Meade ETX-60AT

Ratings:Top:Astronomy:Equipment Reviews:Telescope Reviews:Meade ETX-60AT

 Info  Votes  Messages  More Stats  Up One Level
Vote
Page 1 of 2 Next

Meade ETX-60AT
great scope

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40791

Meade ETX-60AT
The computerized controls and manual are almost incomprehensible. And each time you turn on the power, you have to reset date, time, etc. If a $5 watch can remember the date and time, a $300 telescope should, too.

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40792

Meade ETX-60AT
Works okay, but doesn't like the cold...

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40794

Meade ETX-60AT
This is, of course, a refractor (not a Maskutov-Cassegrain (sic)) and it has a rather fast focal ratio (f5.6) so you'll get lots of chromatic aberration on bright objects like Venus or the Moon. As long as you don't mind that, it really seems to do pretty well. You can push it to about 70X (buy another eyepiece) and see pretty good detail on planets (though focusing is difficult at high power) and at low power, it has a nice wide field of view for seeing nebulas and galaxies (in dark skies). Of course it could use more aperture for deep sky viewing.

It's a pretty good scope for beginners, I think (as long as the computer doesn't cause too much laziness) and very good for a more experienced amateur who doesn't know the sky as well as he should (That'd be me.) The Autostar really whets ones appetite for more aperture so as to get a closer look as some of those really faint objects (Uranus, for example) that up till now have seemed just too difficult to bother with.

But, of course, it needs aperture. 60mm is just not enough. The
ETX-70 is a bit better, (I tried one), but my advice is to save your money and buy the ETX-90 or something slightly larger.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40795 

well i got this a while ago for about $125, but im not really sure how to work it, according to the manual it doesent have to be completely dark to see anything, its fairly dark where i live. so after i do the 2 star algnment, i click an object, such as the moon, and it points at it, but it doesent even look magnified, i mean how am i supposed to look at saturn or jupiter if i can barely see the moon? i dont really blame the telescope becuz im not rlly sure how to use it, so if anyone can answer my question please email me at guitarfreak862@yahoo.com, or repost it here
Meade ETX-60AT
Essentially an expensive toy. Very difficult to setup with tripod, and tripod is unreliable. Sometimes it tracks well, others not; but always needs periodic adjustments. Finding alignment stars is a bit iffy, especially if true North and true level is not achieved at beginning. Optics are okay. Telescope does not warrant upgrading to more expensive eyepieces. Definitely needs a finder scope.

Overall Rating: 2
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40796

Meade ETX-60AT
i have had some tracking problems,training the drive fixed it.i agree it's small but galileo would love it.i bought the #773case,5mm eyepiece,#128 barlow and#506cables&software.i've seen titan,satellites and on a good night m31 andromeda.it's very portable,(i bought a 114mm reflector first,but assembled,it would not fit in my geo,so i took it back) easy to set up,and everyone i've showed it to was impressed. my family and i enjoy it.

dan walter exp2@fyi.net

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40797

Meade ETX-60AT
Terrible, terrible, terrible in so far as setup is concerned. Never tracks to the correct position. The manual is also terrible. I really can't complain as I purchased mine for only $125 at Costco. I will continue to play with it and when I am able to get it to "GoTo" the correct position, I am sure that it will be useful for my limited excursions into space.

Joe/Lowell, MA

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40798

Meade ETX-60AT
What do you expect for $125???

If you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed.
The GOTO feature is OK, but it can be hard to use (you
must do a good alignment first).

The scope gets confused sometimes, and will not slew to
the correct position. Selecting another object, then
returning to the original fixed it.

The optics aren't bad, the crescent moon was very nice.
I was able to see M13 in Hercules, it was fair.

This scope doesn't compare to more expensive scopes
with better optics, but it does make a nice toy.

Considering how small and light it is, I am happy with it.

Overall Rating: 5
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40799

Meade ETX-60AT
I have noticed remarks about needing to realign the all the ETX scopes frequently. I have found that this problem is much worse when the batteries are low. In fact, when the batteries are low the Autostar often just gives an error message. I think the manual gives a "highly" optimistic time for the battery life. It is a good idea to replace them much more frequently - this often solves tracking and slewing problems. The manual does not adequate instructions for setting up the scope and aligning it. I have found the best results when I manually find Polaris and center the scope on it. Then lock the azimuth lever. Finally set the altitude wheel at 0 and lock the knob. The scope seems to be quite sensitive to the quality of its alignment. It is very hard to focus when pointed near the zenith due to the fork mount. However, images are of decent quality up to 80x. However the mount and tripod are not stable at all. Even a slight breeze will make high power observing impossible. During times of very good seeing I can make out 2 bands on Jupiter. The scope shows open clusters well because of its fast focal length and relatively wide view. Beginners will however be dissapointed with views of nebulae. The scope simply needs more aperture. Not a bad choice for a beginner scope. It is just enough to whet your appetite for a bigger, better telescope.

