My Project Telescope

Sometime ago,  I was cruising through the telescopes for sale on Craigslist.  I found a Mead 4501 for sale for only $25.00 dollars.  In talking with the seller, I confirmed that there were several issues with it...

• The Counter-weight attachment was broken
• He had lost all of the eye pieces

In other words, this was a project, not a working telescope.  The geek part of me said "Cool, let's have a look at it".

I met with the seller and found that this would be a major project.  The seller must have sense my hesitation, so he lowered the price to FREE.  How could I say no?

I took it home.

The first issue to be addressed was the broken counter weight.  The counter weight rod is screwed into a holder which is attached to the mount with three screws.  It was the screw holes on the mount that was broken.  In talking with Bill at Telescope Warehouse, he suggested a repair - drill new holes and use J-B Weld.

I took the mount to my friend Martin who successfully repaired it.

The second issue was the missing eyepieces.  The scope uses 0.965 eyepieces.  My Celestron uses 1.25 inch.  Again, Bill at Telescope Warehouse solved the issue.  He sold me a 1.25 eyepiece connector for the focuser of my scope.

I received it earlier this week and I tested my project scope yesterday.  The results were promising.

The Mead 4501 has a focal length of 910 mm.  I was using my 10 mm eyepiece so the magnification was 91x - 910/10 = 91x.  From my garage, I focused on some tree tops across the way and only the very tops were visible.

Last night was cloudy, but the forecast for tonight is for partly cloudy.  As such, I may be able to do a better test tonight.

Monies spent on the project.

$0 for the telescope
$7.50 for the focuser top

December 11, 2016

While the sun was setting, I noticed that the sky was only partly obscured by clouds.  Cool, let's the the telescope out.

I got my Celestron 70 mm Travel Scope mounted to the Orion AutoTracker out to the back desk.  I was early; it was civil twilight, but I could see Venus in the south.  I brought it up and I could almost see a crescent.  I used both my 10 mm and 6 mm eyepieces.

The moon was in the east so I moved out to the driveway.  The 6 mm eyepiece did not fit the entire moon while the 10 mm had the moon about 1/2 of the view.

I only spent a few minutes viewing as the clouds were beginning to cover the sky.

Goals for the next clear night...

1)  Pleiades
2)  Use the binoculars - what is viewing with them like?

I have been interested in Astronomy since I was a young child.  Well, those days are over but I still have the interest.

This blog will serve to record my journey into Astronomy.  I will write about my learning about astronomy, my Astro Viewing and just a place for me to keep notes.