Good morning. I will soon be coming into possession of a couple of nice little refracting scopes. Both look to be in excellent condition. Neither were previously used for astronomy and I have some questions about them.
One is an inexpensive Meade 70 AZ-TR. From what I read, while not expensive, seems well made. However, it has an integrated click stop diagonal that will have to go. There was a post a long time ago here on CN by someone who had one who said he replaced it with a regular diagonal but he never responded when asked how he did it. Does anyone know enough about this scope to know how to take the diagonal out still be able to put 1.25" eyepieces and cameras in and out? FWIW I do not have the scope and I do not know exactly when it will be shipped to me.
I'd also know what I would need to get to be able to mount that scope piggyback on my 1985 C8.
The other is a Quantaray 12-60x60mm spotting scope, which is a strange looking thing with a kink in the middle, sort of like 1/2 of a pair of binoculars. I would consider using it as finder, but is has red coated optics, which I know little about. Will they make the image too dark to use at night for astronomy?
Also, that scope does not have a uniform barrel diameter, so I'm again not sure what kind of bracket I would need should I choose to use it as a finder. Do they make finder brackets that could handle this? I suppose I could put some sort of ring around it to bump out the diameter where the rear finder bracket screws would hold it.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Edited by Borodog, 10 January 2021 - 09:39 AM.