Meade ETX-125EC

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Meade ETX-125EC
I have had trouble with unstable mount, random slewing, fair but inconsistent autostar locating ability. Optics are good but not near as sharp as my TV101. Very small (1 degree) FOV really limits use of the scope without the autostar.
Finderscope is poor with significant spherical aberration.

Overall Rating: 5
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Meade ETX-125EC
Although I have much professional experience with microscopes, this is my first telescope, and I'm very impressed - especially for the price. I needed something portable that would collect sufficient light, otherwise, I'd never use the telescope. It is very portable and easy to use.
The optics are as good as or better than other larger aperture 'scopes I've looked through at starparties during great viewing conditions. The tracking keeps the object in view for several minutes - at least long enough for my grabbing a cup of coffee or getting my spouse & kid.
I've bought a ND filter & an 82A, that improves the contrast & "viewability" of the very-bright Jupiter & Moon. I also recommend the 18 mm SWA & 2X & 3X Barlows. I'm waiting for a broadband filter, although I can still get nebulas and other faint objects even though I live in an extremely light-polluted area.
Drawbacks (but you can work around all of these) : -The RA gears do not engage well - you have to wait a few seconds or give it a nudge. -The deluxe tripod is still wobbly - the cord on the controller still jiggles the 'scope. -You MUST BUY an electric focuser - the knob will really jiggle the 'scope. -It takes an hour to cool to ambient temperatures. -The instructions are very incomplete, & the Meade webspace is very unenlightning on details. You will wander the web for the information from retailers, astro clubs & review sites like this.
-Warning to beginners: It's addicting, & you will lose sleep (not really a drawback!).

Overall Rating: 9
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Meade ETX-125EC
Excellent performance, but the OTA mount seems a bit "spongy". Optics excellent. Finds targets, if not dead center, well withing FOV.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
Great scope. first goto ive owned. optics are outstanding very close to my cr150 6" celestron refractor! M81 was a pleasure to behold in a suburban backyard of 125,000 people!! goto was hard to master but a real pleasure once it was understood. i really like this scope. i had to send it back to meade to recolluminate & had quick response, in 2 weeks i had my scope back & has really super optics!! mount is plenty ok for this scope, you will be very pleased with the tracking, looks, performance, portability of this scope. just read the manual carefully its really not that hard to understand.

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Meade ETX-125EC
Great scope. first goto ive owned. optics are outstanding very close to my cr150 6" celestron refractor! M81 was a pleasure to behold in a suburban backyard of 125,000 people!! goto was hard to master but a real pleasure once it was understood. i really like this scope. i had to send it back to meade to recolluminate & had quick response, in 2 weeks i had my scope back & has really super optics!! mount is plenty ok for this scope, you will be very pleased with the tracking, looks, performance, portability of this scope. just read the manual carefully its really not that hard to understand.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39654

Meade ETX-125EC
I recently purchased the 125 and am pleased with its performance. Stars were pinpoint and showed excellent contrast. I purchased the #887 mount so there are no problems as seen with the #883 mount. The goto accuracy is acceptible in light of the small field of view. I own several other scopes including a televue, takahashi, and a meade lx90. This scope for the price can't be beat. I'm dissapointed in the earlier ratings of 1's and 3's. I think that those who rated as such failed to consider that you get what you paid for. And considering the price I paid for my televue and tak....well this certainly was a steal.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
will everyone stop crying about this scope/live your life and stop being so anel

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
Ok...ok...ok, so the instruction manual leaves a little to be desired, with all of the informational sources out there available over the net this makes this a moot point. The optics are excellent, I have done side by side comparisons of the ETX-125, Nexstar 5 and a 4" refractor. The views of Jupiter and Saturn were superior in the ETX, even beating out the refractor (to my surprise). The high contrast of the optical system assure crisp and detailed views of the moon, planets and stars. Deep sky objects are a little harder to coax details out of due to the rather large central obstruction and the fact that the OTA is a little slow, optically speaking (f/15), however I also have to deal with the heavily light polluted skies of South Florida. The drive train and mount are not what they could be. Overall the high portability and excellent views never cease to amaze, if you're looking for a first scope and you don't have deep pockets this one is definately worth a second look.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39657

Meade ETX-125EC
very nice ...better than nexstar5

Overall Rating: 10
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Meade ETX-125EC
I have had the ETX-125 for 4-months now and I find the servo-motor drive and gearing the most sloppy system I have had the displeasure of experiencing in over 30 years of servo drive, computer controlled devices. This ETX has been marketed by fantastic sales representation and the product, to my mind, is very poor.

Last week I purchased a Meade 395 90mm refractor and not only find the images much clearer than the 125 but much simpler to find the target object.

