Need Help Triple Image

I could use some help I have a scope that I rescued from the scrap pile it is a Mead 114 Reflector and is in good cond but when I look at an object I see three Images, like at the moon one is in the middle and one on boths sides kinda lighter !! What can I do to correct this problem
Any Help would be great!!
Thank you
Jack Bitters

I want to thank everyone who offered there help with this problem.
So many folks jumped rite in with suggestions, and the help was more than I could ask for
the people on this forum were very helpful.
It turned out to be when I took the scope apart to clean and paint it, I took apart the secondary Mirror and when I reassembled it I put the mirror in backwards so when viewing I was looking thru the glass then to the mirror and this caused the ghosting images.
I set the scope up tonight and the images are brite & crisp My son loves his new scope when looking at the moon he can see lots of detail and no triple Images.
So my son and I wish to thank everyone for there help!!!
Also If this comes up again we will know what the problem most likely mite be.

Jack & Patrick Bitters

Jack:

Hopefully the problem is that it needs to be collimated, ie aligned. Here is a link that should help:


http://larryg54.home.texas.net/collimat/notools2.html

There are a couple of varieties of the Meade 114 reflector, the standard F8 with a tube that is about 36 inches long, the "short tube" variety with a tube that is about 20 inches long. The standard version is easier to collimate and should provide better images as well...

Jon

If it is a standard newt, the problem is likely in the eyepiece. Do you have this problem with all eyepieces?

Alex

jack bitters said:
I could use some help I have a scope that I rescued from the scrap pile it is a Mead 114 Reflector and is in good cond but when I look at an object I see three Images, like at the moon one is in the middle and one on boths sides kinda lighter !! What can I do to correct this problem
Any Help would be great!!

That's a bizarre problem, seeing as you experience it with all the eyepieces. Still, if you can get your hands on someone else's eyepieces, which are known to work well with some telescope or another, try them out to confirm that it's the telescope, and not the eyepieces.

It just doesn't sound like a collimation issue, since all collimation does is align the telescope's optical axis with that of the eyepiece; it can't create a triple image all on its own. The only thing I can think of is that either the primary or the secondary, or both, is not a first-surface mirror like it ought to be, and you're getting ghost images off the front of the mirror. That seems unlikely, too, given that it's a Meade. Still, if that's the case, you're better off ditching the telescope and buying a new one.

One last possibility: Is your Meade a longish tube (around 3 to 4 feet long), or is it stubbier than that?

Well this does sound strange. Use the eyepieces in someone elses scope and see if they do the same thing. Unlikely though that all the eyepieces would be defective in the same way to cause the problem you are seeing.

Are you wearing glasses when you view through the scope? Only thing I could think of is that you have bifocals on and the image is bouncing off your glasses and back onto the eyepiece causing the 2 ghosted images.