TheSkySearchers

I may be able to pick this up next week for $50 if no one buys it before the price drops. Local, no shipping.
It looks complete and I think the mount would also hold my small CAT which really needs a better mount anyway.
The one on sale is an older version but seems to be in pretty decent shape.
Anyone have any experience with this model?

Not with the specific model but this is a Jones-Bird style reflector.
Usually a spherical mirror and a corrector either placed in the focuser tube or in front of the secondary mirror.
Good for low to mid powers, if super finicky with collimation you might get it to do mid-high power as well.

Yes as mentioned a BJ scope with the corrector in the focus tube , I had the older version but could not get it to focus properly , probably the worst scope I ever had, but had other BJ scopes (celestron ) that worked quite well . Its cheap so worth a try
You will need to do some modifications to the mount in order to attach another scope as its made to only handle that OTA

Richard wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:35 am Yes as mentioned a BJ scope with the corrector in the focus tube , I had the older version but could not get it to focus properly , probably the worst scope I ever had, but had other BJ scopes (celestron ) that worked quite well . Its cheap so worth a try
You will need to do some modifications to the mount in order to attach another scope as its made to only handle that OTA

The other OTA I'm trying to mount is a 90mm CAT. I should be able to fabricate a 12mm thick sleeve to mate it to the Meade mount without too much play.

Like you say, cheap so worth a try.

Yes if you are able to mount a small Mac on it it should work quite well , it will certainly be a lot more stable

me: "Hi, my name is Gary."

telescopes anonymous: "Hi Gary!"

me: "I haven't bought a used telescope in 47 minutes."

It was still there. I took fresh batteries and a lens with me. There was a little corrosion in the battery holder which I scraped off with a pocket knife.
As soon as I turned it on it tried to initialize. The hand controller responded to each button press with what seemed like a proper action and the the mount did slew and elevate under its own power.
I couldn't think of anything else to test in the store so I took it. $50.00

Once I get it apart and cleaned and I find the correct model-specific manual I'll do a more thorough set up and testing. If it still checks out, I'll try to adapt the 90mm CAT to it.

Update:

First night out with good seeing and the mount failed miserably. Serious slippage in the drive train. I don't like opening gear boxes but at this point I don't have much choice. Glad it was only $50.

Good luck, hopefully it is something simple to repair.

GCoyote wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 4:38 am First night out with good seeing and the mount failed miserably.

That's a shame. Hope you can get it up and running. A fun project nevertheless!

Regards

Graeme

The motor housing on these scopes are weak and tend to break especially in the AZ axis , perhaps people try to move it manually and break it.
Is it slipping on both Alt and Az ? if only on the Alt then perhaps the clutch needs to be adjusted a bit by tightening the circular knob
Good luck any way , its easy to take apart so that you can check if anything is broken , I had 2 of these the 130 and the 114 and both had the motor housings broken , I glued them together and it worked , but if you have a 3d printer then perhaps make new ones

Richard wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 7:45 am The motor housing on these scopes are weak and tend to break especially in the AZ axis , perhaps people try to move it manually and break it.
Is it slipping on both Alt and Az ? if only on the Alt then perhaps the clutch needs to be adjusted a bit by tightening the circular knob
Good luck any way , its easy to take apart so that you can check if anything is broken , I had 2 of these the 130 and the 114 and both had the motor housings broken , I glued them together and it worked , but if you have a 3d printer then perhaps make new ones

Slipping occurs on both axes. I won't have time to pull the cover off for a day or two.

And thanks to scopeheadbill, I have the correct clamshell en route to put my 90mm on this mount. Now I really have to get it sorted out!

The slipping problem turned out to be a worn worm gear. Bill has that too.

It's Alive!

I successfully replaced the worm gear with a used but much less worn one from Telescope Warehouse.

Good job!!
That mount should be good for the 90