F15Rules

You forgot the ISTAR Jonh

Naw....he was just saving the best til last !!   :grin:  

Dave

Chris, (Chiltonstar)

That's a lovely scope. Who made the Lena, do you know? I think F13 is a great balance between depth of focus and low CA and the portability of an F10 such as the TalRS.

Chris (Lock-too many Chris's!), yes, why not have a crack at building your own long frac? THAT would be a project worth following!

Jules..I think my Tal is c 2011 build. Lens is not greenish ( the Bresser AR127 is very green tinted), but is a lighter bluey colour like the one you bought from me a while back. Its a nice scope:-)

Dave

AP 175 ED..that's not a frac, it's an anti-aircraft missile launcher!./and I'm not in the least bit envious!

Dave

Oops, sorry Derek, I didn't mean to leave you out! ...I'm actually happy that I missed the TV diagonal the other night, as the Bresser is so good - I'm sure the TV is better but am very happy with the Bresser. Oh, and I'm loving your thread on the Polarex Unitron

Dave

That looks excellent Dave

I'll be very interested to hear how it performs for you. I've been eyeing up those for a while now, having owned the earlier version (with the shorter dew cap and dark grey trim) a few years back and enjoyed it. You certainly get a lot of good looking scope for your money !

I wish people would unexpectedly offer me nice scopes

Hi John,

Thanks for the kind comments . I don't know if you recall but yours was actually bought from me - must be around 5-6 years ago now?! This one I would say is identical design-wise, to the Meade AR5 as it was then, but has a more polished finish, both literally and figuratively...it's shinier, has a good overall fit and finish (especially for the selling price new, which was under around £300), and it does look pretty imposing in the flesh. It's not what I'd call "elegant", in the way a D&G might be described, but certainly has "attitude", if you see what I mean.

Starcluster - yes, it will have come from the same factory, as it looks pretty much identical - Jinghua Optical of China I believe.

Chris - yes, it's actually that scope...long story, but the original sale fell through and the seller contacted me as "next in line" so to speak!

Fondofchips - good to hear you still have the Lyra, that is a cracking scope, really liked it.

Jules - yes, I missed having one yet again and got lucky with an Astroboot reverse auction   . Will have a shoot out with these two scopes so the question is, will the Tal survive the encounter?  

Seafury - I've seen a few of your posts on CN USA - have you actually looked through your AR127 yet???  

I can't speak too highly of the supplied accessories with the scope. In daylight testing the diagonal matches anything I've ever looked through and feels so solid. First light will be the acid test of course, but I expect it to be excellent.

I will sell on the stock Bresser Meade 25mm 2" ep only as I have a Moonfish 80 deg in 30mm and the Meade 5000 25mm and also the 2" Meade HD60 32mm and a Revelation 42mm 2" - so my low power widefield bases are well covered!

All we need now are some clear skies  

Dave

Here's my latest acquisition - picked it up yesterday!! . I was unexpectedly offered this absolutely as new Bresser AR127L OTA complete with the following:

-Good quality - and I MEAN good quality 2" solid alumium diagonal with compression fittings and THREE retaining screws at 120 deg spacings 

-Really nice illuminated 8x50 finderscope

-Really nice Bresser 25mm wide angle eyepiece (2" fit)

-Excellent Meade 5000 HD 60 32mm wide angle eyepiece

The scope honestly does look like new and is only 8 months old. I was lucky that it was one of the versions of this scope that did come with good quality accessories - I know some of them had rubbish diagonals etc.

Hope you like the pics - I'll do a proper first light once I've had a chance to check her out. The lens coatings look superb and the cell is fully collimateable. Some of the pics show a comparison with my Tal 100RS for size - the AR127L is much bigger, but very manageable on my upgraded CG-5

Dave

Sorry they're a bit late, but here are some shots of my Moonraker F15 80mm. 

It's based on a Prinz 660 with Kenko lens (superb glass) but apart from the original finder which has been stripped and highly polished, the tube is new, fully baffled and flocked and has an uber long 10" dewshield, also flocked. The focuser is a twin speed Crawmach USA with 2" capability. 

This scope is optically superb: Mark at Moonraker made a new cell and expertly mounted the original lens in perfect alignment and the scope delivers textbook stellar images and CA is all but non-existent.

The shots here show her both on my CG4 (which matches nicely with the polished aluminium of the OTA) and also on my upgraded CG5 and fixed height wooden tripod with Berlebach original wooden tray.

Dave

You've a great collection of scopes there Dave. I'm particularly fond of the F13 Vixen. I bought one in the mid 80s but sold it around 1993 and deeply regretted doing so. I've many happy memories with that scope, though it upset a few Newt lovers over the years, as it could regularly knock the spots off reflectors double its aperture.

Mike :-)

 Thanks Mike,

I've never seen another like it actually. It looked fantastic but to be honest wasn't the very best optically - good, for sure, but others I've had like my current D&G, the TMB and various 80mm F15s all delivered better images. I had the lens checked out by Es Reid and he advised that it was "ok but not great" - and to make it great would cost hundreds in re-figuring the lens. The buyer was very happy with it as he mainly wanted it for lunar observation, whereas I wanted that bit extra sharpness for double star splitting at high power. But it was a thing of beauty to look at!