I personnaly do not believe this ETX-125 to be considered anything more than mediocre.

Blais Klucznik
Attleboro, MA

Overall Rating: 3
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Meade ETX-125EC
overall not perfect but for the price an excellent buy..

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
To an inexperienced eye, optics appear very good to excellent; no distortion at high powers either side of focus and images appear exactly the same. Contrast, however, is lacking. Image shift is non-existent. Cooldown can take as much as an hour. Focus does not 'snap-in' so it's a little tough knowing when you've arrived. Planetary detail is less than hoped for (no detail in Jupiter's bands); deep sky performance is better than expected. It's done well on moderately difficult double stars.

I'm quite fond of the silly little right-angle finder. It's actually useful. With the same starfield orientation/motion as the main scope, I'm able to keep my latent dyslexia under control.

The #883 tripod is adequate only in alt-azimuth mode; in polar mode it's a disaster waiting to happen. Swapped mine for a #887 tripod which made a world of difference; very solid in polar mode.

Motor drive backlash can be frustrating and it is noisy when slewing, but neither are real problems for this user. Tracking is fair to good; certainly adequate for visual use. Tracking is very good when motors are trained at start of session.

GO-TO has been inconsistent. Some sessions it starts out poor/mediocre (barely getting the target into the finder field) and ends the session excellent; putting everything in the center of the 26mm eyepiece. Other times it starts out good and ends up terrible. However, while packing up after my last session (which ended up terrible) I may have stumbled on a reason for this. The tripod legs had settled unevenly into the turf. One leg had gradually settled over an inch into ground while the other two had settled less than half that amount. It seems that only a small amount of uneven tripod settling after alignment would be sufficient to substantially degrade GO-TO.

The little monster has shown me that I like GO-TO capability; it'll do fine until I can save up for an LX200.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
Optics are fine, but this scope does not perform as advertised. If you want a goto scope, don't buy an ETX 125. The goto is very unreliable, it's not unusual for me to do a realignment 4 or 5 times in an evening, and on most nights it's still always off target by several degrees. In the 18 months I've owned this scope there have been a half dozen nights where it performed well, but as I average at least one night observing a week the majority of my experience has been very frustrating. In the past I've been a surveyor and I know how to set up a mount/scope for accuracy. I've tried bringing a gps to enter the exact location, got one of those atomic clocks to enter the exact time, and brought a level so I didn't have to rely on the cheap bubble level on the tripod, all to no avail. The accuracy of the goto on this scope is unnacceptable. Meade customer service is useless on the issue. They did replace the autostar right away when it died for no reason, didn't even ask for proof of purchase but the many times I called about the scope being inaccurate they suggested this and that but would never take the scope back. The mount should be more substantial, especially for the price (I got the more expensive model but not the type that comes with the LX50 etc) but really, the tripod is the least of this scopes problems and is usable. Three people in my club have this scope, we all have the same results. There are some people who will read this and buy this scope anyway, I'll say right now I told you so. This scope is a waste of money. My experience is the likelyhood of you getting lucky and buying a good one are slim.

Bruce DiDucca
Taunton MA

Overall Rating: 2
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
Optically the scope is excellent but the standard tripod is flimsy. I use the LX-90 tripod with my ETX-125EC. The ability to update the Autostar with tours and improved software is great but this upgradability can lead to problems if it is incorrectly carried out. Meade's documentation is poor but Weasner's Mighty ETX site more than makes up for that, if Meade had supplied the kind of documentation and services that are on the Mighty ETX site, I would have given this scope a 9.

Overall Rating: 7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
I have owned my etx 125 for about 1 year. I can honestly say that I have not encountered the problems that I have read in these ratings. If you follow the suggestions from the mighty weasner sight the scope will run very well. by a focal reducer from scopetronix and drop the f/15 to f/7. The etx 125 is no LX-200 but is fine for what it is as well as the price. Better than the Celestron

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
The ETX 125 is the 5th scope ive owned, and easily the most portable. I always like to learn what others have has in the past when they rate a scope, just so I can their point of reference.
As a kid ive had the classic 60mm refractor, but I kept the scope for 20 years. Ive had a Meade 90mm Refractor in equatorial mount, a nice small refractor. Ive had a fantastic Meade 10" LX-200, an optically excellent scope, only flawed in my opinion by its image shift focusing, and its weight. I sold the 10" and got a Celestar 8", then bought the adjustable heavy tripod and wedge. Finally, I bought the ETX 125, without the Autostar. I bought this scope because I wanted an extremely portable scope I can lift into my back yard from my house and use it to view the moon and planets and also some day time viewing, maybe even of the sun with a filter. Lightweight, tracking, and fine optics were my main criteria for this purchase. For the record, i just purchased a Celestron CG-11, and am patiently awaiting its delivery from a private party.
Now on to the ETX 125 review:

