Astrovelo

His "Wonders" TV programmes tend to send me to sleep and I don't see why he has to go to all these exotic places and up in supersonic jets/vomit comets all the time. His books are quite good though. I recommend "Why does E=mc2" - goes a bit slower than "A Brief History of Time" and tends to explain things that Hawkins glosses over, though it doesn't cover all the same range of topics.

I live about 10 miles North of Sutton Bank and would have dark skies if it weren't for Teesside. Can usually just see the Milky Way/M31 and I counted 7 stars in Pegasus' square. Never tried from Sutton Bank itself. Having just installed solar panels I can tell you that the North York Moors create their own cloud with most wind directions during the day. Very frustrating! It sometimes clears after dark when it's been cloudy all day so I can enjoy a bit of star-gazing.

Done. Put it on my Facebook page too. Steve

Sorry to here this. John did some restoration work on my Cooke 3.25in PV refractor in the late 1990's . Visiting his workshop then was a fascinating experience. We will miss characters like him. Steve

Thanks for that, John. Boroughbridge is just down the road from me. Steve

Hi Richard, Thanks for the compliments on the 'scope. I was going to refer you to a discussion I found on the Cloudy Nights forum but I see YOU were the author of the comments I found were of interest! I found your website and the gallery of pics really interesting, especially the 'scope you found for the famous rock guitarist! Actually, I was a research chemist before I retired and worked on metal corrosion so you may have something there. If there was galvanic corrosion caused by the junction of two different metals in the lens mount then maybe the metal corrosion product might attack the Schott glass. This would be very slow but over the years humidity might transport the corrosion product through the lens assembly if it was soluble. Or maybe the sprung lens just kept the glass junction tighter? Steve

Pleased to join the SGL. I'm not entirely new to astronomy having got an O level (remember those?) in 1967 but I haven't done a lot since then. My wife just bought me a SkyWatcher Explorer 130M for my birthday and I have enjoyed spending a perishing few hours looking at the Moon, Jupiter , M31, etc last week. I still have an antique Cooke Photovisual Refractor from my youth - 3.25 inch objective, 48 inch EFL. I've posted some pictures in another thread: http://stargazerslounge.com/discussions-scopes-whole-setups/73935-lens-designs.html#post2144540 That's all for now. Steve

I am a new member and so coming to this thread a bit late in the day. I've had a Cooke PV 3.25inch refractor, dating from 1895, since the 1960s. The lens still looks good to me, but maybe I don't know what to look for! I'm not sure if the tube is Cooke's own as there is no maker inscription. Interestingly, the eyepieces are labelled in mm rather than inches so maybe it's a German tube. The 'scope does need some restorative work, particularly on the rack and pinion focussing. And a respray as you can see ... The head of the tripod was replaced by a solid oak piece to exactly the same size. This needs varnishing but where do you get shellac these days!? Steve