Two Nights of Observing With A Meade ETX125.........

[Dan Chieppa]

Greetings,
The weather hasn't been too bad the last two nights so I took advantage of clear skies (no dew) and got in about 7.5 hours of observing. I did 3.5 hours on Tuesday night and 4 hours on Wednesday night. I'm too tired now to write it all up but I'll edit this post later in the day on Thursday and share with you folks some of what I experienced while trying out a new Meade ETX 125 telescope. It's a 5-inch Mak/Cass that really impressed me. However, it's NOT a telescope to use with a Meade DSI camera. I'll explain later. Stay tuned for more details.

Not sure how it happened but I typed for an hour today and posted comments about my two nights with the ETX125 telescope. I had a lot to discuss and share with everyone. Meredith called me down for supper so even though I wasn't finished with the comments I hit the submit button and planned to finish it off after supper. I came back to finish it off and it was all gone. Not a word of what I typed was here. I'm too frustrated to start all over again. Sorry folks.
Clear skies,
Dan

[Galactus]

Hey Dan,

I noticed in you reply to Bruce on his outreach that you'd gotten an ETX. The 125--especially the new ones with the red dot finders--are great scopes. In Fact they are great little brothers to my LX-90 (5" vs 8"), but much more portable.

Should you ever have software issues, we both use the 497 Autostar and I can be a resource after three years with this scope. I have written some of my own tours and hope to do more for outreach...

If you were not aware of Mike Weasner's Mighty ETX Site you may wish to go
http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html
lots of software patches by Dick Seymour and great workarounds and projects to improve you enjoyment of this great scope.

Look forward to hearing about your DSI issues!

[Dan Chieppa]

Hi George,
Yes, I'll happily take advantage of your three years of experience with the 497 Autostar handset. I need to update the software, it's version 31. I know that Meade has released a version in the 40's. Maybe we can get together after Christmas and before the next club meeting. I'll visit you or you can come here, whatever works best for you.
Nice photo of the ISS and the shuttle. I wasn't able to observe the pass on the 20th. I hope to catch the next evening pass. I'm too lazy to get up for the morning passes.
Clear skies,
Dan