First of all, I'd not recomend the optional adjustable field tripod. It seems to be made for the 90mm ETX and is too weak for the 125ETX. Its great for using the scope as a day time teresterial scope, but to shakey for any power above 100x for astronomical use.
I saw no reason to get the autostar option since this is only a 5" scope and in my opinion, designed to be used as a quick set up, back yard planet/moon scope. Under dark skies, a 5" aperture definately has some deep space capabilities, but i have larger scopes for deep space.
All I wanted on this scope when I purchased it was the fine optics of a Mak scope, the tracking motor, portability and the slow motion capabilities. I dont care about the goto capabilites of it. I have no problem finding objects in the sky, being a veteran astronomer since I was 15..I'm, 42 now.
So I find the tracking to be 100 percent excellent on this scope, as long as the batteries are in good shape. Otherwise, low voltage on the batteries over compensates the tracking and the viewable objects quickly race off the screen. Eye balling the north star is plenty good for keeping an object in the eyepiece for 15 or 20 minutes or so, even under high power.
I prefer lithium AA batteries also.
The finder is a joke on this scope, but still usable if you have to use it. I replaced it with my 6x30 finder from my Celestar, since I upgraded my Celestars to a 9x50. The 6x30 slips right into the finder ring and is excellent for this scope, but it does need a right angle viewer.
I use the flip mirror to view thru, with the metal plug in the back of the visual back. I have a collection of Teleview naglers, and so the review below is bases only on these eyepieces with the flip mirror at the 90 degree angle position.
I just had an aluminum bracket machined to mount my 5" F15 ETX to my 8" celestron Wedge/tripod. I wanted to try the oversized celestron tripod/wedge with the smaller ETX 125. It seems to be a winning combo.
I took the scope out last night and left it on the patio till i got up at 5am, so it would acheive thermal equalibrium.
So by 5:15 this morning, i was on the patio with my cooled down ETX, still somewhat dark.
I should have been out there at 4am...maybe tomorrow.
Nevertheless, I left all my eyepieces on the patio also, with the case opened up so they could all get that thermal effect, to eliminate tube currents...etc.
So looking pretty high in the sky i saw saturn. The straight thru finder on the ETX is a back/neck breaking experience. It sucks. I was on my knees trying to center saturn.
I wasnt sure how the scope would perform, with the recent local fires, nevertheless, I inserted in the 12mm Nagler(158x)into the scope. Oooooh baby, this was tack sharp. The focuser on the little meade is immaculate in operation, laid out just like the Schmidts, a knob coming out of the back. Very precise with zero backlash.
Bands on the planet and slight darkness on the ring were visible. The moons were pin pricks.
OK, so out comes the 12mm and in goes the 9mm nagler(211x). Still looking good. The moons are still pin pricks and the there seemed to be no loss in resolution or detail on the surface of the planet or the ring, just bigger. The new mount set up is pretty good. It only takes a split second after taking your hand of the focuser to get everything to be solid for viewing. The tracking was dead on also, even by eyeballing the north star with the forks... having just replaced the 8AA batteries. The slow motion electronics on the hand controller are a nice thing to have, manuvering the object in the eyepiece at high power is a pleasure.
This is the first time ive seen saturn at +200x power with this scope and it looked Excellent thru the ETX, especially for a 5" aperature. The focusing was dead on and crisp. It was begging for more power.
So out comes the 9mm and in goes the 7mm Nagler...(271x)...it was still holding on. The bands were still visible, but not as contrassy as with 211x, but it was still looking good. The moons were still pin pricks and the ring was still clearly focused and sharp. This is the power I would show people the planet at....most would been impressed...reguardless of the size of the scope.
This was at 55x per inch of aperature. So this was pretty cool since most scopes claim 60x per inch of aperature max under ideal conditions. Letting the scope acheive thermal equalibrium by leaving it out helped also, im sure.
Obviously, the seeing was excellent.
So out comes the 7mm and in goes 4.8mm....(400x).....still impressed! Everything was still fairly sharp on the focusing, but the bands on the planet were gone now and some of the contrass was going, but the ring and all still focused pretty well. The new mount set up made me realize how nice a scope this little 5 inch scope really is. I think the 4.8mm was pushing the limits of the scope. Buts its claimed that Maks can go 100x per inch of aperature.... Clearly this is a planet/moon scope.
I think under darker skys, this scope would be a fantastic performer with this mount set up. As it was in my back yard, the sunlight was already starting to show. Ive never seen saturn this sharp and clear since I saw it at 500x thru my 10" at my star party site. I remember an old guy came over and peeked thru my scope and shook my hand and said that was the best he'd ever seen saturn, ever. I think my expensive but excellent eyepieces were really making the ETX Come alive.
So i turned the scope to jupiter, and it was equally impressive. It was pretty impressive at 270x.....lots of details and tack sharp fosusing, seeing 5 of its pin prick moons also. The 400x was too much for the scope...and looking at the planet at 200x was awesome, but you could tell the scope was begging for more power than 200x.
I think this is an excellent telescope for what I bought it for. I cant see a better scope for the size and price. I would definately look at an optional heavy mount and tripod from meade or celestron. This, along with excellent eyepieces brings out the true performance of this fine scope.
Id give this scope a 9+. Optically its excellent, the plastic is a bit cheezy, but overall, im very proud of this compact powerhouse!

