The Pumpkin that could not find Vega, Altair, or the Seven Sisters. The ETX-90 that couldn’t find its star.

Short Review for now. I bought this as a grab and go Astro Photography mount. 
It is a dual mount for alignment, and has a good reputation for the wide field work I've been doing with a standard Photography Tripod. 

Depending on what happens I will write more on the good parts of each unit that make up the ETX90, for now, the bad.

1) Shipping via USPS was very frustrating. In the end, I had to pick it up at the local office via the dutch door 3(5?) days after the date it was to be dropped off. After no door tags or help from the Post office, our local carrier and Amazon support helped me pick it up. Much bigger longer story. Maybe later. But Amazon Support Rocked helping me sort it out!

2) The 'Fork' unit will not Align.

I bought a used/old Meade DS2090 mount from eBay and it aligns better than the ETX-90. [ I started with a manual EQ years ago, and have worked with both EQ and Alt since, so the ETX90 should have been easy.] In fact it was because of how the old Meade devices[time of writing I count 10] I’ve bought from eBay perform, showing they had clearly been thru the wars before I bought them, that lead me to buy the ETX90 new. So it would be a learning curve of new equipment, and not a reverse engineering and part level hardware troubleshooting that I do working for a Telco.

I've read the manual, many times. Checked videos online, Astro Club resources, Two support calls with Meade support and the Fork will not Align using either north, in EQ or Alt mode.

The three Meade support techs I've talked with were helpful and seemed to know their stuff. But have not gotten back to me on their offered RMA/Exchange of the Fork unit. I submitted that request with Docs on 10/30-31. Their site states 2-3 days reply. Nada. 

I really like the unit, I really don't want to return it and shop for a different device, it fits the work I do.

I'm a NetAdmin for a Phone company, I'm guessing a board or component is bad and that is why the folk is not working correctly. Not great, but not a big deal. I have devices fail out of the box all the time. I RMA it back, a replacement is in our CO in a few days.

So if this were a Fairytale, I would say that my Meade Goto Folk has turned in to a Pumpkin and that I need the help of a FairyGod Mother, or a kiss from a Prince or Princess Charming to transform my Pumpkin back in to a working, reliable, alienable GoTo fork, so that I can spend my time dancing with my camera, the stars, and light-room.

Then the stars will shine brightly for both Me and this review….

Have had a rather large, complicated Meade telescope for years and decided to get a smaller simpler one for impromptu, quick observing sessions. Bought the ETX 125 and right out of the box I knew it had a problem. Something rattled around inside the telescope as you moved it. Couldn’t see anything through it at all. Turns out the small mirror that directs the light up through the eyepiece had come loose. It’s held on with sticky tape. Called Meade and after numerous calls and emails and a months time I got a replacement scope. The included compass is stuck so it can’t find north and one of the alt az locking knobs is bent over. It’s obvious that Meade’s quality has gone downhill sharply.

Excellent telescope. Been a Meade user for over 20 years. For what this scope is designed for, namely the moon and planets, it excels. For deep sky objects such as clusters, galaxies and nebula it does a decent job. For portability, it excels again. My only caveat with the scope is there is no carry case built for it. I was able to find one and it fits very well, providing you keep the foam insert that the scope ships in. I used the case, Sterilite 18429001 Footlocker, found here on amazon. If you are looking for a very well designed starter scope that will aid you in finding sky objects, with a fair amount of aperture, that is extremely portable and easy to set up. Then this is your scope.

This is a great scope. Beats the Monkey Wards (refractor) I got as a kid in the early 70's. This is not rocket science but it will take some study and patience to get it out of the case and usable. Always, ALWAYS have 6 fresh AA batteries available for the scope proper, and an extra CR 2032 battery for the finder scope. Since this is not something most people are not going to use every night, practicing using it during the day will reduce the learning curve. The AutoStar audio dialog was extremely annoying, had to turn it off in the controller. The tripod is rock sold.
The eyepiece and filter set is a great first accesory.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z17ZD5O/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For DSLR photography find the correct gadjets for your camera.
If you only use this 4 or 5 times a year pop the AA batteries out.
Get a camels hair brush and dust off the optics (see image, 9 or 10 dust spots).
Make a cheatsheet to throw in your case so you dont have to re-invent the wheel every time you go out.

Image: Harvest Moon 10-5-2017 with Oak Leaves in the foreground and dust spots on the optics.

I bought the ETX-125 because it seemed to be very portable. I have to use the telescope at remote locations because of the neighbors lights and the sky glow of the city makes it not user friendly at my home location and I thought portability was a major factor. A big mistake.
If you want to see the moon, this scope is OK. Anything else is hardly worth it.
A disappointing problem I am having is that the AudioGuide system is impossible (so far for me) to set up accurately enough to find any Solar System object within the field of view with the tools given.
When setting it up using the two star alignment, you cannot have anything attached to the rear photo port because there is not enough room between the rear port and the horizontal base when the telescope is searching at an almost vertical position looking for a bright location star like Vega. Of course I wouldn't expect enough room for a camera, but it won't even take a 932 or 933 Erecting Prism. Beware.

Surprisingly good optics for the price point. Solid views of Saturn and Jupiter, both with pinpoint clear moons, on the first night out of the box. Even with the tripod lashed on the front of the pack, the whole operation is super lightweight and yet low vibration compared to others I've used in this price class.

Mine would not correctly 'GOTO' unless I set the autostar to an ETX80. Apparently there are several versions of the ETX90 over the years and the firmware for this model is incorrect. The fault is known amongst stargazing forums as is the workaround. I contacted the UK Meade supplier of the fault/fix. They took the issue to Meade USA. The consensus is that Meade are slow to fix or won't fix this product in the time before my 'return window' expires so I returned mine for refund. Its a shame as the optics/auto track and its portability is exactly what I want.

If you want a very good telescope this is the one and has two eye pieces

The grand kids went WoW when looking at the moon

My customer service has been first class in advising which extra eye piece to use for a wide field view

its a good telescope, not easy to track stars though

Tiene una falla en al computadora que hace difícil usarlo, hsta que investigando en línea encontré como hacer que funcionara, pero no de la manera en que se espera, sino utilizando un modelo diferente en la computadora del telescopio para que pudiera apuntar correctamente.
Aún así, da una calidad de imagen muy buena.

Bu ürünü Türkiye'den sipariş ettik ve yaklaşık 2 ay sonrasında bize ulaştı. Ürün tedarik süreci hariç başka hiçbir şeyde sorun yaşamadık. Sapasağlam bir şekilde elimize ulaştı.
Ürün hakkında ise fazla söze gerek yok. Bilimsel gözlem amacıyla dahi gözlemevlerinde Meade tercih ediliyor. Biz de profesyonel kullanım amacıyla aldık ve oldukça kaliteli ve yeterli bir ürün. Ay kraterlerini çok net görebiliyorsunuz. Jüpiter ve Satürn'ü de gözleme şansınız var ancak bu ürünün ayna çapı dolayısıyla çok büyük beklentilere girmemek lazım. Satürn halkalarını en azından ayırt edebilirsiniz. Ayrıca hard case denilen alüminyum taşıma çantası ile birlikte geliyor. Yurt dışı sipariş olduğu için çok endişelerimiz vardı fakat oldukça sağlam şekilde gönderildi.