Welcome to the family!
On December 27, 2002, I welcomed a new addition to my telescope family. I adopted an abandoned Meade ETX-125 and let it join it's older siblings. Here's a couple of pictures of the youngster playing in the front yard...
I wanted to get a smaller/lighter scope to use as a "pick and go" type of instrument but one that had reasonable light gathering power and quality optics (and besides, I've never owned a Maksutov-Cassegrain) and with the ability to incorporate "goto" capabilities that would prove a bonus. So, with those thoughts in mind I figured that the Meade ETX-125 w/Autostar would fulfill that role. And, I managed to acquire one at a pretty reasonable price.
I haven't had too many chances to test the scope out, but I did get to spend some time observing Saturn and the Moon and the telescope performed optically very well. However, I haven't gotten the Meade Autostar system to work worth beans yet. It's probably just operator error since I didn't get ANY manuals with either the telescope or Autostar controller so I'm learning as I go.
In testing against my RV-6 using the Moon, I found the image in the RV-6 to have a little more contrast then the ETX, but it seemed to resolve detail nearly as well (the RV-6 still provided a "superior" and more pleasing image to me - maybe it's just a "bias" thing at this time).
May
19, 2003:
I ran a couple of quick tests between the RV-6 and ETX-125 tonight seeing how each would perform using the Meade Electronic Eyepiece using Jupiter as the target. Surprisingly I found it easier to acquire and track Jupiter in the RV-6 even though the ETX-125 does have slow motion controls in both axis. I had some drift in declination with the RV-6 but tracking in RA was very good. I feel that the RV-6 could be used for webcam imaging. Here's a picture of the telescopes set up in my front yard (not a very good observing location either!). I used a RA slow motion control on the RV-6, powering both telescopes off a 12v Power Pack supply which ran fine for the few hours I ran the tests.
Optically, the RV-6 performed as well as the conditions allowed (pretty poor) and it'll certainly hold it's own against the vaunted excellence of the ETX series telescopes, but I do have to admit that when I tried to find M3 just for a quick "look see", the ETX found it in about a minute but it took me 10 minutes in the RV-6. That "goto" feature of the ETX is very nice when you don't have dark skies to let you star hop around. I've still got to figure out a way to install digital setting circles on the RV-6, or maybe just build a Dobsonian mount and be done with it.