Last updated: 03/22/03
My primary telescope is a Meade DS2130 ATE. Meade makes a DS2130 ATS (a
shorter version of the ATE), a DS2130 AT, a DS2114 AT, and a DS2114 ATS as well. The
differences are as follows:
DS2130 ATE - Primarily distributed by WalMart. I'm unsure of any other availability
of this particular model. I believe the DS2130 AT is the same, for most purposes, though.
The 2130ATE and AT have a aperture of 130mm, focal length of 1020mm, and a focal
ratio of f/7.9. OTA dimensions: 5.7"x38"
DS2130 ATS - The shorter version of the ATE/AT. Aperture of 127mm, focal length
of 1000mm, focal ratio of f/7.9. OTA dimensions: 5.7"x18"
DS2114 AT - Aperture of 114mm, focal length of 910mm, focal ratio of f/8. OTA dimensions: 5.5"x34"
DS2114 ATS - Aperture of 114mm, focal length of 1000mm, focal ratio of f/8.8. OTA dimensions: 5.5"x18"
Some notes on the differences. OTA is Optical Tube Assembly. This is basically the
tube itself with diameter and length as the two components. The 2114 scopes are basically
a bit smaller aperture, so slightly less light collection. The DS2130ATE is a great
deal from WalMart at about $350. One of the best scopes you can get for the money.
It's a bit bigger than the short versions, but the tradeoff is slightly better
performance vs. more difficult to transport and handle in general.
Home Position
Setting one of these scopes to home position is a
bit tricky, and here's how I do it. Thanks to Dave Guinn for the advice. It works
like a charm. You want to set the telescope in the home position prior to
alignment. Unfortunately, the Azimuth and Altitude circles on the mounting
arm and tripod base are pretty useless. They seem to come loose, and once they
do, they're worthless. The only piece of bad engineering I've found on this scope.
Fortunately, a compass (optional) and a level (necessary), fix this for you. I
bought a cheap compass and level (total cost around $6) from WalMart. Check the
level before you buy. Make sure it's really level. I use an 8" level and compared
it to others there, and took the one that seemed most accurate.
The compass is optional because to get the telescope headed north, all
you really need to do is point to the north star. I find the compass useful
when the north star is obscured for some reason, though.
Getting the telescope leveled is far more important than being accurately
pointed north. How I do it is to try to level the tripod base by eye, first.
I then bring the OTA parallel to the ground and place the level on it. You
want the telescope to be level and minor adjustments with the controller can
achieve this. Now, with the level on top of the OTA, I rotate the tube 90
degrees in one direction. It is likely you will see that it tilts to one side or
the other. By minor adjustments to the legs, and minor adjustments to the OTA
altitude, you'll eventually find that you can rotate 360 degrees keeping the tube
fairly level throughout. It takes practice and is sometimes a pain, but I can
usually pull it off in 1-3 minutes.
Once you have it leveled, aim the telescope due north, using either Polaris
(the north star) as your guide, or a compass. To line it up with the compass,
I usually stand behind the OTA and try to get the compass to point towards the
front of the OTA. This is easier than doing it side-by-side or on top of the scope,
I find.
One more note on Home Position. Follow the manual on getting the OTA balanced
properly in the cradle ring. If your tube is unbalanced, it will cause the motors
to work much harder than they need to, and may affect accuracy of Gotos
Alignment
Once in the home position, choose any of the alignment options. If you're
perfectly level, the 1 star alignment will work fairly well for objects in the
vicinity of your alignment star. However, I find the easy alignment and 2 star
alignment give me significantly better accuracy, to the point that a Goto on
almost any object, will appear in the field of vision with my 15mm plössl.
For the easy alignment, the system will pick a major star and automatically go
to the vicinity of this star. Once there, using the control pad, make minor
corrections to get the star dead-center in the FOV and press "Enter". The
system will then choose a second star and track to it. Do the same thing. Get the
star dead center, and press "Enter," and you're done.
For the 1 star and 2 star alignment, you can pick the stars yourself, which
is useful if part of the sky is obscured. For 2 star alignment, I try to get stars
that are fairly far apart, as the alignment tends to be more precise.
For auto-align, it may pick stars you're not familiar with. The better you
know your stars, the easier it is, though. In general, it picks stars that
are significantly brighter than surrounding stars, though, so you'll usually
be able to find the correct star even if you don't know what it is. The more
accurate your home position (especially the level), the easier this process is.
The two biggest problems I find in alignment are bad initial leveling, and
a aligning on the wrong star with easy alignment.
Once you're aligned, Goto should work like a charm. I find that good alignment,
and a well leveled scope, gives me really accurate gotos in almost any direction.
Eye Pieces
As I've said before, these scopes ship with 0.965" eye pieces that have 4mm,
12.5mm, and 25mm focal lengths. These pieces are usable, but you're not going
to get the most from your scope unless you move to larger, higher quality
eyepieces. A good size for these scopes is 1.25". I haven't used a 2" eyepiece
and don't know of anyone who has, with these scopes, so I don't know how much
of a performance boost one would get with them. The 1.25" eye pieces I've purchased
have ranged in price from $16-$25, on E-Bay
and were well worth it. My 2" to 1.25" adapter cost $25 on E-Bay, however I've
heard someone say they called Meade and Meade was happy to ship one for free
to them. As a side note, Meade's tech support is amazing. I've only had one
experience with them, but they were very courteous, insightful, and helpful.
They actually let you talk to a human being, which is hard to find these days.
Kudos to them.
I'm not an expert on eye pieces, but I was told that the Plössl type eyepieces
are generally considered good general use eyepieces, and they have proven
to be just that for me. There's no comparison in the view. It was like adding another
2-3 inches to my aperture/mirror diameter, in terms of the improved view. So,
it's definitely worth the expense. The other good thing is that you can re-use
these eyepieces if you ever upgrade to a better telescope.
