tuckstar Posted November 12, 2023 Share Posted November 12, 2023 (edited) So, story goes, I am approached by a lady who has inherited a 6" mirror cell from her father and wanted to see if it was worth donating to a museum. I now have the mirror in my possession along with the secondary spider and what looks like a RAS eyepiece and another massive eyepiece. So the question is do you guys know anything about the maker??? The mirror is inscribed as H N Irving & son dated as Nov 1954 f8.3. The secondary is also inscribed with H N Irving & son but the silver has all but gone. I know they made quality mirrors and the son, Ron H Irving, took over the company when his dad died in 1941 so its a later one. I found Ron Irving's obituary. I have seen that the science museum have a collection of H N Irving items so I will be trying to contact them to see if they are interested. If not it may be put up for grab. So just thought I'd share a bit of telescope history and see if anyone knew more about them and the mirror set. Edit. Not my photos, no way I'd put a mirror face down on a table!!! Edited November 12, 2023 by tuckstar +RonC, philjay and +Streetbob 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted November 12, 2023 Share Posted November 12, 2023 Very nice at one time Irvings were the go to suppliers for ATMs. Ive had a few scooes over the years with Irving stuff on them, namely focusers which were quite basic but worked, i,ve had an Irving altaz mount as well. The R Irving obituary is what I have seen in the past. Not much on H Irving Im afraid. tuckstar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuckstar Posted November 12, 2023 Author Share Posted November 12, 2023 Its from 1954 so it would of been made by Ron Irving rather than his dad Horace. Can't help but think it would make a planet killing newt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuckstar Posted December 1, 2023 Author Share Posted December 1, 2023 So the science museum have said they don't want the mirror set due to lack of provenance, so the next step is to list them for sale. I'll be listing it on astro buy and sell. If anyone interested let me know. If no interest I'll be looking for a 150pl tube if anyone has one they don't want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuckstar Posted December 4, 2023 Author Share Posted December 4, 2023 So it appears that the mirror set is actually a Henry Wildey mirror, who made the mirrors for Irving and Fuller in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted December 13, 2023 Share Posted December 13, 2023 Nice one, Wildey also did objectives for Irving and fuller, I've had 2 over the years and they have been excellent. tuckstar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now