Sold!!!
Meade ETX-125 Maksutov-Cassegrain with UHTC coatings and 497 hand controller and tripod for sale. $350. Pickup in Little Rock. Contact: Edward Swaim, eswaim at gmail.com
I have too many other telescopes in this aperture and size range.
I won’t sell this to a beginner. Go buy a Dobsonian instead!
Works in both Alt-Az and equatorial modes. Best on the Moon, good on planets, very good on doubles. 127mm mirror diameter and 1900mm (f15) focal length is good for magnification, but limits the field of view. (You can’t see all the Pleiades at one time, for example.)
Light gathering and resolution in this 5-inch scope does not compare to larger telescopes. I get much more detail on my 10-inch reflector. Variations in the shades of gray on the moon, for example, knock my socks off in my 10-inch Newtonian. In the ETX, the Moon is sharp, you can use a lot of magnification, and it tracks. You can drive it around on the Moon with a lot of precision with the hand controller.
Gotos are surprisingly good with motor calibration and drive training.
Red dot finder and base for a Rigel Quickfinder attached. (Quickfinder not included.) Has the little compass-and-bubble cap for the eyepiece dust cover.
Manual and book, Mike Weasner’s “Using the Meade ETX,” included.
Simple, screw-on, 1.25” adapter for rear port included. This is for attaching a webcam or a star diagonal, which is useful if you de-fork the OTA and use it on an equatorial mount.
Has an electric focuser. The azimuth bearing wobbles enough to make manual focus tough. Electric focusers made for 125s are few and far between, so I made an electric focuser for an ETX-90 or ETX-105 fit. It is permanently attached to the focuser shaft with adhesive, so it isn’t coming off without a lot of delicate work. To use the focuser, press zero on the hand controller, then use the up and down buttons. Press zero again to control the scope.
I bought this telescope about 4 years ago from Meade “refurbished.” As far as I can tell, the only issue it came with is an intermittent connection in the battery compartment in the base. One of the contacts for the 8 AA batteries messes up occasionally. I seldom run it off AAs. It is more economical to run it from an AC to DC adaptor or battery pack based on D cells.
Tripod is a model 884 “deluxe field tripod” and works fine. I’ve made some modifications to it and have used it for a variety of other mounts and scopes, and I have used the heck out of it to mount lots of telescopes, not just the ETX, and it shows!. It has some rust on the steel parts. The tripod has an adjustable top so it the telescope can be used in equatorial mode.
Serial number 9U028602101209A.
