AndyH

Excellent ! One step at a time and you'll have a cracking scope. I've never really heard a bad thing about the mirrors on the Dark Star scopes of this era. I reckon most folk opted for the higher grade optics, as I've noticed, there wasn't a huge difference in price from std(1/4pv) to higher(1/8pv) back then. Keep up the good work

But what's in the smaller box? Have fun !!

I think i may have used Galvoptics about 10 years ago?

Valve springs? Heh, maybe not quite but not far away. Incredibly difficult to compress between the fingers That's a good price for aluminising. I've been out of the loop regarding that stuff. Can you or anyone else recommend places to use?? Cheers, Andy

Note the extremely strong springs. Once collimated it stays there. Also, where the name sticker is, that's a piece of steel from a length of round bar, for balance. I can see the tooth marks where it was cut! The board is 19mm(3/4") thick. I'd guess optic focal lengths were whatever was available from their supplier at the time. As Jules says, a bit of fettling over time(no need to rush, just bit by bit) and you'll have a lovely scope. Sorry for all the underlining, my furry cat decided to walk accross the keyboard. No idea how that happened. My furry boy is an A class plonker at times.

My mirror cell is similar but has mirror clips. It's off the scope so I'll take some pics.

My opinion, but I like the blue hammerite colour. Quite iconic of Dark Star I reckon. My 6" is a deep copper colour. I think I prefer the blue though.

The 50mm finder objective is perfectly fine. Make it into a right angle version !!!!

Great stuff ! Like John, I'll find some pics of my mid 80's Dark Star catalogue. I take it they must have moved at some point as mine says ... "Ashley Heath, Market Drayton". I think my parents bought mine about 1986/7. I notice the following which will be of interest.... 10.20" / 60" Focal Length ... 2.25" secondary .... all low expansion Pyrex ..... main mirrors 25-30mm thick up to 16"...... double aluminised.... std models have normal optical quality..... custom models(yours) finest optical quality. I'll upload the pics once I find them on my old hard drive. I'll also take a few pics of my 6" Dark Star Dob's mirror cell

Just had a look on youtube vids of these...Wow!! A thing of beauty. Adding to my Santa list as I type Do they do any of the planets? I'd love a Mars one !

Yup. I've made a few R/A finders out of old/broken binoculars and when modifying my Klevtsov to a bigger focuser, that's when i was awakened to the frustrating world of available backfocus . Every milimeter counts !

Here is how the 71mm of the Tal diagonal works out. Please excuse the childlike attempts at straight lines in the pic . Also, ignore the fact that it's a special flanged Tal diag. Same sizes for the std nose ones. 46mm for the diagonal body light path plus the 25mm of the ep holder.

With a 1.25" mirror diagonal, in theory they should have the same or very similar light paths, BUT, it's the eyepiece holder on top that makes different diagonals vary.. eg: many are between 78-81mm, yet the Tal version is about 71mm, simply because it has a very low profile ep holder and no stop at it's bottom, so the ep can sometimes slip slightly into the diagonal body itself(without interfering with the light path or touching the mirror, unless it's got a very long chrome barrel bit) . Same idea for a std 90 deg prism, except the bigger the prism inside(giving a bigger clear aperture), the longer the light path. My Tak 1.25" prism(27mm clear aperture?) has a light path of 63mm, yet my bigger Tak prism(34mm clear aperture) has a light path of 81mm with it's big 2" ep holder. I could shave a few mm off that with an adpter similar to what Derek has done above(if i was only using 1.25" ep's). Mmmm. Hell, hope that isn't confusing. Sounded ok in my head

If you can laugh yet sigh and hear yourself saying 'oh dear' all at the same time, I think i did just that after reading statement #4 Fingers crossed !

Back on page 1, about half way down there is a pic of an ad for a Teegul 100(A tiny D-K). Thinking it cute at the time, low and behold after searching for other astro related stuff, I found a Japanese equivalent of UKAstroBuySell. Whilst flipping through the pages, what should I find but that very type of scope...... http://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/e279033053 Anyway, here's the link to page one of the site http://buyee.jp/item/search/category/2084045043 You'll find lots of lovely old Tak stuff and other classic Japanese scopes etc. A nice read for a lazy Sunday evening ? Andy

What a wonderful thread this is ! I still think the P-2Z EQ is one of the most beautiful mounts ever! Most folk I've mentioned this to, think it's 'messy'.... fools.

I've also seen people use cut pieces of bicycle inner tubes as eyeguards. I think you slip the tube on the ep then fold the rubber back over itself, creating a nice comfy fit which can also be adjusted up or down. Quite good for the rare ep's which have overly long eye relief. Andy.

I second that opinion. I use winged eyeguards on a lot of my eyepieces. Really does work well. If the rubber eyeguard is a bit too big, simply cut and put inside the eyeguard, a small strip of that sticky backed velour often used for inside of scope tubes, for a snug fit. Added bonus is that the rubber can act as a shield against sub zero aluminium touching eye socket area, should you be brave/insane enough to venture out in those conditions. Andy.

If a Tak prism(90 deg refersed like a mirror) doesn't work, probably nothing will. It uses up about 62-63mm of focus. it's the shortest i can think of. The various forms of amici or the rarer penta use up much more focus. Possibly more than a mirror type which can vary 'tween 73-85mm, depending on the manufacturer. Andy.

With a mount that has been around as long as the variants of the EQ6 has, and the amount of weight it can carry, I must admit Id've thought this problem would've been taken care of by now. But hey-ho.

Stonkin' great scope, mount, tripod. Just great. In the weeks to come we expect close up pics of everything, 'cause, well, it's the law. Andy.