Customer Reviews

Meade ETX-80AT-TC BB (f/5) Achromatic Refractor Backpack Version

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With this set-up, you have a lot of bells and whistles for a great price. The instructions are very easy, but if you do have some problems, the remote is likely to step you through everything and take the guess work out. If set up properly, it will navigate to any of over 1000 locations with just a touch of a button. You can also plug it into your computer for software updates.
I have had no issues with this telescope and my whole family looks forward to clear nights so we can look at the moon, stars and planets a little closer and share in God's creation. Enjoy!

I got tired of struggling with my cumbersome 5" EQ reflector, so I decided to give this a try. The scope is definitely portable and easy to use. Optical quality is good and the chromatic aberration is generally tolerable, which ain't bad for a fast (f5) achromat. A minus-violet filter isn't a necessity but certainly improves views of the moon and especially Jupiter. The built-in barlow requires a lot of refocusing, so buying a short-tube 3x barlow would be another good upgrade. The Autostar is easy to align and does a decent job of locating objects. Not dead center, but at least in the field of view. The tracking is fairly precise and it's a joy not having to continually re-center objects.

Make sure you read the manual! There are a lot of helpful Autostar features buried in there. And do yourself a favor and don't install the 45 degree diagonal, it just gets in the way when looking near the zenith.

This is a handy little scope for the price and size. It might not look like much or have some of the specs of larger scopes, but it's much easier to handle and assemble. The quality is pretty good - I've had no problems with parts or optics. The alignment is also fairly straight-forward.

It is a tad noisy, but that hasn't been a problem for me.

This scope has really good optics for what it is. Remember it is an achromatic 80mm F5 with a 400mm focal length. It will not give high magnification powers for a planet to fill the eyepiece. It will not give great color views of deep space objects. The gotos are close but not perfect. The tracking is fine for visual but not good enough as is for taking photographs. For someone who loves astronomy it is a great light scope that gives nice wide views. There is some false color introduced to bright objects (moon)but that is expected at F5. It will help teach one the operation of a computer controlled scope, some of the sky, and how difficult doing astrophotography really is. The scope is not bullet proof and requires careful handleing to get the most out of it. I have taken some pictures using a mallincam through the ETX80 but the results are not typical. See link in comments

I recently bought a Meade ETX-80AT BB.
But which part is the frustrating part.
First, push the left and right arrow keys on the target. sometimes move by itself.
Second, if matching the target in the center of the lens, flows in the direction of the right and bottom.
Thirds, barlow and the eyepiece lens exchange, does not match the axis very accurately.
finally, despite being brand-new, date and time had already been set.
In other words, someone who works is estimated to be precipitated.
Go find out if new suspicions.
Mead's reputation than the expectation is less than the item.
I have purchased with #3200 color filters set.
MEADE filter set does not fit 26mm eyepiece exactly, but In 9.7mm fits.
Filters can be mounted part is wrong.

Bought this for my son and I to discover some of the heavens, the literature and examples on Meade's website are very misleading. I found it difficult to setup and next to impossible to see anything, truly disappointing.