Old Meade goto mount

[johnnychaos]

I've been given an old meade goto mount with handset. It was from a DS114.

The mount itself is quite flimsy, but I'd like to use the goto if I can.

I imagine it wouldn't hold my Skywatcher 150p dob, so I was wondering if I could rig it up on a wedge, just attach my DSLR and take some longer exposure wide field shots.

Does anyone know if that would work? Would the goto tracking work if I put it at that angle or does it need to be totally level.

Thanks

[johnnychaos]

turns out it's a DS2114 (the ds114 looks quite different).

Looks like I can set the scope to an ETX and then it'll let me do polar alignment, not sure if that'll really throw off the tracking if it thinks it's something it isn't?

But I'm going to make a wedge this weekend and see if I can get it work

[kentronix]

I have a meade ds2114 which I have mounted a dovetail adapter on and currently using it with my skywatcher 150. I havent used it much as its been either cloudy or raining since I finished it but just to let you know its possible.

I have tested it indoors and it seems ok with the extra weight. The mount does take the weight of the scope and although it flexes more when it stops and starts the gears seem to deal with it fine as long as you set the weight of the scope centrally. I cant tell you how it has effected the accuracy yet, it slews fine from my lampshade to my tv but on slightly more distant objects I cant tell yet

I put the dovetail on so I can easily switch between the ds2114 scope (for portable viewing), the skywatcher(for careful backyard viewing) and my dSLR.

I have found this mount surprisingly good at finding objects and pretty good for tracking. Its quite noisy though.

Let me know if you want any pics or vids of it, I have some lying around.

[johnnychaos]

some pics would be cool mate thanks