Meade ETX-105EC Telescope
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- Optical Diameter: 105 mm
- Max Useful Magnification: x 420
- Finderscope: Optical
- Mount Type: Altazimuth
- Focal Length: 1250 mm
- Optical Design: Catadioptrics
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A good compromise for both beginners and serious amateurs.
Pros
Portable, affordable, easy to use, high quality mountings and optics, large aperture, computer controlled.
Cons
Lots of necessary accessories have to be purchased separately.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Anything smaller would probably be inadequate for viewing anything except the main planets, anything much larger would not be portable or affordable. Good quality, easy to setup and use, recommended.
Why I bought it
I was inspired by seeing photos taken with telescopes like this on the internet (see, for example http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html). I hadn't realised that anything other than planets could easily be seen from a back yard. There are lots of telescopes available, and I found it very difficult to choose between all the different technologies and sizes available, not knowing what my needs would be. The main point of this review is to help others in a similar position choose a suitable instrument.
A pair of binoculars is actually quite adequate for comet-spotting and viewing the main planets (and you should probably buy some as well as this telescope) but to see more distant objects, and especially to take long-exposure photographs, you need something like this telescope.
Size
The main consideration is size - specifically, the aperture - since it strongly influences the number of objects you will be able to see and the price. Basically, you should buy the largest telescope you can afford, but with one important caveat; any telescope much larger than this will be too heavy for one person to transport, which means you won't be using it much unless you are serious enough to build your own "observatory" to house it!
A larger telescope will also need a heavy motor and lots of power if it's computer-controlled, which limits its portability even more.
The Meade ETX-105EC (with tripod) weighs about 11kg and uses 8 AA batteries that last about 20 hours, so is easily transportable.
Price
This telescope is close to the limit of what I am prepared to pay for an occasional hobby, especially since I live in London and so will rarely have cloudless nights on which to use it. In fact, I bought it second-hand. You will probably need to purchase some accessories (see below), most of which I would prefer to see included in the basic package.
Ease of use
Computer control obviously makes it much easier to locate interesting objects, especially faint ones. Some people might find this spoils the fun of learning the night sky and making unexpected discoveries, but I'm not one of them. For me, the time saved is invaluable.
There are other hidden benefits of computer control. The computer can automatically track objects as the earth rotates, which means that they can be photographed with long exposures, and they won't disappear from view by the time you have called someone over for a look.
A computer controller can also eliminate the need for an expensive "equatorial mount" and "wedge" by automatically compensating for the limitations of a standard fork mount.
The "Autostar" hand controller that comes with this telescope is quite adequate and fairly easy to use, although scrolling through the menus is a bit slow and frustrating. Updates (including interesting objects such as comets) can be downloaded for free from the Meade web site (www.meade.com), but this requires a serial cable that has to be purchased separately.
There's no bracket on the telescope or tripod to hold the hand controller, which I found to be quite a nuisance. I purchased one separately.
Aligning the telescope is quite straightforward. You set it up approximately level and pointing north, then the controller points to two of the brightest stars and you adjust the alignment to center each one in the eyepiece. It does help to have a spirit level and compass, neither of which are supplied but can be purchased separately. You also need to find your latitude and longitude, e.g. from one of the mapping sites on the web.
Once setup, the telescope is easy to control with the handset. Specific objects can be found quite quickly, and manual adjustment of the view from the controller is easy, with a selection of 9 speeds. Focussing is quite easy, although the knob can be hard to reach at certain angles. An extension cable is available but I haven't found it really necessary.
The manual is very basic, but a good alternative ("The ETX Telescope Guide" by Lilian Hobbs) is available (more expense!).
What you can see
Within half an hour of setting it up for the first time, I had a stunning view of Jupiter, with coloured bands and three of its moons clearly visible. I was stunned. Sure, there are better pictures available from Hubble, but it's so much more than can be seen with the naked eye and very satisfying. I also found a distant nebula, just a smudge really but nice to know it was so far away. I intend to take some photos eventually and will post a link to them here. I will need to purchase a camera support bracket (more expense!).
I also captured a nice image of the transit of Venus across the sun (reflected from a piece of cardboard) very easily.
The view of distant terrestrial objects in daylight is also clear and the image appears the right way up (but inverted left to right).
Choice of mounting
This telescope has a "Dobsonian" mount - a large, teflon-coated base - which is cheap and stable. It appears that lack of stability (slack in the bearings and gears) is the main problem with cheaper telescopes, and something to watch for when buying second-hand. I haven't had any problems with the stability or accuracty of pointing this telescope.
As I mentioned above, equatorial mounts are considered superior to fork mounts since they allow smoother tracking, but they are largely unnecessary if a decent computer-controlled fork mount is used instead.
Refractor vs reflector
As far as I can tell, there is not much difference in the quality of the views obtained from each type of telescope and this is not an important choice. The ETX-105 is a reflector, which is a bit more compact and less prone to chromatic aberrations than a refractor but more vulnerable to dust and to stray light from street lights etc.
Magnification
This telescope comes with a single 26mm eyepiece, which is a bit of a compromise. High magnifications are good for looking at detail on bright planets and terrestrial objects, but low magnifications are better for dim, distant objects. You will probably end up buying a range of eyepieces, and a standard kit is available (more expense!).
