My Meade 10" Starfinder EQ didn't quite work the way I liked when it came out of its box. The mounting just did not work too well. These pages are a collection of things that I've done to my Meade to make it a bit more stable, steady, and user-friendly.
Although the mechanicals of my scope were a bit subpar, the optics in my Meade are outstanding. If all of these scopes have optics as good as mine, then in my opinion the purchase price of the whole scope is worth it even if you end up discarding the entire mount and OTA. That's probably a bit extreme, though - with a little bit of work, the Meade Starfinder equatorial mount can work out just fine.
Warning: Doing all this stuff almost certainly invalidates your Meade warranty. All of the information on these pages is my own opinion, and is not necessarily objectively factual. I make no warranty or guarantee that the information I provide will work for all 10" Meade Starfinders, or that they will work for you. I also make no guarantee that the modifications outlined in these pages won't actually hurt the telescope. Users of the information on these pages should be familiar with some fundamental telescope making concepts before practicing what I preach. My purpose in doing this to my own scope is to improve it, so anything on this page improved my own scope in my own opinion. YMMV.
Improvement 1: Disassemble and Tweak the Mount.
Improvement 2: Upgrades to the OTA
Improvement 3: Lopping Off Some of that Excess Pier Height
Improvement 4: An Accessory Tray for the Pier, White Warning Spots for the Legs
(I've not included a how-to page on this, because how to do these things should be pretty obvious.)
Improvement 5: A Working Clock Drive
MAPUG, the Meade Advanced Products Users Group (Mostly SCT Information)
The MAPUG Topical Archives (Mostly SCT Information)
Into astrophotography? You might try making the
Sewerguide 2000 Guide Scope Mount, by Robert Haler
Though not related to the Meade Starfinder, you might want to check
out Keith Wichman's page about the Criterion Dynascope.
It has a lot of good advice about restoring telescopes
that might be useful.
Jeff Medkeff's home page.
Jeff's astronomy pages.
Copyright © Jeff Medkeff, 2002, All Rights Reserved.