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Tonight was a treat! The company I work for has a catalog that clients can choose things to order from after reaching a certain goal. One of the items
available to choose
from is a Meade ETX-60AT telescope. Someone, for whatever reason, returned an ETX-60AT that they had ordered. When something is returned, it goes on sale at a reduced price to employees. I snatched up the scope right away. I have until Tuesday January 2 to decide if I want to keep it or not. So far, I think I'll keep it.
The scope is a small 2.4" refracter mounted on a computer controlled base. It's a little like a baby LX-200. Once it was aligned with two reference
stars, it slew to and centered in the eyepiece any object I asked it to. It was very fun to play around with. I saw Jupiter, Saturn, M45 and the Hyades star cluster.
One of the great things about it is that it's small and very easy to setup. It's much more convienent to setup the ETX than it is to haul our the
8" equatorial mounted Newtonian. However, it is a smaller telescope and doesn't have near the light gathering ability that the 8" does. I'll have to get a tripod for it though
since the table isn't very convient at some viewing angles.
All in all, this is a fun GOTO scope that I think I'll just have to keep. I would recommend it as a first scope for someone getting into the hobby. It's
not the largest telescope but the computer really helps find objects. The hardest thing as a beginning astronomer is actually finding the object in the sky that you want to look at. GOTO
scopes really help to easy the learning curve. A new astronomer can enjoy the heavens right away instead of spending hours searching for something interesting to see.
Now if only I could come up with the cash for the LX-200.....
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