philjay Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 There is no hope for me I am a classic scope aholic. I was at the auctions the other day and these 2 boxes were there and I wasnt going to bid but I had been out bid on 7 out of 8 items that the wife had asked me to bid on for her business and I went for it. I bid a little more than I wanted to but it was worth it. So here are the 1st tantalising photos of the boxes one for the mount the other for the scope Any guesses as to what mightpiece of lovely old astro stuff may be lurking inside? Heres a clue, its British and late 80s to mid 1990s ish sort of like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted November 30, 2012 Author Share Posted November 30, 2012 (edited) I can see your all champing at the bit to know what it is So heres a few more pics I took this afto Its an Orion Optics 200mm F6 Newtonian, yes me owning a nasty reflector, been toying with the idea for some time and when one turned up at the local auction house I couldnt help myself. Its been a well loved scope and the previous owner has built the custom fitted drates for it out of MDF which have protected it well The optics were bang on with the laser when I went to the auction viewing so that shows how rugged these scopes are, even though the engineering is a little primitive by modern computer cnc machining standards. The RA drive is a Beacon Hill 6.5" worm and wheel set, wonderful piece of kit. It came with 2 circle T (Towa) volcano top eyepieces as well as finder and barlow. The optics were a little milky when tested thursday night and closer inspection shows re aluminising is in order. I shall take the mirror set to OO in Stoke monday to have them sorted. Anywho here are a few pics Im gonna enjoy this project, already started flocking the tube insides Edited November 30, 2012 by philjay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted November 30, 2012 Share Posted November 30, 2012 Looking at the photos of the mirror I can see it needs a recoat, being 6" it won't cost to much, are you going the whole hog and going ultra spec. Is the RA drive nad worm Bronze? They look so cool, I would love one of those huge ones. Overall a fantastic find. Your retirement is paying off Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ibbo Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 we all wanted no lusted over these in the day well done Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 Ahhh nostalgia - you can't beat it - nice scope Phil - hope you got a good price Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted December 1, 2012 Author Share Posted December 1, 2012 Its an 8" Mick but no doubt I will go for Hilux to make it worthwhile. Yep as soon as I saw it I was transported back to those halcyon days of agricultural engineering and no goto, I had to give it a go. I did have some competition in the auction room so I paid a little over what my top price was but I reckon in the end I oaid the right price. According to the porter my main competition was a chairman of a local astro society, didnt recognise anyone tho so I wonder who it was I flocked the tube last night and will be taking the mirrors to OO next week looking forward to lookingvthrough it properly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted December 1, 2012 Share Posted December 1, 2012 You will soon have as many scope's as Kim. It does look good though. The mount ain't going to fall over in a breeze is it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted December 2, 2012 Author Share Posted December 2, 2012 Im not counting Martyn, I darent The mount aint that bad actually, if its on firm ground it takes a wee while to settle but generally its OK. I am going to put a new focuser on it later as I just cannot take the OO one thats on it, it is awful. I shall then fit a motofocus which Ive had hanging around for awhile. I will be using the scope on my HEQ5 and maybe the CGE so I doubt the original mount will get much use except for nostalgic outings. Still dont know the figure of the mirror, hopefully OO will be able to tell me when I take it in for aluminising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted December 2, 2012 Share Posted December 2, 2012 Looks like a nice winter project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted December 7, 2012 Author Share Posted December 7, 2012 Just picked up the mirrors from Orion, now that was quick, I only dropped them off on monday. Ive just opened the package up having asked for and paid for standard coatings and look whats on the side, apparently they were doing a hilux run and threw mine in as well. Great stuff Dont new mirrors look nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Wow that looks so nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Beautiful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Stroke of luck there Phil - very nice indeed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted December 7, 2012 Author Share Posted December 7, 2012 (edited) Met Barry and John and the asked them again about the scope serial number and apparently it is a 1996 model made September the 14th apparently the serial