Grab and go

Dear all

I have a 130mm Newt that is awkward to cart around. I've been offered a
Meade ETX70 AT for a very reasonable price - does anyone have an opinion as
to how this fares as a grab and go scope?

Many thanks

Steve

"Steve & Lizzie" wrote in message
o.uk...
Dear all

I have a 130mm Newt that is awkward to cart around. I've been offered a
Meade ETX70 AT for a very reasonable price - does anyone have an opinion
as to how this fares as a grab and go scope?

Many thanks

Steve

I had an ETX-70. It's light, easy and quick to set up. The drawback is its
small aperture -- which means low magnification and limited light-gathering
ability. It was good for looking at wide objects such as star clusters,
etc. But it was SERIOUSLY limited when looking at planets and it was
impossible to see deep sky objects.

"Steve & Lizzie" wrote in message
o.uk...
Dear all

I have a 130mm Newt that is awkward to cart around. I've been offered a
Meade ETX70 AT for a very reasonable price - does anyone have an opinion
as to how this fares as a grab and go scope?


I can recommend the AstroTech 66ED. Good performance for stars, open
clusters, and moon. A bit too small for planets and deep sky. Powers of up
to 133x without color. Crisp images. 400mm focal length for wide field with
1.25" eyepieces. Super nice focuser and retractable dewshield. Extremely
well built.

Probably more than you're looking to spend if you are biting at the 70AT
though. Plus, you'll need a mount. I use a Unistar Light Deluxe on light
duty tripod, but would be happier if it were on a Microstar instead (but
only because the Microstar is a bit smaller, and plenty enough mount to
handle the 66ED).

Nice scope. The 80mm should be even nicer, but requiring a bit heavier mount
than the 66ED.

Anyway, I know where you're coming from. My other scope is a 6" F5 Newt on
manual CG-5. Before that I ran the gamut from a 12.5" Dob, to a C11/G11 on
down in aperture through most of the "affordable" sized Dobs, SCTs, and
refractors, utilizing fork mounts, GEMs, DSCs, and GoTo.

These days I'm just a moon kind of guy, and an occasional open cluster
observer. The 66ED can still show a globular as a fuzzball without a problem
though, and The Andromeda galaxy is easily visible, as are the dual cores of
M51 and companion, plus the M81/82 pair. I bet the Leo Trio is visible as
well as the other brighter Messier galaxies.

Later,
Steve Paul

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:51:05 -0500, "Steve Paul"
wrote:

I can recommend the AstroTech 66ED.

I've bought the WO version of this scope for use as a
guidescope/finder. It is a well-made budget scope with surprisingly
good mechanics. However, I think a decent pair of 15x70 or 20x80
binoculars would be a better choice in the same price range for purely
visual observing due to the significant aperture gain and
corresponding image brightness.

---
Michael McCulloch

"Michael McCulloch" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 19:51:05 -0500, "Steve Paul"
wrote:

I can recommend the AstroTech 66ED.

I've bought the WO version of this scope for use as a
guidescope/finder. It is a well-made budget scope with surprisingly
good mechanics. However, I think a decent pair of 15x70 or 20x80
binoculars would be a better choice in the same price range for purely
visual observing due to the significant aperture gain and
corresponding image brightness.

I understand why you might think so, but then I have both of those
binoculars, and the little refractor is just a much better instrument for
general use. You can't take the binoculars up to 66x on the moon, or any
other object for that matter. On a photo-tripod with a decent head, and the
90 degree mirror diagonal, the 66ED is a lot more comfortable too.

My $.02

-SP