Lidl "Computer Telescope" forum

For anyone who missed out .....I believe there are still 7 or 8 ETXs in Lidl in Listowel, Co. Kerry. Seemingly only the Skylux was selling there.

Hi all,

I got one of those ETX0-70's. Nice telesope for the price, could'nt even find one second hand on ebay for that price. I managed to get mine at 9:15 at the Blakestown lidl, in Blanchardstown. Very lucky I thought I'd missed it, one minute later and I would have, got the last one in the shop and there were two others looking to get it.

Is this a old/discontinued model, the connection to a pc seems to be different to the other models. The connection seems to be about $50. I'm wondering is there any other way to hook it up to a pc.

I'm looking foward to getting into the world of Astronomy. Is there any web sites that give you details of the sky each night. A picture would be great, kind of like paint by numbers.

New Astronomer,

Dave

Been looking into remote controlling the scope from a PC.

It appears that this is a little complicated with the ETX-70, or more specifically with the supplied autostar.

It seems that the Aux port is not a serial port as it is with every other meade but is actually a logical bus. Which makes making a cable hard, since it will need a capacitor and a crystal at least.

So first off anyone got an ETX controlled from their PC and if any of the Meade dealers are here, how much is the meade cable?

next, does this still only enable you to update the autostar for positions or can the scope be driven through this bus interface?

I know I can plug the #497 autostar in, but thats an expensive way of doing it.

Cheers,
~Al

As far as I know, there isnt a simple cable pc link, unlike other etx or LX200s, its an I2C bus so you need the I2C/Rs232 converter from Meade for this. again for more info

www.weasner.com/etx/autostar/2004/494-506.html


I was at Lidl in Limerick and there were about 15 or so people outside, I was thinking thay cant all be here for the scope.
Everyone walked in and all went straight for the ETXs, there were only 3 left when I got to them, and none when I was leaving, the skylux didnt shift nearly as fast.

Hi all fellow ETXers,
Please be careful when tightening the declination dial (up/down lock) on the right hand side of the scope, its made of plastic.
If you completely unscrew it, you'll see the plastic threads etc.

From what I can see in using it, you dont need to have this really tight in order to stop the tube from falling., DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN THIS.
Because the tube is small and light, you do not need to seriously tighten it to stabilise the tube.

I remember reading a number of posts several years ago about this dial, if you over tighten it, its will shear off leaving you with no way of closing the axis,

In the bigger ETXs it is made of metal, as the plastic dial was just not able to hold the scope steady in those.

Arghhhh.. stuck in work- doesn't look like I'll get a chance to even look at the scope tonight let alone look through it.
Eager to hear how people are getting on...