Meade ETX-60 Accessories
Finders, camera adapters, etc...
The RainyDayInterns picked up a Meade ETX-60 telescope this past Summer and have been playing with it ever since. The little scope is pretty capable for what it is—a great grab-n-go for a quick look at the Moon or planets. After using it a few times, we realized a few small additions could turn this fella into a pretty good astrophotography scope, especially since we now have it attached to the super stable Tristand!
Orion EZ Finder
The ETX-60 does not come with a finder scope. Does it need one? Not really. Does having one make it easier to use. Yes.
We thought about putting a laser pointer on it, but in the end decided to go with a red-dot finder instead.
Our favorite is the Orion EZ Finder. It is easy to setup, adjust, and use. Can’t really ask for any more than that.
Camera Adapters
Once we made the scope easier to set up for observing the stars, we realized we wanted to know what kind of images we could get from it. And to do that, we needed to attach a camera to it. The afocal method with a mount and a smartphone would be the quickest, but because the ETX-60 had an axial port, we thought we would find some adapters for it thought would allow us to attach either a DSLR or something made specifically for use with a telescope.
We have a pretty decent collection of Meade adapters, but none of them worked with the threading of the axial port. After a bit of Googling, we found a T-adapter from Gosky Camera made for the Meade ETX-60/70/80 series telescopes.
DSLR to ETX-60:
Once we got our hands on the Gorssky scope-to-camera adapter, attaching a DSLR to the ETX-60 was the same as attaching one to any of our other scopes. However, the orientation of the camera body is not adjustable on the ETX-60 using this adapter configuration (it is on the other scopes).
NexImage to ETX-60:
Connecting the NexImage 10 telescope camera to the axial port required a T-to-T telextender. This tube allows an eyepiece to be in the optical path of a camera for afocal imaging. It will also allow any telescope camera to be connected as long as the camera’s mounting tube is long enough!
Unlike the case of the DSLR body, the telescope camera may be rotated to the desired orientation and held in place via the small screw on the side of the T-to-T telextender.
With the ETX-60 kitted out, we hope to get some clear nights to see how it performs. We will post pics once we have some worthy of posting!
Amazon links to items mentioned:
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