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Meade ETX 90 Manual
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Meade ETX 90 Manual

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The Meade ETX Telescope
A Tutorial for both Basic and
Advanced Setup

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Summary of Contents for Meade ETX 90

  • Page 1 The Meade ETX Telescope A Tutorial for both Basic and Advanced Setup...
  • Page 2 A Service Provided by the...
  • Page 3 The Meade ETX 90 The Meade ETX series is a sophisticated entry level telescope suitable for people that would like to view the night sky without spending a huge amount of money. They actually have many of the features found in more of the higher priced &...

  • Page 4: First Step

    First Step Make an honest attempt to read and understand the manual and have the scope and its various parts on hand while doing so. Don’t be in a rush to set the scope up and expect to see “Hubble Space Telescope” images after your first observation session.
  • Page 5 Once becoming totally confused after reading the manual you will most likely just want to set the scope up and get with the program so let’s do it. The tripod should come with its own duffle bag and it can be a struggle to extract the tripod and later put it back in.
  • Page 6 While setting up your tripod, line up the Latitude adjustment rod of tripod’s mounting plate to the back and the forward leg to either “True North” or ”Magnetic” North. This will come in handy when you have to align the telescope with a couple of “alignment stars”...
  • Page 7 Mount the Telescope to the Tripod The instruction manual shows in very good detail how to mount the scope to the tripod. For the most part there is no reason to concern yourself with what the latitude control arm and latch does. All you want to do is loosen the latch, raise the attached plate to expose the knobs of the telescope attachment screws.
  • Page 8 Finder Scope Optical Tube Alignment (continued) Some models of the ETX, depending on date of manufacture, have different Finder Scopes. Some have an electronic red dot and others might have a low power scope with crosshairs, mounted to the main telescope body. Use the Finder Scope to aim the main Optical Tube at the intended target in the distance and then look through the Telescope Eye Piece.
  • Page 9 Put the Telescope into its Home Position With the alignment of the spotting scope and main Optical Tube complete, get the scope set up in its “Home Position” for the operation of “Training the Drive.” Loosen the “horizontal” lever at the base of the scope and turn the scope counter clockwise until it comes to a stop.

