USER OBSERVATIONS Last updated: 14 August 2002

Etx-105EC First Light

Sent:	Monday, August 12, 2002 18:40:58
From:	jeffk1965@earthlink.net (Jeffrey Kramer)
Here is my first light report on my new ETX-105EC.  Feel free to post it
in your ETX site if you like.   By the way, I ordered your ETX book the
other day and look forward to receiving it!!

I was out in my front yard tonight (August 11, 2002) with my new Meade
ETX-105EC.  I observed for a little under 1-hour.  It was mostly cloudy
and hazy but I really wanted to see a few objects through this scope
since I received it on August 7 and have been unable to use it due to
poor weather.  I knew I didn't have much time to observe due to the
clouds so I immediately used the standard hand controller and viewed the
moon.  It was behind a hazy cloud but it still focused nice and tight. 
I then moved to Venus and saw its nearly half full crescent.  I noted
while viewing Venus that this scope has very little image shift. I then
decided to give the Autostar a quick try hoping the weather would hold
long enough to test the goto accuracy of the scope.  I leveled the
tripod and set up the Autostar.  The alignment stars were Arcturus and
Altair.  After aligning the scope on those two stars, I slewed to
Antares although I couldn't quite split it.  I did note that the scope
has a very nice star test.  Next, I slewed to the Moon and Venus which
were very low in the sky.  Nevertheless, it hit all three objects near
the center of the eyepiece and I was very impressed so far.  The clouds
were really starting to move in so I decided to give Vega a shot.  Vega
was near the edge of the FOV.  The other three objects were very near
the center of the FOV while Vega was near the edge.  All of these gotos
were done using the 26mm eyepiece (57x).  With clouds now covering 80%
of the sky and fearing a possible drizzle, I decided to call it a very
successful first light for this scope!!

Thanks for a great site,

Jeff

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