Prinz 660 Refractor

[nightfisher]

Cheers Ant, never dealt with TS before

[Jcousins]

Hi

Thats an interesting scope, brings back my childhood memories! I have used the exact same model in the late 70' and early 80's. This was my Grandad's scope. I remember the wooden tripod being very heavy. You right the eyepieces were leaning to very high magnifications and therefore lots of optical aberrations.

But the main thing me and my brother had loads of fun and starry nights through the telescope!

[HD-AP]

Hi

I have one of these complete in wooden case with all accessories and manuals ,the tripod is a bit wobbly but ok , I had a japanese 1.25 inch prism diagonal which came from ae optics of cambridge late 1960's vintage it screws directly into the drawtube enabling the use of 1.25 inch eyepieces ,the objective lens is a good one on a good night a 5mm ortho 250 x can easily be used some 83 x per inch of apeture .and still enjoy using it despite now having much larger scopes.

[Carbon Brush]

Things are progressing with the scope.

I dismantled the original mount that had the rings integral with the mount. With a bit of fiddling I got it piggy back on the D6 mount. Alignment not adjustable and not quite correct. But good enough for a first light.

A couple of weeks back there was a couple of hours gap in the clouds. Jupiter was high and should have made a good target, despite being almost laid on the floor to use the eyepiece! But before I could really get anywhere condensation struck. Not just a bit of dew on the outside, but inside and between the objective elements. I tried warming but before the heat could take full effect the cloud and mist returned.

As the objective had a bit of dust inside, and a few bits between the elements, I thought a clean was in order. The cell came apart without problems. Someone had been in there before me and thoughtfully marked the elements to ensure a correct reassembly. The dirt and bits were not a problem and there was nothing to indicate any damage to the coatings.

To minimise the amount water vapour left between the elements, I left the assembly in a warm room, then reassembled in a very cold room. Cold air holding much less moisture. After putting the cell back on the OTA, I left some silica gel in the EP holder. Since then, cloud and snow.

Nightfisher has told me his TS rings are a good fit, so last night I placed an order. Maybe a proper trial by next weekend?

[nightfisher]

Look out for the little bag of sweets TS include in the package I am ready for first light with my 660, there may be a few mods to do, i have a cheeky idea for a longer dewshield, and im still half tempted to get a crawmach crayford focuser, but this will wait a little while, i have heard these scopes benefit from proper internal flocking, could be tricky but possible

Most of these 660`s are circle K optics....one or two turn up with circle T optics..........i recently found out that circle K is still Towa optics, good stuff

[Carbon Brush]

The scope is on the D6 mount. The sky is clear. Jupiter is high up and shining brightly.

But I'm not going out.

The wind is gusting over 30mph and I don't fancy knocking on my neighbours door later.

Please mister, can I have my shed roof back please?

While the roof is very secure when closed, only gravity keeps it on the runners when open.

Maybe another night?

When building the shed, the temporary fasteners didn't do their job and the roof ended up on next doors lawn!

[Carbon Brush]

TS order placed Friday night, late. Delivered Wednesday AM by UPS. Great service.

Unfortunately one of the rings is faulty. It didn't feel right when fastening the screw to the dovetail so I took it off.

A hairline crack started to show in the ring base.

A quick note and photo to TS and they said they would get another one out FOC in a few days.

Patrick Otto said they had just installed some new software and that was the reason for the delays.

Perhaps the new computer can't cope with shipping a single ring?

One day this scope might get a proper run!

[nightfisher]

A little tip, you might want to look at removing the baffles in the draw tube, and flocking inside the draw tube, i did mine today, will let you know how it works once i have had a session

[F15Rules]

David,

Did you ever get that proper first light with your Prinz 660? And more pictures please??

cheers

Dave

[digital_davem]

The mount is a problem, and its near impossible to get tube rings to fit these, if you could they would be nice on a decent mount like EQ5

There may be other solutions for tube rings but I have found a workaround.  The tripod collar for the Canon 80-200mm F2.8 lens is just a millimetre or so larger than the telecope tube. A thin layer of felt or (as I did, electrical tape!) and it grips just fine. The original canon rings are some absurd price like £120 each but I googled a chinese knock-off for £10 per ring. They are understandably not as well finished as the Canon originals but mine are fine as tube rings. I bought a 200mm arca -swiss plate which has two built in 1/4" tripod bolts for £6 and it works fine on my camera tripod. One thing to note with these collars - they don't open fully, just enough to loosen them a little. To get them on the tube I had to remove the focuser unit, slide them on, then screw the focuser back on.

[Mars Zeepan]

I actually trialled this Telescope back in 1973 when I was mad about all things optics A neighbour was the manager of Dixons in Kingston on Thames and he would bring them home for me to set up and trial.

It was a massive disappointment. Far too cumbersome for the mount; the length of tube was prone to vibrations from breeze/focusing! The eyepieces suffered from serious aberrations and poor quality control as had debris in the barrels.The aperture was too small for any serious viewing - that is if you could locate it and stay on it long enough. Sadly all I could view was bits of the moon and moons of Jupiter, but no better than my Prinz 16x50 bins. As a result, it put me off contemplating a home setup for over 40 years! Now everything is soo much easier and relatively cheaper.

Oh and that massive wooden tripod! Boy it weighed a tonne!  BUT - when all set up, it looked like a Nuclear missile though to an avid/excited 15 year old! It sought of reached out to the stars...! Remember - man had only just finished trips to the moon at this time so seemed sooo 'space-age'!

I googled these Prinz scopes out of curiosity and found this post., so I had to tell my story!