F15Rules

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

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