I picked it up off craigslist for twenty dollars

I figured that for twenty dollars I really couldn't lose. So I took it home and gave it a cleaning and a good looking over. It needs six AA batteries to operate so I couldn't use the motors on the first night but I could check out the optical system.

On that night both Jupiter and Saturn were visible and in a comfortable viewing location. And wow, I was impressed. The optics appear to be in excellent shape. It performs well for a small telescope. There was very little color distortion. Check plus for the optical system.

On the second day I picked up a bunch of AA batteries and installed them.
Low and behold everything seemed to be working right. The pendant works and the motors slew both in the horizontal position and the vertical position.

If you have this telescope and are looking for the manual it is on the Meade website right here.

It looks to me like this telescope is worth investing time into. It will be a useful little telescope. So, I will build some kind of a pedestal mount for it. Or build some kind of adapter for it. You buy a telescope like this and you get the tripod with it. But, in the case of a used one you might not. And, it is worth the effort.

One thing about it that I question is the battery life. I am not sure as to how much use I will be able to get out of it before the batteries fail.

As far as making a mount it seems pretty straight forward. It looks to me like it is two 1/4-20 screws that are placed 4.1 inches part.

What does something like this telescope usually cost?

I did a search on various online shops and they are generally selling for between 120 dollars and 200 dollars. And the big thing about them is at that you usually get a couple of eyepieces and software with it.. Although no tripod. It all seems reasonable. It is a nice little telescope.

The Meade ETX-60 is available on ebay. And the larger ETX-90 too.

Okay, I got some batteries for it and took it out to see if the GOTO system worked. And it does! Woot!

It was real easy to do.

I set it up on a very sturdy tripod, not your typical camera tripod. I have one that is made for heavier camera setups. I made an adapter plate for it.

About the GOTO setup

You get the telescope lined up north and horizontal. These are the zero settings, beginning points. Then you use the pendant to go into the setup routine. You input the date and time. Get this as accurate as possible. I used my cellphone and when the minute clicked over to a new minute I entered that in the telescope setup.

Then it selects a bright star in the sky and it goes to it. You then make small adjustments with the pendant to get it centered.

It then selects a second star and it goes to it. Again you use the pendant to make small adjustments and get it nice and centered.

And that's it! You are done with the setup. NOw you can select from thousands of things in the current sky, including any available planets. And the telescope will automatically go it it. -- and it will track it automatically!