Chris, thanks. I will post pics of the 80mm Towa lens Moonraker when I can find them! And thanks for starting the thread - good to see that we in the UK can give the CN crowd a run for their money with a great variety of refractors, apos/achros - it doesn't matter which :-)

Dave

Just stumbled on this great thread, thanks Chris . Some beautiful fracs of all types, I just love them!

Here are some I have had in recent years, my main one at the moment is the D&G missile launcher. If I find a few more I'll post them tomorrow too.

See if you can spot which is which:

D&G 5" F15

Vixen 102mm F13

TMB 80mm Planet Hunter

TAL 100RS

Polarex (Unitron) 60mm F15

Dave

Tento 20x60 - superbly sharp over two thirds of the field. Amazing contrast

Pentax XCF 12x50- great high powrr budget handheld pair

Opticron Aspheric 8x40 - perfect for grab n go astro views and bird watching with over 8 deg field

Tasco Japan 8x40 - nice vintage wide angle bins for general purpose use

Dave

 This is a great gesture, really practical and full credit to everyone at FLO  

Now we can know, absolutely, for sure, without any doubt whatsoever, that it's going to be cloudy - every day!    

Seriously, many thanks, guys and girls

Dave

So sad to hear of Sir Patrick's passing. As a boy of 10 he inspired me to buy his Observers Book of Astronomy and that led me to my first scope (Prinz refractor from Dixons). I will always remember his unique eccentricity and brilliance with great fondness. We should name a star in his honour..

Dave

ha ha, nice one:p

Actually the central obstruction looks quite modest. I have high hopes for this scope...I did my aerial daytime test this morning and can you believe I could get clear, quite sharp images at over x500! (a 4mm UO Ortho at FL of 14.4 gives around x540)..

If I can actually get a half decent image at that mag I will be amazed, but the optics seem incredibly sharp...and absolutely no CA that I could see.

The finderscope is a 40mm with an interesting 45deg diagonal into which goes a Meade 25mm MA Eyepiece..I replaced this with a nice Tal 25mm plossl as I have a spare one, and as there are no cross hairs in the finder I screwed in a reticule (again Tal) into the Plossl and bingo, I have a superb finderscope giving around x8 mag I think, and very sharp.

Forecast for tonight is clear so am hoping to get first light:)...

PS I have mounted the scope on my CG-5 on wooden tripod, the one my F12 6" sat on for a while...this setup is superbly solid and so much lighter to move about!

Can't wait to get her out on Jupiter...

stardust,

I think someone is coming to view the frac at the weekend, awaiting confirmation though...fingers crossed:)

Thanks John:)

I also noticed the following which I didn't mention first time..

There is a very useful carrying handle in metal on the tube itself.

It comes with a good quality padded zipped holdall which fits the OTA perfectly, with two inner zip pockets for eps etc

The micrometer focuser seems very smooth.

There is a 45 degree diagonal and I am wondering if this is meant to be used with the finder, along with the 40mm Kelner, which I estimate would give 10-15x mag.

And the mount came with 2 different weights, 2.5kg and 5 kg, and a nice RA motor which appears never to have been used.

The orignal bill of sale is included...dated July 2004, at a cost of £875 in total,from a shop in Norfolk, although the seller lived in Kent. I doubt if the scope has been used more than a handful of times. The seller was a solicitor who described it as "much too sophisticated for me":p..

Will post a first light once the sky co-operates.

I found this scope for sale on a small online website, quite by chance:)..

I'm in the process of (sadly) selling on my big 6" F12 refractor due to recent surgery meaning it is too heavy for me to handle properly:mad:..this means I need to replace the big frac and I have decided to go for a 4" refractor for double stars, lunar, planets and so on, and a 6" Mak which should handle all of the above plus go a little deeper on fainter dso's etc.

I had heard that Lomo optics (Russian) are very good and the few reviews I have found on the Lomo Astele range have been extremely positive.

I just picked up the scope this week, and interestingly it came with a few eyepieces which were not meant for a 1.25" focuser scope (which is what the Lomo is..) there are 3 0.965" eps, all orthos, in 4mm, 5mm and 9mm. The 5mm has quite a large crack in it which is a shame, but the other two seem perfect. They have a circle with a V inside, (does this mean they were made by Vixen?) and are very well made with nice machined barrels.

Also included is a nice 40mm Kelner in 1.25", again with a Circle V, so perhaps a Vixen made as well? Lastly, a nice Meade MA 25mm is also included.

The scope carries a nice looking 40mm finderscope which I believe should have had a diagonal at the viewing end, although there is not one with the scope. A standard 1.25" diagonal fits ok, but I don't know if it will focus until I get to try it out...

The scope came with a Sky Sensor 2000 mount (EQ3 to me and you:p) with the ubiquitous and infamous aluminium tripod. However, I will probably sell this on and use my Bresser Mon 2 which is altogether more solid and suited to the OTA.

Lastly, the scope itself. The Tube weighs around 6kg and appears built like a tank!. The corrector plate is a beautiful purple colour with its coatings, just like new, and the mirror again looks like new. The tube is painted in an industrially quite fetching grey/black hammerite type of finish, and a very well made solid aluminium screw on dewshield protects the corrector plate.

All in all, I am very pleased so far, and have high hopes for the optical performance..I'll post more when I've had a chance to get her out under the stars:D

Photos of telescope.pdf