Amazon.com: Meade ETX90EC Telescope w/UHTC (Obsolete): Camera & Photo

Technical Details

90mm Aperture with Meade's ultra-high contrast coatings
20% brightness increase over standard coatings
Electronic controller for slew speeds and built-in clock drive
Supplied with 26mm super Plossl eyepiece
Front and rear lens covers

Product Description

Manufacturer Product Description

When the original ETX telescope was introduced in 1996, it quickly created a revolution in amateur astronomy. Here for the first time was a stunningly beautiful, ultraportable, and highly versatile telescope system of unprecedented optical resolution and performance. Within one year of its introduction the ETX became the largest-selling modern telescope in the world. Meade ETX-90EC, ETX-105EC, and ETX-125EC models build on the original ETX concept to create the most advanced electronically-controlled telescopes including optional automatic GO TO object-location with the Autostar Computer Controller ever produced in their price range. And yet without sacrificing any of the user-friendly features that started the ETX revolution.

Optical Systems: Manufactured entirely at the Meade Irvine, California, facility, ETX Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes produce optical performance and resolution that equal or exceed any Maksutov optics of similar apertures ever manufactured at any price, past or present. Optics so high in contrast, image brightness, and resolution that ETX-90EC, ETX-105EC, and ETX-125EC models often out-perform many telescopes of larger apertures.

Fork Mounts with Standard-Equipment Dual-Axis Drive System and Electronic Controller: The fork mountings of ETX Maksutov-Cassegrain models include high-torque DC motors on both telescope axes, permitting electronic operation from the standard-equipment plug-in hand controller. Use the pushbutton electronic controller at any of four dual-axis speeds: 8x sidereal for image centering in the main telescope at high power; 32x for image centering at lower powers or for pushbutton object-tracking in the altazimuth mode; 0.75°/second for image centering in the viewfinder or for terrestrial tracking; 5°/second for fast slewing across the sky. The observer can instantly select any of these speeds simply by depressing the SPEED button on the controller.

Altazimuth or Equatorial Operation: With the telescope placed in the altazimuth mode on a table, astronomical object-tracking may be accomplished from the directional pushbuttons of the hand controller. Fully automatic astronomical tracking in the altazimuth mode may be accomplished with the optional Autostar Computer Controller. Alternately, any ETX telescope may be mounted in the equatorial orientation, using either an optional Table Tripod or the Deluxe Field Tripod. In this latter case the telescope tracks celestial objects automatically at the sidereal rate.

Cordless Field Operation: The drive base of each telescope accepts eight (user-supplied) AA-batteries that power the telescope for more than 40 hours of normal usage, negating any requirement for an external power source in the field. Alternately, the telescope may be powered from an automobile cigarette lighter plug, using the optional #607 Power Cord.

Flip-Mirror System: Flip the internal, optical-flat mirror "up" for observing in the standard 90° position; flip the mirror "down" for terrestrial observing with the optional #932 45° Erecting Prism or for photography with the optional #64 T-Adapter.

Materials and Coatings: ETX optical systems include a Maksutov meniscus corrector lens of Grade-A BK7 optical glass. This lens is individually hand-figured by a Meade master optician to achieve an optical null in combination with the Pyrex primary mirror. High transmission magnesium fluoride (MgF2) coatings on both sides of the correcting lens, as well as aluminum/silicon monoxide coatings on the primary and secondary mirrors, are provided as standard equipment.

Standard Equipment: Meade ETX Astro Telescopes are supplied as complete instruments. Standard equipment includes a premium-grade Meade Series 4000 Super Pl?sl 26mm eyepiece for 48X with the ETX-90EC, 57X with the ETX-105EC, or 73X with the ETX-125EC. The 8 x 21mm viewfinder of the ETX-90EC incorporates an internal roof prism that results in an erect-image orientation, facilitating the quick location and field-centering of both terrestrial and astronomical objects. ETX-105EC and ETX-125EC models are supplied with an 8 x 25mm right-angle viewfinder for comfortable object-sighting with the larger instruments.

Optional Accessories: Over 20 optionally available eyepieces permit magnification ranges of from 31X to over 300X with the ETX-90EC, from 37X to over 400X with the ETX-105EC, or from 48X to over 450X with the ETX-125EC. Meade Super Pl?sls are excellent eyepieces with any ETX model, or use a Meade Super Wide 13.8mm, 18mm, or 24.5mm ocular for spectacular moderate-power, wide-angle observing. The #126 2x Barlow Lens, a special short-focus Barlow ideally suited to ETX systems, doubles the power of any eyepiece. For terrestrial photography or astrophotography of the Moon and planets, the #64 T-Adapter threads to the telescope's rear cell and, with the appropriate T-mount, accepts any 35mm camera with removable lens.

Ultra-High Transmission Coatings (UHTC): Available optionally with the ETX-90EC, ETX-105EC, or ETX-125EC, the Meade UHTC group permits the highest levels of light transmission (a 20% increase in total telescope light trans-mission compared to the standard-equipment coatings) ever offered on amateur telescopes. The UHTC group, if desired, must be specified at the time of telescope order.

ETX-90EC Astro Telescope: For the casual or beginning observer the Meade ETX-90EC may be all the telescope ever required. Or, for the advanced astronomer who already owns a larger instrument, the ETX-90EC is the perfect ultraportable, diffraction-limited field telescope. Observe the continually changing cloud-belt patterns on the surface of the planet Jupiter; shadows cast on to Jupiter as one of its four principal satellites transits the planet's disc; the magnificent ring system and satellites of Saturn as well as dusky markings and the ring-shadow on the surface of Saturn; Moon craters by the hundred, plus lunar rilles, mountain ranges, and fault lines, all visible in brilliant, high-resolution, high-contrast detail; the variable phases of the planets Mercury and Venus; prominent features on the surface of Mars. In deep-space the motivated observer will find it difficult to exhaust the quantity of visible phenomena: the incandescent filamentary structure of the Orion Nebula; the elliptical luminosity of the Andromeda Galaxy with its brilliant nucleus; the shining orb of the Hercules globular cluster with many of its outermost stars resolvable. These are only a few of the literally thousands of celestial objects within the view of the Meade ETX-90EC telescope. Star catalogs list innumerable double and multiple star systems, variable stars, open star clusters, globular clusters, diffuse nebulosities, planetary nebulae, and spiral galaxies within the grasp of the instrument. The optional Autostar Computer Controller can locate all of these objects automatically, in seconds.