  • Page 10: Training The Drive

    Training the Drive It is assumed that batteries have been installed into the telescope or that the scope is being supplied with power from some source. If that is not the case, disassemble the scope from the tripod and install the batteries. After reassembly, don’t worry about any alignment issues with the spotting scope, that is taken care of.
  • Page 11 The Scope is Ready for Viewing…but Turning on the Telescope Tracking involves trying to navigate through the AudioStar Menu tree. Do yourself a favor and run off a copy of the menu tree in the instruction manual. Have it laminated or at least put in a protective plastic sleeve.
  • Page 12 Using The Technology Available With the advent of cell phones, iPads, tablets and other handheld computers, backyard astronomers have some powerful tools available to assist in the process of first identifying what is viewable and where in the night sky it is located. During the Star Alignment process, the AudioStar Handset is going to pick a couple of different stars that you as the observer have to get centered in the field of view.
  • Page 13 First Time Viewing the Night Sky By this time you are itching to get going and don’t let anything stop you, but just a couple more things for consideration. Have you read the menu tree of the AudioStar Handset? If you haven’t made a copy of that menu tree you better have the instruction manual readily available, you’re going to need it.
  • Page 14 First Time Viewing Tips Don’t try and take it all in at once, the universe has been around for awhile and by all accounts, it is predicted to be around for a while longer. To that end, a couple of convenient tools to have are a 2-Sided Planisphere, a Headlamp, and a walking stick.
  • Page 15 You’ve Seen The Moon, Now What? The orbiting mud ball that we inhabit, is the “Third Rock From The Sun” called planet “Earth.” There are several more planets in the solar system that are easily visible using the ETX telescope. The AudioStar handset will have them on the menu as long as you programmed in the proper information on start up.
  • Page 16 You Saw What You Saw But It Might Not Be What You Expected Or Wanted You took a look through your scope and you didn’t see images reminiscent of those taken by some of the Deep Space Telescopes that are currently orbiting our planet Earth. Would you care to think of the amount of money that was invested in those telescopes and what it cost to build some of the earth bound telescopes housed in observatories peppered about the globe? Put that into perspective when figuring in the cost of the telescope you are...
  • Page 17 Couple Things You Might Have Done That You Don’t Want To Do Again •You shortened the length of the tripod legs so you could see through the eye piece when the telescope was completely horizontal. Then when the scope “slewed” around (that is fancy astronomer telescope talk to say the scope was moving side to side and up/down) the eye piece was so low you had to stoop down in order to look through it.
  • Page 18 Astronomy Terms To Learn In Order To Talk Like You Actually Know Something •Slew: This is what the scope is doing when it moves up/down and side to side. •Alt/Az Mount: Short for Altitude / Azimuth. Altitude pretty means what it suggests, how high in degrees the scope is pointed in the sky.
  • Page 19 More Terms •Magnitude: This is a term to describe the brightness of a star or object in the night sky. The smaller the number the brighter the object is. Some guy in the far flung distant past coined the term and the differences from one number to the next. The system has undergone some changes but it is still in use.
  • Page 20 Going Over To The DARKSIDE...
  • Page 21 Times Are A Changin’ And Not Everybody Is On Board With That As the years pass by, improvements are made to just about everything because of newer technologies that are developed and found useful in different fields of study and in everyday life. Some of these technologies are welcomed with open arms, whereas sometimes there is old traditional ways of doing things that people will hang on to, no matter what.
  • Page 22 There Is Still A Need To Know The Basics Knowing some of the basics of Astronomy is a good thing but it is something a person can pick up as need be. Sometimes it is a simple thing of “Why do they call it that?” when someone encounters something in the night sky.
  • Page 23 Lazy Telescope Astronomy 101 The photo on the left shows a Meade ETX 90 that has been outfitted with a Meade LPI-G Advanced Color camera. (Lunar Planetary Imager and Guilder) The camera is connected to a Laptop Computer which is running Meade’s “Sky Capture”...
  • Page 24 To the right of the Stella is battery pack that can be plugged into the Stella to augment it’s internal battery power source. Above the battery pack is the 9 pin serial port adapter and cable that is supplied by Meade and is their version of the #505 Cable Set.
  • Page 25 The Stella WiFI Adapter Interface Stella sets up a WiFi network which can be connected to a handheld device such as a computer tablet. A special StellaAccess application has to be downloaded and the application is available on both Apple’s iOS and Android platforms.
  • Page 26 High Definition screen. That is easy to do and a real joy once everything is set up. This is a Meade LPI-G Color Advanced camera. On the top there is two ports, one for the included cable if the camera is to be used as a “guider” and the other port for the included USB3.0 cable.
  • Page 27 This might be a big help when slewing around in the sky and trying to precisely center an object in the viewing screen. Software packages are up to one’s personal taste, either go with what Meade gives you or go get something else. Providing Power To The System Providing power to run all the equipment is something that should be thought of.

  • Page 28: Powering The System

    Powering The System If power can’t be provided easily through an extension cord then other sources have to come into play. An easy fix is a portable generator. There is a massive amount of generator options to choose from and for the most part it needs to be portable, quiet, and provide the power needed.
  • Page 29 More Ginger Bread Stuff Ever had the feeling that someone is looking over your shoulder and you would like to shake them off? Or maybe you might have something really interesting on the computer screen but there just isn’t enough room for everyone to view it all at once.

  • Page 30: Other Sources Of Information

    This is the end of the presentation and it is hoped that most if not all the questions involving the set up of the Meade ETX series of telescopes have been answered. This presentation is not meant to be the definitive first and last word on the subject. The Internet channel “YouTube”...