I got the little Meade ETX 80 in November sometime and had been using it on and off on a grab and go basis since then.

One such occasion presented itself a couple of weeks ago now on Wed 6th. The night time temperatures of -11 or so were keeping me generally at bay and this one was no different - except that for once the sky was crystal clear and the seeing was rather steady.

Being the chicken that I am I decided to pop the scope on a window ledge and have a scout around for some of the Mmms in Auriga - 36, 37, 38 etc and had a nice hour or so peering into the gloom to make them out - but my feet, being feet, were beginning to feel the cold air falling in throught the open window and I decided that enough was enough.

But as I was moving the scope back to its home I spotted orion through the window in the spare room - never one to miss an opportunity I put down on the table facing the window and lined her up.

The best night of seeing since I got the little scope was matched by the, then, best view I have ever had of M42 and environs - pin sharp, crystal clear and really memorable. I had been poking about with the 9.7 EP but decided that I wanted a wider view witht he 26mm to tease out the nebulosity so I swapped the eypeices around and re-focussed the scope - well thats what I thought I was trying to do. But instead of the customary 3 or 4 turns of the focusing spindle I was turning and turning to no avail - it was more like I had engaged the barlow than just swappe dthe EPS - oh oh - I had THAT feeling - you know - the one you get when you just feel something is wrong. I popped the 9.7 EP back in the holder and hey presto - despite having turned the focus spindle forward by like 30 ot so turns the image was still tack sharp and just as I had seen it before - now that isnt right!

THAT feeling was being replaced by the sinking feeling you get in the pit of your stomach as it dawns on you that everything is going the shape of the pear - I tried winding the focus spindle backwards a turn or two and lo the image slipped out of focus accompanied by a tightening of the spindle and rapidly followed by a light scraping sound and the tell tale rattle of a small but inevitably vital part rolling around inside the scope.

Well that was that - I would have to call the supplier in the morning and arrange for the scope to be returned :(

Later on I had a bright idea - I unscrewed the rear cell port cover and shined a light in to the gloom and spying the focus spindle turned it to see what I could see. It was clear that the whole spindle assembly had somehow become detached (See pics - sorry about the focus).

Now on the ETX 80 the focussing knob exits the back of the tube at 90 degrees - just like the eyepiece. Also the 80 achieves focus by moving the objective cell - a spindle or connecting rod penetrates the rear of the OTA and is connected with the focusing knob that you turn by means of a pair of mitre gears. One gear is attached to the focusing knob at its upper end and a cubic aluminium housing at the bottom end. The other mitre gear has a shaft which is held in a hole drilled through the aluminium cube and both appear to be skewered by the spindle/connecting rod coming down from the objective cell.

Now I say all of this with a degree of certainty but have to caution you that it is partly assumption based on what I saw through the rear cell port.

Anyway back to the subject the connecting rod would appear to skewer the bottom mitre gear (the one parallel with the OTA) and is secured by a nyloc locking nut behind the aluminium housing. It seems that was this locking nut that had come off. All I could see of that was a shiny circular metallic obect stuck up the tube but the flip mirror was obscuring my view and at the time I thought it was a washer or circlip. As I was turning the focusing knob to get pictures at different angles the 'bottom' mitre gear fell out (see third pic).

Anyway that was all I could see up the tube and I decided to call it a night and phone the supplier in the morning.

But of course nothing is usually so simple. The heavy snow had fallen and the supplier was snowed out of the office, but I did correspond with them by e-mail and they offered to replace the scope without hesitation as soon as the weather allowed them back to work. I telephoned on the following Monday but alas there was no more stock of the 80. I had already decided to take the opportunity to upgrade to the ETX 125 - given that I had realised by then the limitations of the 80 and was quite sure that the scope wasnt just going to become an ornament or conversation piece. Alas that too was out of stock. So, impatient as ever and not wanting to wait for 3 - 4 weeks I accepted a refund and elected to shop around for a 125 from another suplier.

I managed to source a 125 that day and the forlorn little 80 was collected the following morning by the courier and I sat back expectantly awaiting the new toy...