I have had the chance to play with this new toy for a couple of days now and put it through its paces.

What's the same??

The optical tube appears to be identical to the old one. Quality looks good, even the baffle was glued on straight on this specimen (not always the case at least for older ETX's). The focuser felt very stiff at first, but appeared to get easier with some use. It comes with the same straight through 8X21 roof prism finder that the old ETX had, as well as the LP version of the 26mm Super Plossl (a very nice eyepiece). An optional right angle finder is supposed to be released.

What's different??

While the base and fork mount look similar they have little in common with the old ETX. The right side setting circle no longer has numbers on it because the now knurled right knob is the dec lock. Numbers are on the left setting circle. The RA lock is now a large flip lever in the center of the base. The RA setting circle remains the same. There are NO manual slow motion controls. You can unlock it and move it, but all other motion is now controlled by the hand controller. The nicely sized and styled hand control has 4 speeds from 5 degrees a second down to 8X sidereal rate. It also features buttons for an electric focuser yet to be released. From the hand control you can change modes and gain control to tracking speed, hemisphere, and alt/az or polar modes. The scope comes with no legs, they are optional. If you want the scope to track you will have to mount it equatorialy on a tripod or legs. When the optional AutoStar computer is released the scope will also be able to track in alt/az mode like an LX200 (after a 2 star alignment). The control panel on the side of the base features a Power ON LED, a 12V input jack for external power (which you may want to use as this thing is surely going to be power hungry and it eats batteries 8 at a time!), 2 aux jacks (1 for the focuser, and 1 for ??), the handbox jack, and an on/off switch. The 8 "AA" batteries are installed through a cover on the bottom of the scope, no need to remove the baseplate. The baseplate is now plastic and lacks a center tripod attachment hole. I had to take a look at what makes it go so I popped off the rubber feet and removed the baseplate for a look. Pretty much what I expected, a smallish curcuit board, a toylike DC motor and gear train, and an optical detector on the motor output shaft. After all the white plastic spur gears that look like they came fresh out of a Tyco R/C car there is actually a metal worm gear and small metal worm wheel. Unfortunately the scope still exhibits significant backlash in RA. While you can speed it up and get the slack out quickly it is a VERY long delay at 8X speed. In fact the delay (at least on mine) was significantly longer than a MicroStar equipped "classic" ETX. This really doesn't surprise me as there are LOTS of gears in there to get the slop out of.

So how does it work??

At first its lots of fun pushing the buttons and watching the OTA dance around. In actual use my feelings are mixed. Maybe my reactions are swayed by my experience using an LX50 and a MicroStar equipped ETX classic. It just seemed a little awkward since moving long distances requires a long and noisey (yes at high speed the dogs will bark for a block) slew, or unlocking the OTA and swinging it (which I actually prefer in my quiet neighborhood). Once an AutoStar is installed you will not be able to unlock the OTA or the computer will get lost since the encoders are on the motors and not the axes. This is nothing new, an LX200 is the same way. It is also one reason I kind of prefer an LX50 with Mag II over an LX200 (in my quiet neighborhood). It sounds just like the aformentioned Tyco R/C car at high slew speeds. At low speeds it quiets down to a very reasonable level. The base felt very bouncy mounted on my optional Meade ETX Field Tripod (in the east to west directions). After some close examination I discovered the tripod head is cast very unevenly with one side lower and the mounts raised too high. Maybe they all aren't that way but mine sure was. I would think this would cause a real problem once AutoStar is installed since the computer will assume the forks are perpendicular to the earth when the tripod is leveled. So I took the head off and chucked it up in my lathe and turned it down to an accuracy of a few thousandths. I had to remove quite a bit of material to get it perfectly flat and even (also the perfect time to adjust your latitude scale, mine was off quite a bit). Once reinstalled the scope felt much more secure on the tripod head and I'm sure AutoStar will perform with better accuracy when installed.

So has Meade hit the Mark??

For the money, absolutely. The scope has the same great optics and though it sounds a bit "toylike" it will soon have features previously found on only $2700 and up telescopes. I have actually seen a few posts from people who thought "this and that" should have been included in the price and I couldn't believe it. As another poster put it, "Meade has far surpassed any concept of value buyers of original ETX's could have dreamed of when they made their purchases". Make sure you say thank you to all the LX200 owners that footed the R&D bill for you if you buy an ETX-90/EC! All in all a fun little scope. However, if I had to enter an astrophotography contest though I honestly think I would use my "classic" ETX with a MicroStar controller. In fact at least until my AutoStar arrives my "classic" is still my small scope of choice, and very likely will be after I (or my neighbors) get tired of the slewing little ETX. One you know the sky you also get tired having to do 2 star alignments everytime you setup so the DSC/Slew novelty wears off (I rarely use my Mag II anymore). One other very annoying habit of the new ETX is the "test slew" it does everytime you turn it on. If you were already sighted on something and want to power up for small corrections the scope does a test slew which moves the OTA away from whatever you had it on (arrgh!). Bottom line?? If you already own an ETX I wouldn't take a major loss on it and run out and buy the new one. If you're in the market for an ETX you now have two choices, you can pickup an older used ETX for a very reasonable price, or opt for the new one, either way you won't go wrong! That is unless the day after you buy it Meade releases the ETX-130/EC for the same price!