F15Rules

Hi Derek Just love that little 114 Polarex. I posted some pics of mine on the Show us your Frac thread started by Chris. I really liked mine and found it to be very good optically. Like John, I've read variable reviews of them..mostly from CN, and I remember one in particular where the owner was scathing about the optical performance and said that the scope was effectively only fit to be a living room ornament. I have to say that I don't recognise that view of this scope..mine was optically excellent. Derek, I can vouch for the optical excellence of the 10mm BCO ortho which I bought new and sold to Chris..its IMHO just as good as the BGO 9mm. The coarse focus tube takes a little getting used to and you wouldn't ever want to put an Ethos in (!!), but normal 1.25" ep's will work really well. I believe Crawmach in the US offer a good quality retrofit focuser that will fit a 60mm ota. I have one on my 80mm Moonraker and although its not a Moonlite its pretty solid and smooth. Just a word on the altaz mount..with the possible exception of a 70s Pentax altaz which was it's equal, I don't think I've ever seen a better small altaz mount, ever. As you say, the engineering is second to none, simple and functions superbly. And it is surprisingly rigid on the stock tripod. Thanks for sharing such a nice project and your DIY skills of which I am very envious! I think your finished scope will be worth £175-£225 resale but hope you keep it a while yet- or use it as a super finder on your big 150mm F8 achro when you get it! Dave

Beautiful collection Matthew. As you have clearly spent as much on scopes as most people do on a house, do you live in a tent,LOL??? Seriously, just a lovely collection and absolutely these could last you a lifetime as you say:-). Dave

Some of you know I once had (and it hurts to recall this....) a Polarex Unitron 4" folded F15 refractor, back in the early 90s. I bought it from a shop in Liverpool called Scope City - anyone remember it? I was in Liverpool for work and just saw the shop as I drove out of Liverpool for home: in the window was what looked like a 6" SCT or Mak on a beautiful wooden tripod and mount. I went in an asked about it. I was told it was bankrupt stock (it was probably around the time that Unitron started to wind down their scope sales, around 1990 I think). It came with two hefty wooden crates for storage and was priced at £500, which was a goodly sum then. My late father had left me some money specifically telling me to buy a "nice scope", so I took the plunge and bought it. I knew nothing then of Unitron or Polarex, no internet remember, but I'd heard that Unitron scopes were a good US make. And I knew a beautifully engineered mount when I saw one. Anyway, I always preferred fracs to be with long tubes, and this one was very short due to the folded light path inside the tube, hence the appearance of an SCT or Mak. At the time it seemed a good idea to have the tube re-made into a traditional long tube (I now know it was incredibly stupid , as probably less than 20 of these folded Unitrons were sold, maybe much less, I have never seen another one, only a couple of 3" versions). So I called Orion Optics who were in Crewe then, and they made a long tube for me at F15, and even put Unitron Decals on the tube for me (although it was actually branded Polarex). The scope was a good performer, but at the time my children were very young, money was short, time to observe was even shorter, and I sold it to pay for a carpet we badly needed for the house! It went for £400 (the tube mods cost me £150), and the guy who bought it almost ran out of the house with it...it had a unihex eyepiece holder, 5 0.965" eps (nice ones) and a "large" 40mm 1.25" barrel Erfle I think it was. I recently came across the only two pictures I have of the scope, and they are not great, as two of my kids were posing in front of it - but at least it proves I did actually have the scope. I still have the smaller of the two crates it came in, I keep accessories etc in it, and I am ashamed to say that although Orion Optics returned the original short tube and rings etc to me I threw them away long ago, before I knew better. I understand that the scope in it's original set up and tube would now be worth between £3k and £4k, so rare was it. You live and learn! .. I also attach some shots of a lovely old (1960s I think) Polarex 60mm F15 I used to have, and very like the one Derek (DRT) has a thread on at the moment..mine was very early and had just the one, right hand side focuser wheel - it actually worked very well in practice, and the scope put up lovely images for it's size. The little altaz mount was an engineering marvel. hope you like the shots Dave

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

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