Overall Rating: 7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40800

Meade ETX-60AT
Got mine from Costco for only $99 (after coupon). For that price, this scope would be a bargain even without the drive and Autostar. No tripod was included (of course!)The optics are pretty decent considering the price and f/ratio. My particular scope seems fairly sharp even at 70x.

The views at 39x using my new Nagler 9 type 6 were VERY good! Nice sharp wide field, with plenty of light to spare. By the way, I added a 1x Rigel Quick finder at a 45 degree angle on the right hand side of the tube, near the objective end. Wow! What a difference! It makes star aligning an absolute breeze! I can slew to any alignment star in 2 seconds regardless of it's position relative to the field of view of the eyepiece.

However, if you are a complete novice, or even an experienced observer who is a novice around mechanical drives and Go-To (like myself), there *is* a learning curve. The first problem I encountered involved the drive itself. The software would direct the scope to the correct Azimuth reading but would always continue to point to the horizon in altitude. In other words, the drive would not move the scope upward in altitude until I figured out that I first needed to manually point the tube at zenith, then slew the scope down to the horizontal. At that point the the scope slewed properly in an upwardly direction.

The other problem I encountered was the software did not seem to follow the directions in the manual on a step by step basis. That is, after I input the time data, the software did not move on to location and scope type on the first initialization, as the manual stated it should. Instead, it went directly to scope align. Near the back of the instruction manual, I found some information on the reset key, so I pressed that. At that point I was able to input my location, and scope type. The only problem was that I ALSO needed to "train the drive" after activating the reset key, but I didn't realize that until the next day when I read another section of the manual that stated such. As a consequence, I couldn't get Autostar to point to within 45 degrees of anything! The scope even pointed into the ground after saying it had aligned with Arcturas!

After I trained the drive (per the instructions at the back of the manual), everything worked perfectly. I too found the best approach to setting the home position was to center Polaris in the field of view before setting the Azimuth lock. Finally, I would lock down the tube at the zero declination position.

Despite a 70% cloud cover, and lousy observing conditions otherwise (including a near full moon), I still managed to see globular clusters M13 and M3. In fact, the scope placed these two items nearly in the center of the field of view of my Nagler 7 at 50x!

I think I'm going to have great fun with this thing now that I've got it working correctly. As several others have already stated, the manual could be better. It seems to be layed out in a disorganized manner. It is also true that the aperture at 60mm is pretty limited. Still, for the price, this is probably the best deal I have ever had on any telescope.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40801

Meade ETX-60AT
This telescope is very cheaply manufactured. It has a plastic objective lens!(Lenses should be made of glass, not plastic). When you switch between the two supplied eyepieces it takes 2 minutes of high speed knob-turning to refocus. Even on a very good night, very little could be seen, I could barely discern the rings of saturn. On another night I couldn't even see the moons of Jupiter! The Go-To feature works reasonably well, but you have to point it at Polaris and then level it to set it in home position. Even after doing that very accurately it often misses the first alignment star and due to the lack of a viewfinder it sometimes makes it painful even to align the scope. However, if you can at last succed at aligning it, it will point at objects with reasonable accuracy(maybe 60-70% of the time at low power). Tracking is a different matter altogether, even when it is properly aligned and locates objects properly, it is absolutely incapable of tracking anything! One time it was even tracking in the opposite direction of where it should be. At low power(14x), objects are gone from the field of view in 30 seconds to a minute. Even in a moderately warm temperatures(above freezing) any scrolling text on the autostar controller becomes completely unreadable. The battery life is very short, even on 6 brand new batteries, it eats up all the power in about 2 hours. The one thing that I actually found quite good on this telescope was the mount, even without the tripod and simply standing on a picnic table, vibrations were dampened in about 2 seconds and even at high power the object didnt bounce out of the field of view. With the tripod this telescope was rock solid, which you wouldn't expect on such a small scope. When I got a 2x barlow for this scope, it became evident that the scope is useless at any magnification higher then that provided by the supplied MA 9mm eyepiece(39x). There is also a huge amount of chromatic abberation on this scope(jupiter was red on one side and violet on the other, with various shades of green in between. Overall, I would not recommend this scope, though someone who is really strapped for cash and yet insists on a go-to ability might have to get this one. There are plenty of good go-to scopes of a much higher qualtiy for about $100-$200 more.

Overall Rating: 4
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40802

Meade ETX-60AT
The previous review is completely INCORRECT in stating that the ETX 60 has a "plastic objective." A moment's casual examination would have revealed that it is A NICELY COATED 2 ELEMENT GLASS achromat. As for the computer, I find the manual to be one of the _best_ Meade has written so far, and I've seen numerous folks without much experience in computers OR telescopes get the ETX 60 and 70 up and running without difficulty with its aid. If you're having goto problems, these things will get you going:

1. Read the manual and be sure you understand how to perform an alignment. It's not hard, but take pains to be accurate, and make sure you're centering the CORRECT stars (one of the biggest causes of poor alignments/performance)!

