Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Telescopes
Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Telescopes
Bought this as a grab-and-go for my backyard, instead of setting up my larger reflector scope. In a very high light polluted area, Bortle 6, it has delivered several nice objects down to about magnitude 5. Clear views and easy to use. After some fiddling I got the go-to to work reasonably well, but for beginners goto is lot more critical to set up and use accurately than the manufacturers will admit. Mine seems to come out a little low but its consistent and is just a matter of more adjustment in setup. The "creep after beep" problem is very real, especially with eyepieces less than 9 mm or so. But fixes for this are well documented and with a little more fiddling one can obtain a reasonable stability. The only negative I would give it, and this is more bothersome than anything else, is that the focus knob is just set up too fine, and has to be cranked continuously to adjust for each change in eyepiece -- its bothersome enough that I dont use the flip up 2x, rather I just switch to a smaller eyepiece when I want a better view. The supplied eyepieces, 26, and 9.7 are just right giving 15 and 45 mag respectively, and adding a 6 for 66mag, and possibly a 3 or 4 to take it to max mag of 120 rounds out the set and saves a whole lot of cranking. Its so good I'm thinking of selling my 114mm reflector and investing in a ETX127 or a Celestron C6 with more modern electronics. Excellent bang for the buck!Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Nice beginner telescope. Hard to align but once you've got it aligned it works nicely. Was nice to see Saturn although it took 3 nights worth of trying to align to finally get it right. I use with my digital camera that mounts on the end of scope via some adapters I have taken some nice pics of the moon. The 400mm focal length will limit me to only shooting pics of the moon though. Doesn't give enough magnification for pics of other planets without the purchase of other equipment. All in all I enjoy it and my 14yr old son enjoys it.
This new etx80 series is absolutley phenomenal. With its internal 2x flip up barlow lens, you can attain out of the box magnifications well over 200x on the moon, and the electronic tracking mount is stable enough to record flawless video at the maximum level of magnification. The scope is further compatible with a secondary external 2x barlow which physically quadruple's its lunar magnification ability, and stays vividly clear even at 400x. This is by far the best telescope you can ever buy for the incredible low 249$ price. It comes with autostar, two super plossl eyepieces, and even the tripod. The seller even accepted my offer of $199 making it an absolutley amazingly insanely good deal, brand new. The etx80at is so incredible and impressive that I actaully bought a second one, and have used them both every single night, and day. I am now considering buying a 3rd etx80at to keep in my car at all times for bird watching. Telescopes literally do not get any better than this. Dont hesitate, if you are considering a telescope, buy the etx80at immediatley. You wont regret it. My only complaint about this new version scope is its newly designed vertical focusing knob. It used to be linear horizontal on the older models, and could incorporate customized knob fittings. You cannot remove the new vertical drive focusing gear, and as a result you cannot take the scope apart without destroying the focuser assembly. Overall, you will be absolutley stunned by the performance of the etx80 and will become immediatley addicted to its power, and clarity. It is advertised as a 400mm focal point, however the built in 2x barlow automatically extends this to a whopping 800mm without sacrificing space or detail. It is the most compact 80x800mm scope you can physically buy. youtube.com/amplelightRead full review
the meade etx80 is excellent. not as expensive as the 90 or 105 , but better than the 60 & 70 . a sturdy tripod , easy to set up and use. clarity is excellent also . i love it , light perfect to carry in and out of the house, i don"t have a permanent observatory. like a patio . there are extender focus cables sold ( found out most don"t fit it ) but i don"t see the problem , unless the scope is pointing beyond straight up the focus knob is easy to reach . that is the only bothersome thing to the scope as any meade etx , the focus is so fine it takes a while to focus it , very fine threads ! all in all i would highly recommend it or any meade etx model , whatever your pocket can handle. randall
good value for the price. I won a C8 (8 inch SCT) which was my primary telescope. Since this little scope is portable, the chances are it is more convenient taking outside than the bigger also much heavier C8. The most impressive thing is the extremely easy setup you are required to do before a observation session. It took me like less than minutes to setup and align stars. Comparing to C8 which usually took me more than quarter hour to polarizing and setup. Recommended to astro starter