I purchased one of these ETX-90's, and all the filters, and 2X eyepieces, etc., and well...when Mars was great viewing last year...the scope turned a teeny-tiny little dot...into a tiny little dot.
If you want those fancy pictures of planets and stars that you see in the magazines, then buy the magazines.
For me, the ETX-90 is good for viewing the moon, and that's about it.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">guncollector:
It sounds like that u didn't take full advantage of the telescope. 90mm of aperature will show quite a bit of details on the planets. You should be able to see several bands on Jupiter and its satellites, Saturn's ring, the cresent shape of venus. Brighter deep sky objects such as the orion nebula and a large number of open clusters should be well within reach of your telescope. And you can see details in these objects not just tiny dots. If you would like to give you telescope a second chance, I suggest u join a local astronomy club or pick up an astronmy guide book. "turn left at orion" is one of my favorite.
Granted, if you expect the same level of details as seen in astronomy maganzines, you will be disappointed. Many of those pictures are taken with the Hubble Space Telescope! Pictures are pretty but they are only that, pictures. When you look though a telescope you are actually looking at the object. Those photons striking your retina are actual photons comming from the object you're looking at. Each photon forming those tinny dots are created in stars thousands of light years aways, that have travelled that length of empty space to reach us. Bear in mind that 1 light years equals to 93 million miles! Try comparing that with the throw of your most powerfull flashlight.
IMHO, you cannot get the joy of amature astronomy withing appreciating what are the object that you are looking at.
tiktok:
The etx90ec is a good choice for a first scope. It much better optically then etx60/70 or other short tube refractor. However, finding objects with this scope can be difficult for beginner without the autostar computer. So be sure u also get the autostar computer if you get that scope. It's not included in the basic package.
If you are willing to spend a little bit more, I suggestion you get the Celestron Nexstar 5.
try here It's more user-friendly and have a larger aperature(=more powerful). It not that much more expensive as it seems since the computer is included in the basic package, which cost $149 extra for the ETX. But the most important thing is to join an astronomy club or at least read some amature astronomy guidebooks.