Need Help with focuser for Meade 10"Starfinder

[Pylot7]

I bought a Meade 10" Starfinder new back in the 90's.  Used it a lot in the Loveland Colorado area then.  

Have stored it for over 20 years and now live in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  The Milky Way is gloriously above me every reasonably clear night and its time to start star gazing again!

I want to upgrade the focuser so that I get an eyepiece placement that reasonably matches my effort at collimation.  The original focuser is pretty sloppy!  The Meade Tube is the cardboard version but its in excellent shape.  Even starting to get a bit of patina (light browning) on the outside paper.

Is there a drop in two speed focuser??  If not am I only looking at drilling holes or must the large hole under the focuser also be enlarged?  I have about 65mm of movement with the stock focuser.  That always worked fine for my eyepieces.  Looks like most of what I am seeing have a 50mm range of motion, any concern there??

Any suggestions on product, installation or anything else focuser related to the upgrade are welcome.  I have no interest in astro photography so a camera ready mount is not of interest.

Thanks in advance!!

[SthBohemia]

22 hours ago, Pylot7 said:

I have no interest in astro photography

Join the (small) club ^^ , either do I.

As you reside within USA your options are more or less limitless. Maybe join CloudyNights and Astromart as you will easily pickup a modern focuser at a reasonable price. Not familiar with your scope but it should be no real problem to you if new holes/enlarged holes are necessary for a replacement focuser 🙂

Cheers welcome to SGL...

[CraigT82]

Is this something like your scope? 
 

Im not sure if you will find a drop in aftermarket focuser that will fit the original hole pattern, but maybe a fellow starfinder owner will see this and chime in.

If not there is a variety of aftermarket focusers available which would fit but you’d have to drill new mounting holes. 

Something like this which is low profile and only has 24mm of focus travel but has a built in extension tube to extend that:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-focusers/dual-speed-low-profile-1252-inch-crayford-focuser.html

Or something like this which is less low profile with 35mm travel. 

https://www.astroshop.eu/focusers/ts-optics-focuser-crayford-2-/p,4579

Thing to remember is that if you can’t find a focuser which has a long enough travel to reach the focal point then you can always use a simple extension tube.

Another idea might be to get any aftermarket focuser that takes your fancy and then get an adaptor plate 3D printed to fit it to the scope, you could design it to utilise the existing holes in the tube and also give it a height that puts your eyepieces where you need them.

 

[dsergison]

the GSO with the 303mm dia base plate fits the 10" meade diameter perfectly.  (the 10" Meade starfinder has in an extra large tube compared to most 10" scopes)

you will have to drill 4 new holes but that us super easy, it's only cardboard.   also need 4x M4 flat head screws and nuts rather than the original hardware.  also you will have to open the main hole up about 1mm.   I did this with sandpaper wrapped around a 2" pipe.  Very simple. no big deal to remove the mirrors for safety.  I was done installing in 1 hr.

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by dsergison