Crayford focuser for meade refractor

[Mariner]

Hi All,
I have searched the net but to no avail, I need some IIS expertise. My refrator is a cheap but cheerful Meade Starnavigator 102mm. I think it is about f7.7 or there abouts. I paid about $199US for it at costco last october. It has a nasty (but surprisingly stiff), very lightweight tripod. It has a really effective goto mount on it (the same meade 497 handset alone retails here for about the same price that I paid for everything - also had a 9mm & 26mm EP and software). I love it! THe eyepieces were pretty average and the diagonal was very flimsy. I replaced the diaginal with a better one from orion and I use my TV 32 and 15mm plossls instead of the EPs that came with it. I am very satisfied with it. Until I can afford a really nice refractor - this will do. This has been worth every penny as my 6yr old daughter struggles with the 12" dob but loves this little one - how many six yr olds can say they have seen the eye on jupiter or its moons or saturns rings - I wish I had at that age!
Having said all this (sorry about being long winded), I am very keen to get a good value crayford focuser for it as the rack style focuser with no fine adjustment that the scope came with as standard is the pits. I see that bintel sell several different sizes but, I have no idea which size would fit my scope? Does anyone know this scope or have any ideas what the inner diameter is or should be for fitting of a new focuser? Or how I even do it?

Any assistance would be very much appreciated.
Regards, Frank.

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi
I have a similar telescope and agree it has a terrible focusing arrangement. However I don't think a crayford focuser will fit directly on it. The closest would be the one to fit an 88mm tube. To make it fit you may need to have some workshop facilities.

My 8 year old grandaughter thinks the scope is wonderful however, because it is all her's

Barry

[renormalised]

None of the Bintel focusers will fit your scope, they're either too small or too large. There will be a focuser that will fit, but you'll have to do some searching around to find one.

[Mariner]

Hello ALl,
I have been doing a lot of searching all over the world. Seems that it can be done [fitting a crayford focuser on to a 102mm meade refractor like mine] but it hasn't been done yet. A couple of people have done it to different but very similar scopes such as the 2090 and 2102 - but not the starnavigator.

I intend to boldly go where no where no man or woman has ever gone before.........what was I saying, oh yeah, anyway I will be taking my little refractor apart and and making a crayford 2" fit it - one way or another.

I have found a store that sells the focusers for it, I may have to modify the focuser plate a little thats all. A few people on another forum (mostly in the US) have done it to the two above mentioned scopes.

I intend to write a how (not) to on this as I am sure there is a few of these little 102mm meades with lovely viewing but horrible fuscusing like mine.

Stay tuned...........
Best regards, F.

[renormalised]

Split your infinitives but be very careful not to split your scope's tube!!!:):P

[mercedes_sl1970]

Hi

You could try Crawmach (http://crawmach.com/TelescopeAcce.aspx) in the US. They make adapters to various sizes for their 1.25" and 2" inch crayfords which have had good reviews on Cloudynights, and are reasonably priced.

Andrew

[Mariner]

Hi Andrew, thanks for that, I just sent them an email and asked about the adapter plate, if they could do it (which being a machine shop they should have no problem making such things). I read a thread in the cloudynights forum about a week ago talking about crawmach (which I found through a google search) and couldn't find it again - and also couldn't remember their name, no matter how much I searched, I had all but given up.

THe search continues once again........................

Thanks again, you may have changed the whole tale I am going to tell once I complete this saga.... it may have read "after breaking my scope while trying to retrofit a GSO crayford focuser..."

Regards, F.

[Mariner]

Hello All,
I have just officially placed my order for a two speed crayford for my meade starnavigator 102 with crawmach. Danny from crawmach could not have been more helpful. He is very prompt in replying to all emails. He asked for the following dimensions of the scope: ID, OD and the distance of the mounting screw holes from the tube end.

If anyone is interested, the relevant dimensions of my scope are....
Inner diameter - 69.7mm
Outer Diameter of tube - 93.9mm
Distance of screws from end of tube - 12mm (hole centre)

So, if anyone else has this model of scope, I pulled my focuser out so that you don't have to (although, if was going to buy a new focuser I would still advise taking your own measurements to be absolutely sure).

I will have to wait about 3 weeks or so as they are flat out. I also contacted bintel and scopestuff - they were both really helpful as well. However, the reason that I went with crawmach over the other two places that stock what looks like the GSO version is because crawmach make crayfords to just bolt right up to your tube. Also they make them in their own shop to your specs on the adaptor plate.

