Meade ETX-90 Polar Align Set up

Guide for those taking the ETX out on loan

[@jzx32]

Thank you, I have just got one of these. Reading the manual is slightly confusing but your quick video put the icing on the cake. Thanks....back out in the cold LOL

[@ShaneHall-n3r]

Nice video - thanks for posting! How well does it track once it's aligned and pointing at an object? Have you done any photography through the scope? (i.e. Long Exposure?). I currently have a Celestron Nexstar SLT mount and it only manages between 15 and 25 seconds exposures before the stars begin to distort due to drift - just wondered if this scope can manage longer when Polar aligned? (the Celestron is alt-az with no built in Polar wedge like the ETX-90, so I think it suffers from field rotation, which I'm guess is the case with the ETX as it's aligned to the pole and will follow the objects in an arc and not "up/down, left right"....

[@alternativadigital7643]

Thanks so very much for this useful guide. Thanks for your time to do it. So useful.

[@zsavage1820]

I'm amazed that it doesn't at least have a compass built in or on the tripod.. it can't be that much of a cost thing seeing that I had got a small compass in a box of Cracker Jacks..

[@linkage8700]

So I found a fix, once you align the telescope... you can then change the mount type from setup --> Telescope --> mount --> "change alt. az. with the down arrow to polar". It now shows polar when aligning on easy align. I should have known to do this, but you can not mess with the setup options without aligning the scope first... which is odd.

[@tonyrainbolt9388]

My control panel is on the East side of the telescope. Could they have assembled it backwards? I point the telescope North and level. But when is skews to the brightest star for alignment, it doesn't point anywhere near a bright star. Any suggestions?

[@best_pilot1002]

I think he really mixed up West and East.

[@linkage8700]

I have a small issue when I align my telescope like you do. I have an ETX 90 ec model and when I go to align on the hand controller, I hit "easy" align mode, which is two-star. During this process, it says it is ETXA on top and says nothing about polar align, it says place telescope in alt. az. home position which tells me it has nothing to do with an equatorial setup. My controller is different, it is the Audiostar 497. This controller should be capable of an eq setup. Anyways I was thinking there is a switch somewhere to tell it to go into eq/polar align instead of alt. az.

[@linkage8700]

also, thank you for your video!😉