The ETX is in many ways a marvelous little scope. Optically, it's far and above most 90mm catadioptric scopes, like the Celestron 90. Mechanically, though, it leaves a bit to be desired. There are a few too many flimsy  plastic parts, the clock drive is not terribly accurate, and the drive  clutch has way too much slop in it.
The human engineering aspect leaves a  lot to be desired as well. The finder scope is almost impossible to use as  set up. The mount makes it impossible to view though the scope or finder in  many orientations.  What Meade tried to do here is create a clone of the  $4,000 Questar at a bargain price. Optically they've done well (though it  still falls short of a Questar) but in copying the mechnical design opf the  Questar they had to leave out precisely those details that make the Questar  such a pleasure to use.
The $599 price is a little misleading. While  designed for tabaletop use, unless you have a cast concrete tabletop you'll  need a solid tripod to support it, so you can add another $150 right there,  bringing the actual cost to more like $749. And for that price there are a  lot of good choices around. They make not look as slick, but they're a lot  more usable.
The ETX is in many ways a marvelous little scope. Optically, it's far and above most 90mm catadioptric scopes, like the Celestron 90. Mechanically, though, it leaves a bit to be desired. There are a few too many flimsy  plastic parts, the clock drive is not terribly accurate, and the drive  clutch has way too much slop in it. The human engineering aspect leaves a  lot to be desired as well. The finder scope is almost impossible to use as  set up. The mount makes it impossible to view though the scope or finder in  many orientations. What Meade tried to do here is create a clone of the  $4,000 Questar at a bargain price. Optically they've done well (though it  still falls short of a Questar) but in copying the mechnical design opf the  Questar they had to leave out precisely those details that make the Questar  such a pleasure to use. The $599 price is a little misleading. While  designed for tabaletop use, unless you have a cast concrete tabletop you'll  need a solid tripod to support it, so you can add another $150 right there,  bringing the actual cost to more like $749. And for that price there are a  lot of good choices around. They make not look as slick, but they're a lot  more usable.