I purchased the Meade 80mm refractor at Costco for $200. All in all it is a pretty decent scope. The optics are quite good. The finder is pretty basic but usable. The Mount and tripod are OK. The telescope came with .965 eyepieces. The focuser is a 2" focuser which was adapted to .965. I machined a new 2" eyepiece adapter for the focuser. The telescope can now 1 1/4" eyepieces and 2" eyepieces, Figure 1.

Figure 1. I machined a new eyepiece adapter for 2" eyepieces. This photo shows the DS 80 with an 1 1/4" eyepiece and diagonal.

I bought the telescope for the drive and for using the refractor on another telescopes. I plan to use the drive on my 16" Cassegrain. $200 is pretty cheep for a computer drive system.

I decided to take advantage of the 2" focuser mod  on the DS 80 by completing an old project. I purchased a surplus 55mm plossel eyepiece some years back. The eyepiece was mounted in a large diagonal. I had make two adapters for each end of the diagonal so I could use it with 2" parts, Figure 2.

Figure 2. Completed 2" diagonal.

The body is aluminum and was painted olive drab. I repainted it flat black. The adapters to make the diagonal work with 2" eyepieces are made of pvc, Figure 3

Figure 3 The diagonal body and the two pvc adapters.

A union was machined to make the eyepiece end of the diagonal. an 2" pvc coupling was used to make the focuser end, Figure 3. Figure 3 is the diagonal in the 80mm refractor. A 60mm eyepiece is shown in the diagonal.

Figure 4. The 2" diagonal and eyepiece installed on the DS 80 Refractor

You can see the 2" adapter that I made for the focuser. I used the threaded portion of the original .965" adapter form Meade and pressed it into a pvc ring that I machined. 2" eyepieces on an 80mm refractor is pretty impressive.

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