numbers work backwards to keep it secret I spose Edited December 7, 2012 by philjay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Amazing they know the exact date it was made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted December 9, 2012 Author Share Posted December 9, 2012 Well, 1st light was a success tonight once I got used to using a newt on an eq mount, its not natural It took awhile to align the finder scope as I had not bothered to sort this out previously and there were siezed scews etc making life difficult. Once sorted I was bagging dsos nicely. The star of the show was Jupiter though, the detail was excellent although the view was not as contrasty as my refractor it was still nice and the blue filter brought out some excellent details in the belts The focuser has to go, it is awful, i reckon I shall fit a vixen dt to it and mount it on my heq5 next and see how it performs then Im well pleased Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ibbo Posted December 9, 2012 Share Posted December 9, 2012 Sounds good Phil would have loved one of these scopes the OO focusers are a bit agricultural shall we say Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 The focuser isnt the only thing thats agricultural Steve. In their day these were the dogs danglies but it was all old technology even then. The optics are excelent but locking 3 screws in different places with different allen keys just to get the mount driving was a pain even then. The tube rings are quite amusing, they are the old rolled steel ones which is OK except the diameter varies from 8.5" to 9" making rotating the tube fun. However I feel a few mods coming on, no 1 is the focuser and no 2 is the mount, I shall make an adapter for my HEQ5 to fit the pier and that should take the scope nicely and bring it into the 21st century Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 Well after a little tinkering Ive managed to get the scope onto my HEQ5, Ive also fitted a proper finder shoe on it. Ive put it on an HEQ5 tripod temporarily but it will go back on its pier as the tripod is too wobbly even with the rubber boots off the feet. Still got to sort the focuser but Im looking forward to putting this through its paces tonight weather permitting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Looking good Phil, didn't you say the mirror needed re-coating? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 Yep Martyn, I took it down the road to OO at Stoke, just 20 mins ish from me on a good day, they gave me Hilux, see above. Tests so far show good optics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Didn't see that, Iam getting on a bit you know! Well, that should now be a clouting scope. Look forward to your opinion of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 I managed another play with the scope between scudding clouds and sleet showers, the wind was buffeting the scope and me and I was hopping from clear patch to clear patch so it wasnt a serious session more an assessment of whether I should invest a bit more time in this scope My main subjects were Jupiter, M42 and M31. Atmospherics made observation of Jupiter really difficult but even so every so often conditions would hold for a few seconds and I managed to grab some lovely views of the planet with my 13, 5 and even 3.5mm Vixen eyepieces, giving 92x, 240x and 342x. A wratten #80 (blue) filter helped with contrast. The GRS was dead easy to see and there was plenty of detail around the turbulence to be seen, a couple of festoons were easy to see as well. When the clouds cleared out the way properly the image was nice and bright giving plenty of room for using different filters without dimming. M42 in visual and H beta was extremely good with loads of detail around the trapezium, fishes mouth and further into nebula itself. M31 was big and bright with a 40mm (30x) celestron eyepiece M32 was bright and even M110 was dead easy to see. So my conclusions are that this scope is definately worth spending some time on. The focuser is the next thing to go as the existing one is attrocious then some attention is needed on the rings. I am starting to think of this as being a good planetary imaging scope as the brightness of the image and detail are just right for that job, hmmmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Fantastic, it sounds a good investment. It's a good looking scope as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philjay Posted January 3, 2013 Author Share Posted January 3, 2013 Had one more day away from restarting the decorating to get the mount sorted. Using the scope the other night on a tripod was a pain, its bad enough a refractor freak like me trying to get used to using a newt but the tripod was just in the way all the time and surprisingly wasnt that stable. Soooo I made an adapter from a 4" billet of ali on the lathe to fit the HEQ5 to the original scopes pier Just messing with it in the yard and doing test slews showed it to be more stable and much more useable than the tripod. Im quite enjoying revitalising this scope.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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