Ralph A / Sacramento Calif

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 9 (Veritable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
This is my first scope and I love it. Along with the Autostar I think it is an excellent "suburban backyard" set-up. I have the scope mounted on the Deluxe field tripod which is only adequate at best (was going to get a JMI Megapod, but got the Deluxe Field Tripod from Natural Wonders for near nothing when they went out of business and couldn't pass it up). The ETX 125 with Autostar is an excellent GOTO once mastered. There is a learning curve and some quirks to the Autostar that once learned is easy to use. I suspect those who are dissatisfied with the GOTO simply haven't taken the time to learn how to use it. With a quick and dirty alignment I can get the GOTO to put the object in the field of view of a 26mm eyepiece (77x) about 85% of the time. When not in the field of view the object is always just outside the edge. If I take more time during alignment (more time being 5-10 minutes instead of 2 minutes for the quick and dirty) The accuracy goes up to 90+% in the field of view. The main thing the more accurate alignment does for me is increase the accuracy of the tracking. In Alt/Az configuration the 5-10 minute alignment will keep an object in the center field of view of a 9mm eyepiece (211x) for 45 minutes to an hour wihtout need for adjustment. The quick and dirty alignment requires slight adjustments during tracking, but will accurately track at 211x for 15 to 20 minutes.

I have not done much in polar alignment or much in the way of astrophotgraphy (other than some lunar web-cam stuff) so I cannot comment, but I suspect it will work well for Piggy-back wide field stuff and some afocal lunar and planetary imaging. I don't think the tracking will be good enough for prime-focus long exposure work. I look forward to getting the scope under darker skies than my San Francisco suburban backyard.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=39666

Meade ETX-125EC
Repeat after me
B
U
Y

A

N
E
X
T
S
T
A
R

5

after comparing the two at a recent star party the Meade is D O G. There is too much plastic. The focus is unreachable because the fork arms to short. The autostar was I have to say tho the worest disappointment. Whoever writes the reviews at the mags needs to consider telling the truth instead worrying about Meades Advertiseing dollars. The autosar is USELESS

But the optics are pretty good but I didn't feel they were better then the Nextsar

In short stay away from this thing

Overall Rating: 0
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Meade ETX-125EC
Guys! Forget Go To; Leave Autostar in the box; Don't worry about where North is, whether the thing is level or what the Autostar manual means. Mount the scope Alt-Az on the #887 tripod, velcro a Starpointer on the tube, plug in the standard hand controller that came with the scope, put your tail in a Starbound chair and have a ball. Dig out your star chart, use the Starpointer to get into the ballpark, fine-tune with the 8x25 finder, and then examine your target with every eyepiece you have. Sure you'll have to bump a button now and then to keep it in the FOV; but there's not much to that. What's really nice is that the scope usually stays put while you do the eyepiece shuffle and, due to the short moment arm, doesn't require rebalancing. If it does creep out the 8x25 finder is right there, on the other side of your nose, to show you how to get it back in. Optically, this thing gives up very little to my Gibralter mounted TV102. Both will split Epsilon Lyra with exactly the same ocular setup: a barlowed 15mm Ultrascopic (TV at 117x, ETX at 253x). But when it comes to trucking around the sky and looking at stuff, it sure is quicker, easier, more precise, and a lot more fun than the Televue. On the Gibralter a swap to a high power eyepiece can quickly become unmanageable due to balance, bumping and manual movement issues.

Like many here I was disappointed with Go-To; and a few weeks ago I tried to sell my ETX. I must've been crazy. Using it as described above is a lot more fun than I ever imagined. The only serious improvement I can think of is more aperture; but then it wouldn't be as portable and convenient.

A few months ago I rated this scope as an 8. I think I was too stingy.

Overall Rating: No Vote
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Meade ETX-125EC
Let's see accurate goto - No
Steady mount/forks - No way(plastic???)
$1800.00 Canadian for a Lx200 wanna be that does not work as advertised!

Overall Rating: 3
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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