Are these focusers better than the GSOs??? I have no idea, but as Andrew says below, they have a really good rap on the forums. THey build them out of quality parts and materials. THey also have a very respectable 4.5 inches of travel on the focuser (the stock rack focuser has 5.5 inches). THe proof as they say will be in the pudding....so i will see.

Regards, Frank.

[mercedes_sl1970]

Frank

Sounds good. I'll be very interested to hear how you find the new focuser.

Andrew

[Mariner]

Wow!! Has it really been that long since I wrote that.....I just received a question about this....been very busy with family, work, study and life. As they have just started selling this telescope here at costco for a pretty measly sum I had better post up my mods for anyone interested.

Long story short, focuser is very good and makes a huge improvement to the poor quality standard unit. This scope with a 13m Nagler on the back porch is great for Orion Nebula.

Also have a new tripod for it which, obviously, improves stability as well.

Will post soon. Sorry so slow on the details......

Mariner.

[Kunama]

Hello Frank, Just for your info: Crawmach is no longer in business ! They disappeared from the radar 4 months ago along with several $$$ from customers and even some people's scopes and lenses. My $$$ included.
Not sure who would make such focusers these days.

[Nastyacidnoise]

Thanks Mariner and Kunama (I was the one who contacted Mariner after drawing a blank with Crawmatch). Sorry to hear that they absconded with peoples stuff.

Mariner - yes I couldn't pass up this CostCo bargain. I got a surprisingly good view of Jupiter and 4 moons with the supplied 9mm eyepiece the other night. I've now upgraded to an Orion Edge On Planetary 6mm and TeleVue 2x Barlow, which is lovely to look through, but this combo's weight and magnification really highlights how bad the focuser is.

I've been speaking to Bintel and ScopeStuff (as below, both very helpful). Looks like ScopeStuff may have an adaptor ring that could be machined down to size. They have a pic on their web site of a 2" Crayford 2 Speed Focuser on a Meade DS2090, padded out with 1mm plastic shim. It looks like a very similar scope so I hoping for an easy solution. I'm waiting to hear back from them.

Dane

[MattT]

I made my own flange and bought an Antares adaptor from Agena Astro for my refractor. It took around 5 hours of drilling, filing and sanding to get it to fit. I used aluminium 12mm thick and a 6mm thick plate to make it all pretty. Also included a push pull adjustment. Much quicker than waiting for replies etc and cost next to nothing.
I will do a write up of the scope in the ATM section when it is finished...soon!
The focuser is a GSO Crayford from Andrews, which cost $129, a price that can't be beaten anywhere :eyepop: Don't know how they do it for that price.

When this is finished I am doing a new focuser on my 70mm f7 refractor that has an awful plastic r+p... this involves taking out the objective and putting it in a new tube 100 mm diameter, big enough for a 2" Crayford focuser..more drilling, filing and sanding coming up.
Matt

[Nastyacidnoise]

That's quite some drilling, filing and sanding MattT. Impressive effort.

I went with ScopeStuff as Jim could supply me with a plastic shim that makes the Caryford fit neatly into the Meade. In the end it wasn't long waiting for replies - they were usually overnight - it was the US Postal service that took the time. $50 in "express" postage that ended up taking 3 weeks and couldn't even be tracked after it left the US. But it finally arrived the other day and I installed it easily, only to find that it doesn't have enough back focus.

The Meade seems to only focus on things when the stock focus mechanism is near fully extended. I presume this extreme backfocus allows it to focus on terrestrial objects as well, but the end result is a severly droopy focus mechanism due to it's inferior plastic design.

I know that I can buy an appropriate extension tube for about $50 delivered from Bintel, but I'm now wondering if it's worth spending any more money on. Besides, the Goto doesn't seem to be all that accurate and it occasionally gets a bit squirrely - it will find one object and then when I try to go to the next it just does continual laps of the sky until I reboot and realign.

By the time I've upgraded everything that needs it, my original $320 will be for a tube and 4" objective lens. I can get a top quality 4" istar objective for that kind of money. The reviews were right in that this is a good beginners scope for the price, but in reality I think most beginners would tire of it as quickly as I have.

It might be good for wide fields under dark skys, but here in the 'burbs I can't see much at all with it. I might test the CosCo returns policy and put the money towards a 'real' scope. At least I have a Crayford and some nice eyepieces ready for the next one.