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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.
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