How do they do it ? Scopes reborn.

[cotterless45]

I've bought a fair amount of mainly old school gear from fleabay and abas. It never fails to surprise me how folk mistreat gear. In my book, we're tempory custodians, here to pass on to our kids or others.

Buyer beware on fleabay!!!!!!!

It is a great pleasure to get these things going and get them used;

1.0 Vixen 102 on Super Polaris mount; Every part of the mount was covered in grime ( so was his house!). Down the tube and dew shield were white deposits of something. The lens had a dead layer of grey fungus in the air space. The motor worms were misaligned and the tripod was let's say interesting.It had been left unused.The wonderful original finder had been misthreaded and bashed beyond use.

Now fully working and beautiful.Old school style.

2.0 EQ6 tripod; been sat outside near a sandy beach. The legs/extensions were chemically fused together,sand in the plastic sleeves. It took a day on each leg using a heat torch ( weed burner),a sledgehammer ("The Persuader"),oil, petrol, WD40,wooden blocks and a full repetoire of language. I found some old alloy trampoline tubes to fit the s/s legs.Looks the business.

3.0 Orion Optics 200 ota. Somewhere in it's life had been used as target practice for a drill, must have been 25 holes in the tube. The focuser was on at an angle and it had been dropped, bending the mirror cell.Now covered in carbon fibre wrap with Revelation 2 spd focusser on a 2nd hand HEQ5 pro mount on the above tripod.

4.0 Vixen 90 on custom M mount. Bit of a puzzle as seems to have been tinkered with, odd things in the air space and a screw grinding it's merry way inside the focus rail.It did come with it's original cardboard box though.Odd how you can out so many scratches on a tube.Prevoius owner ; Edward Scissorhands.

Luckily LeeB lives just down the road and has fixed up, washed and repaired .We live in hopes of finding something cared for!!!!

Never ceases to amaze what folk do to good stuff.

Nick, with many thanks to LeeB.

[David Smith]

Nice one, made me chuckle!

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

I'm thinking of starting a RSPCS kind of charity. Maybe i could go round kicking doors in and confiscating poorly kept scopes....

[cotterless45]

It's worse than that, a quick buzz through fleabay and you'll find an 8" Nexstar dropped with a smashed corrector plate, a 6"Orion Optics, never used and some scopes " never used outdoors".There's also the intruiging " spares or repair" or an honest " not working" ( probably like the majority of the population soon).

I bought a 150pl two years ago in February. Matey had bought it for Christmas, found he couldn't understand the eq mount or realized that it was both cold and dark outside.

The scope was posing as an "ornament" in his living room,tube horizontal for that designer chique look, NOOOOOOOO! That was grab and go, got out of there pdq.

Nick.

[John]

....The scope was posing as an "ornament" in his living room,tube horizontal for that designer chique look......

I think thats the problem much of the time. The scope being an impulse purchase by someone with enough disposable income to buy something decent but then quickly looses interest when the next "whim" arrives

The stuff I've bought from UK Astro Buy & Sell has been generally well looked after though, and accurately described usually as well.

With the post-"Stargazing Live" surge of interest in our hobby I guess there will be fair numbers of decent scopes that remain largely unused and uncared for around the country - perhaps we should start a rescue centre for them as JJjoejoe suggests

I foresee a TV spin off - "The Scope Inspectors"

[swamp thing]

You should have seen the state of the 20" I bought. almost made me cry to see that great lump of glass lying in a box of what looked like dusty hamster bedding.

The secondary was uncovered just sitting in a dirty dusty garage full of filth.

The OTA and Dob mount were always gonna be toast once I bought it home (MDF Dob mount....noooooo! ) but to leave the mirrors like that. Just wrong. Should be a custodial sentence.

He also had what looked like an C8 (orange tube) outside...and it was raining.

He had just sold his TV eyepieces (oh I bet they were well looked after too......not).

How can anyone do that sort of thing?

[R1gel]

Saw the scopes at SGL7 and nice work you'd made of um too.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

I just noticed on that site that is well known for selling odds and sods, a mirror set for sale, and in the picture it looks as though the secondary is being rested on the primary for a fancy photo pose...

~sigh~

[R1gel]

Talking of post "Stargazing Live " There was a Lightbridge 12" on Ebay which was one day old, just arrived and still in boxes. Wonder if the seller had miss calculated on the size of the scope as they were at great pains to explain how large the thing was to any potential bidders. Several scopes going through Ebay at present which have been with there current owners for 2 to 3 months only used twice etc.

looks like you gonna have your work cut out Nick as more and more bought on a whom scopes get abandoned.

[John]

....Wonder if the seller had miss calculated on the size of the scope as they were at great pains to explain how large the thing was to any potential bidders.....

Thats very likely I'd say. It's one of the commonest reactions on here when people have their first scope delivered too.

There is a long running thread in the beginners section on just this topic:

http://stargazerslounge.com/beginners-help-advice/128173-look-size-thing.html

[JamesF]

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it all sounded rather dodgy to me. The scope was put up once with the vendor saying he'd had it a few weeks, but later withdrawn, perhaps because it wasn't going to make the price they wanted. It then appeared to be put up for sale under a different account name in the same location saying it was only a day old though the wording for the rest of the ad was remarkably similar to the first. Both claimed to have spent £900+ on it. A quick check through the purchase history for the second account showed the same model of telescope having been purchased second-hand several weeks earlier, for just over £500.

James

[cotterless45]

Yep, afraid there's some well dodgy traders out there.

The plus side is that if you know a bit and have some little skill, there are

some wonderfully designed and built old school gear out there.

What really amazes me is how some folks just rush out and spend shedloads of

money without any research, advice or thought. I don't know if it's human nature to impulse buy to impress. My wife would hit me over the head with her new ipad if I did that!

[johnrt]

Do you fancy rescuing this one?

how cool is this telescope | eBay

[cotterless45]

Wow! I'm tempted, very tempted.

Is "cool" a good make ?

[JamesF]

Perhaps he means he keeps it in the fridge to save time equalising temperatures when he takes it outside. That'll be why he took the photo in the kitchen.

James

[ibraidwo]

You have now got me worried cotterless45...

My recently won William Optics ZS66 Ebay item arrived at home this morning, and I'm heading home now to greet it...

What will I find when I open the box!

I hope it doesn't need much TLC...

I have at least another hour of worry :-) thanks...

[Northern Soul man]

Nice 1 Guys, the best about it is to try and get a neighbour interested - by showing him or her your scope and saying "yeah had the scope a while now, but can't afford anything bigger yet ". If it anything like my neighbours (Mr one-up-manship) they'll go out and buy a bigger, better scope than the one you have, get fed up with it, but bought it just to prove that its bigger/better, say that you'll take it off their hands for a song, think of the money you'll save on post and packing and delivery from ebay.

Yeah, I know, I should be so lucky!!!!!! Paul.