2. Level the tripod with a small, inexpensive bubble level.

3. Use FRESH BATTERIES. If the scope slews past a target or seems "confused", it's because the batteries are low. Meade sells an inexpensive AC battery eliminator for this telescope. If you use your 60 or 70 a lot, especially in cold weather, get this, it does make a difference.

If you like widefield deep sky observing, take it from me, this little scope can deliver the goods. It gave me (at TSP this past Spring) one of the BEST views of NGC 7000, the North America Nebula, I've ever had in _any_ telescope. It was amusing to see the silly little thing easily deliver "hard" Messiers like M109, M101, M97, M108 under really dark skies.

My verdict? A real winner! This would not be my choice for planetary work (though it does do pretty well on the Moon), but for the deep sky, given its small aperture, it is great.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40803

Meade ETX-60AT
good scope hard to setup but i like it

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40804

Meade ETX-60AT
Do not own it myself, but helped someone else set it up for the first time and used it extensively throughout the night. GOTO worked wonderfully for us. No type of mini-tripod came with it, we set it up on a table. Focusing is a real challenge, best to get a JMI add-on focus extension. Optically it was as expected, decent wide field images. This is not a scope for planets, could not judge on moon. Jupiter was o.k., made out moons and two bands, but barely because of violet glare. Overall, was a fun scope to use, but its aperature to database ratio was a joke. I would say these things are only good for Messier objects and maybe some double stars, thats it.

Overall Rating: 6
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40805

Meade ETX-60AT
For the size of its' aperture and the Costco price, I think it is excellent. I use it in conjunction with my 6" Dob. Great for dark skies, limited in backyard. Good wide field; not so good for planetary. Must be set in accurate home position with fresh batteries or AC adapter #546 from Meade. GoTo works great if scope has been set up properly. See Mike Weasners ETX website for a lot of feedback and ideas. I added Rigel Quikfinder (Telrad too large) and have good success aligning. I stay with wide field 25mm eyepiece. Don't usually use Barlow. Made my own homemade flexible focus cable from airline tubing. Thinking of making own wooden tripod with wedge plate. If you can afford a ETX90, 105 or 125 OR a 6-8 inch Dob, Buy it!! Better details of objects. I'd love to add motors-encoders to my Dob, but not for $400-$600! -But for $98.00 I wouldn't give this Meade up. NO WAY!!
You can email me at : robeng@ix.netcom.com

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40806

Meade ETX-60AT
I bought one of these ETX60AT's because at under $100, You can't go wrong. I found that in order to get decent tracking and GOTO, You have to have the scope level and pointing North. My only gripes about this scope is the Focuser, it takes way too long to focus, and No Viewfinder, I added a Rigel Quickfinder to mine also, Makes it a thousand times quicker to get a correct alignment. I like playing with this little scope. It is much better than my very first 60mm refractor and a really shaky mount. Definitely fun to play with.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40807

Meade ETX-60AT
I bought mine last year at Christmas at the local Walmart. After learning to be careful with alignment and using fresh batteries, I've found the goto function to work quite well. This is not a high power scope and seeing Saturn's rings means using a 2x barlow with the 9mm eyepiece. I then had to turn off the motor to stop the vibration caused by the tracking motors.
Nevertheless this inexpensive scope is still fun. I've taken it camping and the kids in the next campsight were very excited to see Mars, M13, and Mizar/Alcor. The goto function means we can spend more time looking at stuff and less time looking for stuff. The portability and price are tough to beat, but I'm looking for something bigger and brighter.

Overall Rating: 7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40808

Meade ETX-60AT
good scope

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40809

Meade ETX-60AT
The focal lenth of this scope makes it nothing more than a toy for children.
350mm?????? Meade brags that the fast f5 focal length makes this scope a rich field deep sky telescope. You better have some really dark skies and a 3x barlow if you think your going to put that autostar to use. I could not even tell the ring nebula from the surrounding stars without pushing the mag. well beyond the 50x per inch rule. The planets looked like large balls of light, with little detail. SO...... WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS SCOPE IF NOT A TOY...

Overall Rating: 3
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40810

Meade ETX-60AT
works very well. slightly out of collimation ( hey what do you expect ). autostar performs flawlessly out of the box. good quick look scope. works great in conjunction with larger scopes ( use the goto to locate a dim object center in big scope ).

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40811

Page 1 of 2 Next

[Click Here to Login]
Don't have a login? Register!

Checking Your Telescope
Starting out in Amateur Astronomy
 
How to use This Site
Why Register?
[Get rid of the ads!]
Voting Guide