deejay

1.25 adaptation showing below, sorry about the cheap Seben image erector, it was just to hand. 

A bit more info on the two scopes, the higher quality 60's model is designated the Astral 550, the 70's lesser quality item is designated the Astral 500. They are both essentially the same scope spec wise but the quality is very different. The later 500 has a long pull out  focusser for rough focus and the 550 doesn't, so it may prove more difficult to reach focus with some eyepieces. The 550 has a one and a half inch tube and i have been able to screw out the eyepiece holder and put a sleeve in and use a 1.25 diagonal and eyepiece. Very good daytime optical performance, I cant find much difference between the two, optically, that is.

I think the 550 may be a keeper

Got another Prinz 550 today, but I am a little confused the last picture shows the one I already own, whilst the first lot shows the one I got today for £26. The quality of the grey mount over the black crackle mount is many many times better, it's closer to vixen quality than prinz. There are steel liners within the casting which have the threads in them as opposed to just drilled and tapped solid alloy. The optics in today's find are Circle K whilst the optics in the one I already own are Circle T.

The tripod is twice as rigid also. How can they be the same model. The difference is literally chalk and cheese

Now looking a little bit better

Here's my £20 Astro branded 60mm Japanese frac in its box as delivered free. Next post is the scope and box after a few days work

Here's my 60mm Lunt with 1200 diagonal, mounted on one side of a SkyTee, nice and stable.  I got a Sky prodigy mount to use for long periods of visual viewing, the one with the 70mm frac all in red, but its hopeless. The tripod and dish type mount are just too flimsy, I wish I could get the skyprodigy/starsense head onto a more substantial set of legs but it doesn't look possible.

Here's my vintage £58 GBP ebay buy TOWA 80mm, stripped of its scratched worn paint job and the red vinyl covering I put on it as a temporary measure. I have taken it down to the metal on the tube and polished it, as I did with my Tasco 550 featured earlier in this thread. I may have it professionally Chromed on the main tube and finder tube and possibly brass finished on the Dew shield and finder dew shield. It looks great in the corner of my living room as it is  even my wife approves!!

On ‎25‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 02:47, Tyson M said:

It finally came in today!!!! Ordered in October.  Upgrade from a LSTHa50  B400 which I sold to fund this.  It exudes quality, it currently is the nicest piece of astro gear I own. 

IMG_20170224_190803 by SolarT RM, on Flickr

IMG_20170224_190658 by SolarT RM, on Flickr

IMG_20170224_115357 by SolarT RM, on Flickr

I have one of these, I swapped a CPC 800 for it as it was getting too heavy for me, you are right about the quality and looks of it, It is a thing of beauty, I keep mine on display on a smoked glass shelf under the TV, I cant stop picking it up it is so nice, congratulations.

On ‎03‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 14:51, deejay said:

Another Towa 339

I picked this up yesterday, I won it on the Bay for £53.00!!  It had a dodgy homemade finder scope on it, which I have replaced with the correct one from another Towa scope. It only had one slow motion cable and no lens cap, which again I had in the spares box. I am going to restore it fully and red carbon fibre wrap the tube etc.

I am quite pleased with it even though it was a 150 mile round trip to pick it up

Here's the new version, been working on it for some days now, I have stained the wood to be closer to the original colour and done some vinyl fake carbon fibre wrapping of the tube and finder. The original finish is still safe underneath and the tray light works!!

I had to do it in this colour scheme as my wife insisted so that it matched the room décor.

Another Towa 339

I picked this up yesterday, I won it on the Bay for £53.00!!  It had a dodgy homemade finder scope on it, which I have replaced with the correct one from another Towa scope. It only had one slow motion cable and no lens cap, which again I had in the spares box. I am going to restore it fully and red carbon fibre wrap the tube etc.

I am quite pleased with it even though it was a 150 mile round trip to pick it up

Heres my frac, its an Ostara 102mm ED on a Skytee. Its a nice scope that's been discussed and reviewed favourably here before. It came in a foam lined flight case, with all the accessories you can see, apart from the diagonal, as mine came with a 45 degree 2" erect image diagonal, which is a nice quality CnC machined one but not quite as good as the WO. These scopes don't seem to be available now?

14 hours ago, Chris Lock said:

Looks really great! How did you remove the scratched paint work if you don't mind me asking?

Hi Chris no I don't mind you asking. My steps where as follows:

1. paint stripper, left to soak in for an hour then rubbed with wire wool and more paint stripper.

2. various grades of wet and dry finishing off at 2000 grit

3. polishing wheel on the end of a drill 3 different wheels from coarse down to soft and 3 types of polishing compound.

4. Finishing off with liquid metal polish and buffed by hand.

I know that you are supposed to leave the original finish, for the sake of future value, but I don't see these going for an awful lot of money these days, judging by the price I paid for a boxed one.

6 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

Looks good in bare metal, I say leave it as it is

Thanks Roy I think I will

Cheers

Dave

Heres my £30.00 Prinz Astral 500 I got last week, more or less restored. I removed all the scratched paintwork from the tube and stripped, sanded and oil finished the tripod. Its not great quality wood but it looks a lot better now without the brown paint job. I may spray it or leave it bare metal, I don't know yet.