I have recently acquired a Meade ETX 125 circa 2007-2008 model with a 497 handbox. The scope has a weird, wild amount of backlash that makes it unuseable. When focusing on the Moon and using the az buttons, the scope will backlash correct a good az +25mins alt +20mins - making it basically unuseable because it takes forever to center anything. I have: 1) one star aligned; 2) reduced the az/alt percents (not the ratios) from 50% to 1%; and, 3) use the scope in alt/az mode. I have not: 1) Trained the drive motors. How should I approach correcting this? Where is the backlash option the handset? On a Celestron, it's fairly straight forward. Any tips would be appreciated. - Canopus56
Kurt, My old scope was a ETX-105 and I didn't have any trouble with this but I had trained the drive. I recommend that you train the drive first and then try this again. The gearing on the 125 is identical to that on the 105. If the training of the drive doesn't work, I would think that a mechanical problem exists. Good Luck Rodger Fry ----- Original Message ----- From: "Canopus56" <canopus56@yahoo.com> To: "Utah Astronomy List Serv" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 6:10 PM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Backlash on Meade 125 ETX out of control I have recently acquired a Meade ETX 125 circa 2007-2008 model with a 497 handbox. The scope has a weird, wild amount of backlash that makes it unuseable. When focusing on the Moon and using the az buttons, the scope will backlash correct a good az +25mins alt +20mins - making it basically unuseable because it takes forever to center anything. I have: 1) one star aligned; 2) reduced the az/alt percents (not the ratios) from 50% to 1%; and, 3) use the scope in alt/az mode. I have not: 1) Trained the drive motors. How should I approach correcting this? Where is the backlash option the handset? On a Celestron, it's fairly straight forward. Any tips would be appreciated. - Canopus56 _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Before trying anything else, I would Calibrate Motors and Train Drives. Fletch
I have recently acquired a Meade ETX 125 circa 2007-2008 model with a 497 handbox.
The scope has a weird, wild amount of backlash that makes it unuseable. When focusing on the Moon and using the az buttons, the scope will backlash correct a good az +25mins alt +20mins - making it basically unuseable because it takes forever to center anything.
I have:
1) one star aligned; 2) reduced the az/alt percents (not the ratios) from 50% to 1%; and, 3) use the scope in alt/az mode.
I have not: 1) Trained the drive motors.
How should I approach correcting this? Where is the backlash option the handset? On a Celestron, it's fairly straight forward.
Any tips would be appreciated.
- Canopus56
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Hi Kurt, I have owned and enjoyed an ETX 125 for about 5 years. I had similar problems, and even a trip (by the scope, not me) back to Meade didn't solve them. I then learned of Dr Clay (drclay@arksky.org) who in my opinion knows more about the ETX than Meade does. Check out his website, and download his guides to properly set up your ETX 125; you'll be amazed at the difference in your scope's drive. The tech tips can also be found at: http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips.html God luck, Norm Hansen Canopus56 wrote:
I have recently acquired a Meade ETX 125
participants (4)
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Canopus56 -
Fletcher Gross -
Norm Hansen -
Rodger C. Fry