Meade 12” Questions

[Alpena67]

I stumbled on a guy that was selling an old Meade 12” SCT. His mother had just passed and this was her telescope. It’s in beautiful condition and was pretty complete. The vintage appears to be late 80’s as it just has the base motor drive, no hand held. I have an 8” Meade SCT I purchased new in 1988 and this looks like a replica of it, only larger. The price was a give away so I picked it up. Is there a way to convert this to a modern handheld controller? Are there any updates anyone would recommend? I purchased an enhanced coated 2” diagonal for it as my plan for this scope is mostly deep sky. The fork mount is not as robust as the lx200 version and it doesn’t have the heavy duty field tripod but for mostly visual I’m hoping it won’t be a big deal.

[Lady Fraktor]

You should email Meade Tech, they will be able to answer your question about the different HC compatibility.

[Alpena67]

I’ll try to give them a call. Thanks for the suggestion.