Advice on feasibility of replacement mount

[ScottyMTH]

Hello all. I'm hoping for a bit of advice to help me make a decision!

I have an old (cheapish) reflector telescope - Meade 114mm x 1000mm - and the AZ Goto mount has given up. A small circlip that helps drive the arm broke and its been almost impossible to find a replacement. To make matters worse, the built-in 8x1.5v battery holder has deteriorated (my fault; I left batteries in it) and needs replacing.  I ended up buying a new telescope (Skywatcher 200p) but want to give this old one to a friend who is just starting out. The obvious problem is that it is unusable without a working mount.

The OTA is fine and in good condition so the decision therefore is, is it feasible to obtain a cheap manual mount (AZ or EQ) that could support this OTA, or is it going to be a case of chucking it away?

[Dr_Ju_ju]

If its only the circlip (size ?) that's at fault, then it should be possible to get one on eBay as there are loads of sellers.  As for the battery compartment, the contacts should be able to be sourced from the bay, but would probably require some fettling to make them fit...

[Tiny Clanger]

Can the mount be used manually ? If so, its still a viable telescope .

If the AA cell leakage is limited to the holder area, some careful work with a weak acid like white vinegar might wipe much of the gunk off, and the contacts can be cleaned up with fine file or sandpaper ... I resurrected a rather nice 3 D cell maglite to full working condition that way after it had suffered a totally jammed in leaky duracell .

 

[tonylumley]

Is the mount a sky watcher AZ goto, as I have one sitting I in loft which seems to be dead ,think I may have pluged a lead in wrong, but is probably good for parts, only problem being I am in Essex and I see you are in Wiltshire let me know ta, Lum

Edited November 8, 2020 by tonylumley

[ScottyMTH]

Thanks all. Hope its not too late to respond. Been distracted by other less interesting things 😞

So I don't think it will work manually given the, sometimes minimal, adjustments you need to make to track something.

Originally the only issue was the circlip and I failed to find any of the right size anywhere, including Ebay, although if I wanted to pay for a batch of 5000, there was one place! 🙂

But as soon as I gave up looking for the circlip (and was forced to 'temporarily' relocate it to the loft as the 'boss' got fed up hoovering round it) that was when I left the batteries in and dissolved/damaged some of the contacts which broke off when removing the batteries. I would need to attach a new holder I think which if it worked would give me back just the circlip issue to solve. Who knows, maybe another search might turn something up...

It is a Meade mount so not sure if the Skywatcher one would fit. i guess it may just depend on the diameter of the OTA. Thanks for the offer though.

I'll keep hoping...

[Cosmic Geoff]

I'm surprised you cannot source a circlip - there seems no reason for Meade to use a non-standard size.

re the power, I would be surprised if the mount does not have a socket for plugging in an external +12v power supply.  If it really has not, you could dispense with the battery holder and wire in an external connection yourself.  Nearly everyone uses an external power source instead of internal non-rechargable cells anyway.

As for the mount, if there is no standard dovetail allowing you to fit the scope to any mount, you could either re-work the tube clamp so you can bolt a dovetail to it, or invest in a pair of tube rings and dovetail bar.

I would suggest though that fitting the 'scope to a new GoTo mount would be more expensive than the project is worth. Maybe a used manual mount?

Edited November 21, 2020 by Cosmic Geoff

[pete_l]

4 hours ago, ScottyMTH said:

I would need to attach a new holder

Readily available from Bitsbox

As for circlips I would try Farnell and if they can't supply, then Aliexpress.

Edited November 21, 2020 by pete_l