ETX125, and I frankly hated it. Optically it was
fine, although the field was narrower than I like. What bothered me
were the electronics and mount construction- a real pain. I finally
gave up on it and bought a TeleVue NP101. Built like a tank, perfectly
color-free, pinpoint star images and lightweight. Or, for substantially
less money, (either new or used) you could probably find a TV102, which
is also a wonderful scope. Very light and transportable, especially on
an altaz mount.

Or, how about a 6" dob? Substantially more light-collecting than an
80mm refractor, and again, highly transportable.

Starry Skies,
Rich