[Scott McDougald]

     Greetings to everyone. I was walking through the local flea-market yesterday and I ran across a DS-114 with the Autostar tripod. Since it was only $20 i decided to bring it home. I am wondering where i can get replacememt parts for this item. one of the bands that attached the scope to the tri-pod is missing and the screw-on adaptor that holds the eyepieces is also missing. I did a search on e-bay and found few things (powersupply, update software with usb cable and a tripod (non autostar) but not what I was needing. any help woud be greatly appreciated.

     Also this telescope appears to have been sitting upfight for a while without a dust cover since there is a fine layer of dust on the (primary?) mirror. how does one go about cleaning the inside of the telescope with out affecting the alignment?

     And finally after surfing the internet i have ran across several different eyepieces. bith in 2" (the diameter if the focousing tube) and the 1.25" that i all ready have for my existing telescope. What is the benifet in going to the larger 2" eyepieces?


Thanks foe anny assistance I can get.
Scott

[MistrBadgr]

Hi Scott,

Welcome to astronomy!

The scope you have is a pretty old version.  Meade has not made a DS-114 in a long time.  Parts will be very difficult to get for the mount.  The best source that I know about is Bill Vorce who owns Telescope Warehouse in eBay.  He specializes in entry level scopes, parts, etc.  He is a straight shooter and will not steer you wrong.

You will probablly have to fabricate some things yourself.  The other option is to simply get a new mount and probably a new tripod to go with it.

The telescope tube itself, known at an OTA, is a classic beginning telescope.  It has a 4.5 inch main mirror that has a focal length of 910mm, giving it a focal ration of about 8.0.  This is a nice conservative scope that can give you many hours of enjoyment, assuming the mirror, etc are in reasonable condition.

I would not get into two inch eyepieces with this scope.  They are more for large telescopes needing very long focal length eyepieces in order to get wider views.  Companies make two inch diameter eyepieces in short lengths to allow people to stay with the same diameter.  However, with this scope, the 1.25 inch are probably the all around best, due to lower cost and lighter weight.  You need to get tthe adaptor for it.  Bill Vorce should be the person that can tell you what one it needs.  Your scope originally cam with an adaptor of some sort.  There are 0.965 eyepieces and adaptors out there.  Stay away from those.  They are antequated designs and you are very limited in what you can get.  Stick with 1.25 inch eyepieces.

What I would buy starting out is a 32mm, 20mm, and 12mm plossles.  They are the best all around eyepieces for general viewing for a scope like that. If you buy Meades 4000 series eyepieces, or any similar set, you will have some that can last you through several telescopes.  The 32mm will give you about the widest actual chunk of the sky you can get in the eyepiece.  It is good for searching and wide views.  From there, the next two step down in with a multiplier of 60%, giving you a reasonable set.  Below about 12mm, plossles start loosing out compared to other types of eyepeices.  However, a 9mm is still very acceptable and is a good all around eyepiece.  If you want to get about the most out of this scope in terms of magnification, I would invest in a 2X barlow lens that you put the other eyeieces in to double their magnification.  On the high end of things, that will give you the equivalent of a 6mm eyepiece, using your 12mmm in it.  That will give you a 150X upper end, which is about the most I would expect out of this scope.  In theory, you could go higher.  However, I would not worry about that now.

You will have to take the scope apart in order to clean it up.  Probably the best thing to do is blow off as much dust as you can first with compressed air.  You will have to reallign all the mirrors afterwards, called collimation by astronomers.  This process is a normal procedure for a reflecting telescope and you need to learn how to do it anyway.  The big concern is not scratcing the reflecting surfaces. 

To keep this post to a reasonable length, I will not go into cleaning the mirrors right now.  There are any number of ways to do that.  I need to do a little research and find some references for you.

Hope this helps,

Bill Steen

[Scott McDougald]

     Has anyone else been embarrassed by their accidentally misspelled words when they have re-read their posts? From reading my initial post it appears that I am a child and not a 37-year-old adult. I apologize to the people that had to decipher my post
     Thank you Mr. Steen, I appreciate your input on the eyepieces it was very informative and I think that you have persuaded me to, for the time being use the 3 eyepieces that came with my 70-AZ telescope. I was fortunate in that it came with a 3x Barlow so that will be one less expense for the time being.
     I just found another primary mirror and the secondary (with spider?) on ebay that I just purchased “scratch free” so I will have a spare just in case anything might happen while cleaning the heavy layer of nicotine & dust on the one that is currently installed. I will start surfing to learn more about cleaning the mirrors and collimation before I attempt to undertake this process. I did read that very small adjustments (1/20th of a turn) of the alignment screws could result in blurred images so I want to be well educated before I start the disassembly and cleaning.


Scott McDougald

[Russell]

     Has anyone else been embarrassed by their accidentally misspelled words when they have re-read their posts? From reading my initial post it appears that I am a child and not a 37-year-old adult. I apologize to the people that had to decipher my post

Scott,
  Here's a neat trick that has saved me several times.  Be sure you are logged in to the forum. Go back to your post and look for the "Modify" button.  Click it and you can revise anything you have previously posted.  Your post will show the date of the edit as this one does.  Another thing I like to do is use a word processor and check spelling and then copy and paste it into the post editor.  Hope things work out on your scope.  Bill has some great advice in other posts on the forum you will find most interesting.