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Meade ETX-70AT / Autostar

kenwood

Hi folks,

Good oul Santa brought the above telescope. Have been reading the posts here and seems it gets mixed views. Anyway am a real amateur so willing to learn and happy to start with this telescope.

As regards the software etc for automatically updating the Autostar, where do you guys recommend...........

Will keep a close eye on this thread.

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Diamonddec

scrubber72 wrote: »

spent the last hour outside the back of house with my etx 70 looking at the moon and even managed to see Jupiter and 3 of its moons. I am also having trouble with the autostar but i reckon its cause I am to impatient to set up properly..

Nice one!

I know what you mean about being impatient!

... It's not easy to faff about outside in extremely cold temperatures when all the while, the wife is shouting through the window, telling you to stop larking about and come on in for a Baileys! ... and I haven't even got my telescope out! :eek: ... I'm just out looking at the stars, still trying to lacate the flipping Big Dipper ....

scrubber72

spent the last hour outside the back of house with my etx 70 looking at the moon and even managed to see Jupiter and 3 of its moons. I am also having trouble with the autostar but i reckon its cause I am to impatient to set up properly. I did download stellarium so that helps with id-ing any planets. I am just waiting to jump into the car when there are no clouds and no moon so I can see much clearer.

Diamonddec

Oh crap!

... I can see the moon fine, as there are no clouds around it. I would say it's probably about south-east, but look further north and it's cloudy. I am a complete novice in naming the stars, but I'm trying to find the big dipper and get to Polaris from there, as my reference to true north. I MUST GET A COMPASS ... I MUST GET A COMPASS ... Adding to that, it's freezing, and the snow (ice) around the house is something that Torvill and Dean would be happy to perform their "Bolero" on! ... Let alone me wobbling about on it with my new telescope! I'll have another look at the cloud cover to the north in a while and see if I can see any more stars!....

Diamonddec

mountain wrote: »

let me know how you get on

Will do... I'm gonna give it a try at about 7.30 or so.

Was actually looking at the moon earlier... got some nice images, but after letting the wife have a view, she's finally come round to what I've been telling her for years ... that length isn't everything! :eek: ... focal length that is!

I was initially going all out to get the biggest image I could, by putting the 6mm and barlow in at the same time! :eek: but of course, quickly realised that a smaller, better resolved image is better than a very hard to focus, blur!

... I hope the wife takes my new findings on board ... "Length isn't everything"

mountain

Are you in Australia by any chance?

[/QUOTE]

not with the cold down here!

set time and date, it now thinks the moon is up, but is pointing well away from it!

let me know how you get on

Diamonddec

mountain wrote: »

what am i doing wrong?

:eek: Dunno

... I'm gonna try for the first time myself later.

Did you set the correct date and time in the handset?

but goto says that the moon is below the horizon!!!!!

Are you in Australia by any chance?

mountain

Like others got this scope for christmas, on a beautiful clear night decided to check it out, following the youtube vid which was handy, set it up correctly, but goto says that the moon is below the horizon!!!!!

its right there in front of me, what am i doing wrong?

Diamonddec

thecretinhop wrote: »

goodman dimond dec great stuff:) thats mighty help for the 70, what a telescope! having problems getting it to allign need a compass! but anyhow amazing, we have a lake near by, swans due to ice fighting with mallard ducks, about 300 feet away, watched this christmas day in my back living room like it was in my back living room!! as said need to set up allign properly, had an amazing view of clear moon tonight, wow, 4mm lens wow...

Yeah, I need a compass myself... although the constant cloud cover hasn't given me a chance to see anything yet (except a couple of minutes of the moon on Xmas night) let alone try an alignment! I just love the ultra compact size, so it can just sit permanently in the seating area of my kitchen (once the tree comes down) and we can view the surrounding countryside during the day as well.

I have noticed though, these last couple of nights, that my neighbour has decided to leave his outside lights on until quite late (after 1 am last night) and the moon travels right over his house, so quite a bit of pollution. Hopefully, he's only doing this over the holidays and he'll turn them off at a reasonable hour once he gets back to work.

Keep up the good work ... only don't feed the ducks and swans ... well not in your back living room, anyway! :eek:

thecretinhop

goodman dimond dec great stuff:) thats mighty help for the 70, what a telescope! having problems getting it to allign need a compass! but anyhow amazing, we have a lake near by, swans due to ice fighting with mallard ducks, about 300 feet away, watched this christmas day in my back living room like it was in my back living room!! as said need to set up allign properly, had an amazing view of clear moon tonight, wow, 4mm lens wow...

Diamonddec

Here's a link to a youtube video detailing the ETX60, but it covers everything for the ETX70, (except that the 70 has a separate Barlow lens, rather the built-in one on the 60) .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5kw8G-ZxOc

Ostrom

mondeo wrote: »

I got this for xmas also. I'm having trouble aligning it and getting a good focus on it. It's a grand entry level telescope though.

The two star align works well, and there are a good range available. I haven't used the goto much, the 25mm eyepiece gives a good enough range to browse and you can hop easily from the 14mm if you have a star chart. I'm finding the autotracking a bit off, planets tended to drift out of view at higher mags.

Diamonddec

There are probably a fair few people with this telescope by now, so I thought I'd revive this old thread (last post, 2 years ago tomorrow) :eek: ... so that we can post any ETX 70 related stuff on here ...

Assembled the ETX 70 and the kids immediately showed an interest, scouring the surrounding hills for anything of "interest" :rolleyes: and I couldn't get anywhere near it for the rest of the day

...

Came in from a few drinks last night and there was just a 5 minute break in the clouds, so I had a quick look at the moon, using the 12mm lens... nice, clear image, then whammo ... the clouds obscured it again!:mad:

Hoping for better conditions tonight ... but it's not looking good! :rolleyes:

slade_x

I believe the following pages will be of use to you

http://www.meade.com/support/auto.html
http://www.weasner.com/etx/autostar/as_windows.html
http://www.weasner.com/etx/autostar/as_archive/download-info.html
http://staff.washington.edu/seymour/astro/patcher.html

mondeo

I got this for xmas also. I'm having trouble aligning it and getting a good focus on it. It's a grand entry level telescope though.