Bought a Meade 826
Scored a nice deal ($100) after searching for a couple weeks. Fun weekend project to refurbish this vintage scope (late 70s-80s). I think it’s a Meade 826 and it came with two eyepieces, a Barlow and color filters. Already pointed it at Jupiter and saw its strips and moons.
I rinsed the mirror, touch-less with distilled water.
Repainted the EQ mount
Rebalance and realigned the scope
Collimated, but will verify with a calibration laser
Even the 1/10th motor works. I removed the cable since I won’t use it. I do plan on adding a on/off switch and see if I can make it battery operated.,
I want to try to take pictures with my phone. Are there mounts for that? What other fun things to look at? Also any pro hacks for searching objects, I’m using Stellarium app.
I also learned that you can use an EQ mount like point to mount (similar to a dobsonian) by ignoring the RA axis (keep it horizontal) and pivot around the azimuth/ Dec instead. This worked great when I got well balanced.