Hi everybody my name is Jody, I am from Austin TX and I am new to this board. I have been casually messing with my telescope (Meade ETX 70EC) since I got it for Christmas in '99 up until last night when it broke. And guess what Meade quit repairing them a couple of months ago. I have been looking through yellow pages and Google and I have not had any luck finding someone that can repair it. Does anyone out there have any ideas? If I can't get this thing fixed I won't be doing any stargazing any time soon since getting a new scope would be pretty impossible right now. Please help!!

Please tell us what is broken.

And welcome to the board.

welcome!

Bummer about your scope.

Hope you get it fixed soon.

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

OK, the problem is that the scope no longer locks into place vertically. The lock knob on the side with motor threads into a small cylindrical piece that is connected to the tube on the other side of the fork arm. It is this cylinder that is broken. I could try to take some photos if it would help.

Thanks!

Yes. Photos of the broken part would be great. Or at least a link to a website that has a photo of the scope.

I have to cash it in for the night but someone here will be able to help.

Good Luck.

Here is a picture of my scope. The cylinder I spoke of goes from the tube through the fork arm on the right. The lock knob threads into this cylinder to connect it all together. If I could just find this one spare part, I think I would be okay.

Attached Images

scope (Large).jpg (111.9 KB, 21 views)

You might want to try cloudynights:

http://www.cloudynights.com

They have a lot of experts there, and probably someone who might even have spare parts. There are a LOT of users of the mead ETX scopes, so you should not have too much trouble getting it fixed. Might cost a bit, but definitely cheaper than buying a new one.

__________________
"What do you care what other people think?" -- Richard Feynman
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." -- Feynman, at the conclusion of his Challenger report

http://www.weasner.com/etx/menu.html

Start with the authority on the ETX telescope. You might also try Clay Sherrod.

I hate to sound like a broken record as I keep repeating this nearly every thread here. See your local astronomy club!

There's a good astro club in Austin.
http://www.austinastro.org
Contact: cdave@us.ibm.com
There you can get hands on help from many guys who know telescopes.

Rick

Thanks everybody for the suggestions. I got home today and decided to take my telescope apart. I was able to pinpoint exactly what was broken. Turns out it is just a little piece of plastic. I have now used some epoxy to try and glue it back together. Hopefully this works for the meantime, but I would really like to find that spare part and replace it correctly. I don't know the name of it, but if anyone happens to run across the part pictured below, please let me know.

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	scope 001 (Large).jpg (93.6 KB, 11 views)
	scope 003 (Large).jpg (94.5 KB, 9 views)
	scope 004 (Large).jpg (104.6 KB, 10 views)
	scope 005 (Large).jpg (89.2 KB, 11 views)

Well I've quickly learned that this is a pointless endeavor. I'm just going to toss this piece of crap. Maybe I'll smash it first. Looks like I'm out of the telescope game now.

Where did you learn that? Noone has the part, or could make it? Maybe check with a machine shop and see if they can make a part out of aluminum?

Why pointless?

__________________
"What do you care what other people think?" -- Richard Feynman
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." -- Feynman, at the conclusion of his Challenger report

I take it epoxy didn't work. don't give up yet! Try a cyanoacrylate glue (Super Glue, Krazy Glue) first.

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson