Crazy prices at car boot sale

[Lux1]

I had a look round the local car boot sale this morning. Four telescopes found, - all on bad mounts and very small apertures.

Of particular interest was a 3" reflector with a 4mm Huygens eyepiece, the seller only wanted £70!

He also didn't know how it worked as he demonstrated it to some people by looking behind the primary mirror and pointing it towards the sun!!

I just sighed and walked on....

[RikM]

So sad....

Although sometimes you can get a real bargain. A friend picked up a Tasco 114 reflector on a little EQ mount with 20mm and 16mm EP's for the princely sum of £1.

[Keiran]

I know them scopes arnt any good, but a £1 what i would have bought it just to see what it was like...

I really am going to have to make my way to a few CB's this year, hopefully i could find a bargain or 2

[Earl]

Was Dodgy "Insert name" selling pirate DVD's?

When ever I go to a car boot there is always one there LOL

[Deneb]

I know them scopes arnt any good, but a £1 what i would have bought it just to see what it was like...

I really am going to have to make my way to a few CB's this year, hopefully i could find a bargain or 2

It be nice if you pick up a Cobra 148GTLDX on the cheap

Nadeem.

[Keiran]

It be nice if you pick up a Cobra 148GTLDX on the cheap

Nadeem.

We need to find out where FLO goes for there carboots

[Doc]

I've often seen these 3" reflectors and always walk pass them.

If you know your cameras and lenses you can make a few pound profit. I once picked up a mint Lomo LC-A for £2.50 and sold it on E-bay for £85.

[inksmithy]

I'm convinced there must be something useful for all those 76mm mirrors out there you know.

[blackparticle]

How about using them to build the NTA (Naff Telescope Array) .. Hundreds of car boot offerings in a field, all webcam'd up and linked to a central data and processing hub for real-time live HD stacking.

I'm sure we could also find a few ZX81's to guide the thing.

[dave1978]

Some people have very deluded ideas of what their 2nd hand junk is worth.

[sbooder]

There are always people who want money for old rope

[darkside]

i got 2 carl zeiss lens from a car boot a 35mm and 135mm for a £5 there mint as well

[inksmithy]

How about using them to build the NTA (Naff Telescope Array) .. Hundreds of car boot offerings in a field, all webcam'd up and linked to a central data and processing hub for real-time live HD stacking.

I'm sure we could also find a few ZX81's to guide the thing.

I wasn't thinking so much of the NTA as setting several of them into a frame of - for example - a meter diameter, all aimed at a single secondary mirror.

Thinking extremely fast Newtonian, with a matrix of individually tunable mirrors.

Fair enough it might not necessarily give large observatories much of a scare, but it could be a potentially cheap route for an astro club to build a very large aperture telescope.

If the spherical mirrors don't appeal, how bout using parabolic 5 inch mirrors?

Crazy idea?

Alan

[Big Jim Slade]

There are always people who want money for old rope

I LOL'd. That's awesome.

[Beulah]

I don't know which Car Boots you go to, but the people around here are pretty wised up on pricing their wares - if I saw a telescope selling for under £100 here, I'd pass out!

[Adrian]

I wasn't thinking so much of the NTA as setting several of them into a frame of - for example - a meter diameter, all aimed at a single secondary mirror.

Thinking extremely fast Newtonian, with a matrix of individually tunable mirrors.

Fair enough it might not necessarily give large observatories much of a scare, but it could be a potentially cheap route for an astro club to build a very large aperture telescope.

If the spherical mirrors don't appeal, how bout using parabolic 5 inch mirrors?

Crazy idea?

Alan

I like the idea, but don't even want to think about collimating it

[inksmithy]

Hah yes, I would think collimating could be an issue, but I reckon its double with servos and computer monitoring and so on.

Raises the level of complexity, but would it be worth it for a 1 meter plus aperture?

I reckon that would be doable, I'm sure there is a big observatory with an active matrix of mirrors.

Alan

[Macavity]

I blame "style criminal" and general scaryperson:

[Superewza]

Hah yes, I would think collimating could be an issue, but I reckon its double with servos and computer monitoring and so on.

Raises the level of complexity, but would it be worth it for a 1 meter plus aperture?

I reckon that would be doable, I'm sure there is a big observatory with an active matrix of mirrors.

Alan

But then, since they're parabolic and you want to focus them all on one point, isn't it just going to increase the fov? Or more probably, not work at all?

[inksmithy]

Surely it would increase the photon count, giving a brighter image?

I dunno, its just a crazy idea which could be a bit of fun.

Be awesome if it worked though.

Alan

[terrym2002uk]

I'm convinced there must be something useful for all those 76mm mirrors out there you know.

They could have stuck them to the building in brum instead of all those car hubcaps.

[Photohound]

There are always people who want money for old rope

postage seems a bit steep - signed/recorded del as well!!!

[Superewza]

Surely it would increase the photon count, giving a brighter image?

I dunno, its just a crazy idea which could be a bit of fun.

Be awesome if it worked though.

Alan

Yeah but to focus on the same point wouldn't the mirrors have to be pointing themselves at different parts of the sky? In which case you'd have a lot of trouble making sure the images don't overlap...