Optical quality
I haven't directly compared the optical quality with other brands of telescope, but the ETX-105 is highly rated in reviews, claiming to have "diffraction-limited" optics (meaning that the accuracy of focus of the mirrors and lenses is better than the fundamental limits imposed by the size of the instrument) and various tricks such as coated lenses to maximise image brightness. I haven't noticed any problems.
I was inspired by seeing photos taken with telescopes like this on the internet (see, for example http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html). I hadn't realised that anything other than planets could easily be seen from a back yard. There are lots of telescopes available, and I found it very difficult to choose between all the different technologies and sizes available, not knowing what my needs would be. The main point of this review is to help others in a similar position choose a suitable instrument.
A pair of binoculars is actually quite adequate for comet-spotting and viewing the main planets (and you should probably buy some as well as this telescope) but to see more distant objects, and especially to take long-exposure photographs, you need something like this telescope.
Size
The main consideration is size - specifically, the aperture - since it strongly influences the number of objects you will be able to see and the price. Basically, you should buy the largest telescope you can afford, but with one important caveat; any telescope much larger than this will be too heavy for one person to transport, which means you won't be using it much unless you are serious enough to build your own "observatory" to house it!
A larger telescope will also need a heavy motor and lots of power if it's computer-controlled, which limits its portability even more.
The Meade ETX-105EC (with tripod) weighs about 11kg and uses 8 AA batteries that last about 20 hours, so is easily transportable.
Price
This telescope is close to the limit of what I am prepared to pay for an occasional hobby, especially since I live in London and so will rarely have cloudless nights on which to use it. In fact, I bought it second-hand. You will probably need to purchase some accessories (see below), most of which I would prefer to see included in the basic package.
Ease of use
Computer control obviously makes it much easier to locate interesting objects, especially faint ones. Some people might find this spoils the fun of learning the night sky and making unexpected discoveries, but I'm not one of them. For me, the time saved is invaluable.
There are other hidden benefits of computer control. The computer can automatically track objects as the earth rotates, which means that they can be photographed with long exposures, and they won't disappear from view by the time you have called someone over for a look.
A computer controller can also eliminate the need for an expensive "equatorial mount" and "wedge" by automatically compensating for the limitations of a standard fork mount.
The "Autostar" hand controller that comes with this telescope is quite adequate and fairly easy to use, although scrolling through the menus is a bit slow and frustrating. Updates (including interesting objects such as comets) can be downloaded for free from the Meade web site (www.meade.com), but this requires a serial cable that has to be purchased separately.
There's no bracket on the telescope or tripod to hold the hand controller, which I found to be quite a nuisance. I purchased one separately.
Aligning the telescope is quite straightforward. You set it up approximately level and pointing north, then the controller points to two of the brightest stars and you adjust the alignment to center each one in the eyepiece. It does help to have a spirit level and compass, neither of which are supplied but can be purchased separately. You also need to find your latitude and longitude, e.g. from one of the mapping sites on the web.
Once setup, the telescope is easy to control with the handset. Specific objects can be found quite quickly, and manual adjustment of the view from the controller is easy, with a selection of 9 speeds. Focussing is quite easy, although the knob can be hard to reach at certain angles. An extension cable is available but I haven't found it really necessary.
The manual is very basic, but a good alternative ("The ETX Telescope Guide" by Lilian Hobbs) is available (more expense!).
What you can see
Within half an hour of setting it up for the first time, I had a stunning view of Jupiter, with coloured bands and three of its moons clearly visible. I was stunned. Sure, there are better pictures available from Hubble, but it's so much more than can be seen with the naked eye and very satisfying. I also found a distant nebula, just a smudge really but nice to know it was so far away. I intend to take some photos eventually and will post a link to them here. I will need to purchase a camera support bracket (more expense!).
I also captured a nice image of the transit of Venus across the sun (reflected from a piece of cardboard) very easily.
The view of distant terrestrial objects in daylight is also clear and the image appears the right way up (but inverted left to right).
Choice of mounting
This telescope has a "Dobsonian" mount - a large, teflon-coated base - which is cheap and stable. It appears that lack of stability (slack in the bearings and gears) is the main problem with cheaper telescopes, and something to watch for when buying second-hand. I haven't had any problems with the stability or accuracty of pointing this telescope.
As I mentioned above, equatorial mounts are considered superior to fork mounts since they allow smoother tracking, but they are largely unnecessary if a decent computer-controlled fork mount is used instead.
Refractor vs reflector
As far as I can tell, there is not much difference in the quality of the views obtained from each type of telescope and this is not an important choice. The ETX-105 is a reflector, which is a bit more compact and less prone to chromatic aberrations than a refractor but more vulnerable to dust and to stray light from street lights etc.
Magnification
This telescope comes with a single 26mm eyepiece, which is a bit of a compromise. High magnifications are good for looking at detail on bright planets and terrestrial objects, but low magnifications are better for dim, distant objects. You will probably end up buying a range of eyepieces, and a standard kit is available (more expense!).
Optical quality
I haven't directly compared the optical quality with other brands of telescope, but the ETX-105 is highly rated in reviews, claiming to have "diffraction-limited" optics (meaning that the accuracy of focus of the mirrors and lenses is better than the fundamental limits imposed by the size of the instrument) and various tricks such as coated lenses to maximise image brightness. I haven't noticed any problems.
