Newby's first telescope - meade etx125at - Meade ETX-125AT Telescope w/ Full-Sized Tripod, GOTO AutoStar Controller 0515-03-21

When I retired a couple of years ago, I was finally able to indulge my latent interest in astronomy. Searched around the internet and got a recommendation from a long time friend who was a serious astronomy buff and settled on the ETX125AT for my first ever telescope. Have had it now for more than two years and am completely satisfied with this telescope.

As a complete novice I had some difficulty early on with the GoTo system. I was able to manually find Jupiter the first night I had the scope, and was completely in awe by the cloud bands and the four Galilean moons. After some trial and error I was able to master the GoTo system. Although the view from my yard is limited and there is moderate light pollution in this area, I’m still able to find and observe numerous deep sky objects as well as the planets and double stars. The scope is portable enough to take to a high altitude dark sky site about 20 miles away for some really spectacular views.

I have used the scope in its polar mount mode and have done some astrophotography, but this scope is not really suitable for that task.

Only negatives: using internal batteries is not satisfactory. I use a rechargeable battery now and have no problems. Also had some problems with the coiled cable between the AstroStar hand set and the scope, but after replacing it with an aftermarket straight cable have had no further problems.

I’m really enthusiastic about this scope, and can recommend it for novices as well as more experienced hobbyist.

Pros: Great optics; versatile and rugged; great features
Cons: Novice may have trouble with User Manual

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.