A classic Swift Model 859 - first time

[bjmoose]

Not sure if this is the correct place, but I couldn't find a forum for Classic Telescopes, so I thought I'd give it a try here, as I am just a babe in the woods and had my first go at looking through a Telescope last night. I though I would leave my impressions here:

I recently acquired a lovely little Swift model 859. My first ever refractor. It came in the original card-board box - not the sexy wood case that Swift supplied with other models (Ahh, well....) I hope to add some photos over this week-end.

Anyhow, tonight the sky was the kind of clear we sometimes get up here in the Northwest Territories. I decided to take the scope out to the back yard of the condo where I live and try it out on the Moon. Now, I'm sure it needs some cleaning, but I haven't had a chance to do a real going-over type of inspection yet.

As we are heading into the solstice, we don't get real dark skies any more, but the Quarter-Moon was beautiful tonight. The scope came with three eyepieces: H 20mm, HM 6mm, and SR 4mm. I was somewhat concerned that it would be tough for me to see anything as I wear glasses and have astigmatism and poor night vision to boot! But I said to myself, "Damn the torpedoes!..." and went ahead. I wanted to use the Moon to line up the finder scope. Well, it took a bit of upping and downing and side-waysing before I got the Moon centered in the 20mm EP. Then I took off my glasses to see if I could see better, as the .965 EP isn't glasses-friendly. I started moving the focuser, which was very smooth, and, WOW! The Moon literally popped into focus and looked great to my better eye.

So I adjusted the finder to line up with the main tube and was going to head back inside, when I thought, "Why not?" and got out the 6mm EP, not expecting much due to the non-existent eye relief and my poor vision....Yikes! I could actually get a clear and fairly sharp contrasty focus at 152x! I spent some time enjoying the Montes Caucasus showing deep shadows. This is the first time I have looked at the Moon through a telescope, and let me tell you - I'M HOOKED!

I decided to dance in the dragon's jaws one more time and put in the 4mm EP to see what 227.5x would look like. Again, no disappointment! I could still get a sharp focus without my glasses. I did find learning to use the slow motion controls a challange - the Moon moves quite quickly at that magnification.

Anyhow my back started to hurt, so I called it a night. I haven't figured out the best height for viewing yet, but that will come... I just wanted to give my first impressions as a budding astronomer with a "new" classic scope.

Here are a few photos:

Cheers

[rowan46]

nice looking scope those small long achro's are really nice lunar scopes

[farunj]

Congrats on getting the scope!

[Astro Imp]

Pleased you're having fun, enjoyed reading your OP.

[amshuck]

My family and I just found one of these at a garage sale for $15, but when we got a chance to try it last night, we couldn't see anything! Do you have any hints on using it? Or maybe a manual of some sort?

[Mr Spock]

Those old f15 scopes can be quite sharp.

[bjmoose]

My family and I just found one of these at a garage sale for $15, but when we got a chance to try it last night, we couldn't see anything! Do you have any hints on using it? Or maybe a manual of some sort?

Need a wee bit more information, so I'll ask a few questions:

1.  Did the scope come any eyepieces?  They usually had at least a 20mm and a 6mm.

2.  Did you try it during daylight to see if it works properly?

3.  Did it come with a spotting scope?  Does that work?  If it has one you want to make sure the spotting scope is lined up with the main scope:

     During daylight, using the weakest magnification eyepiece (20mm), centre a distant object - a mile or two away - on the main scope.  Then adjust the spotting scope

     screws so that the cross-hairs are also centered on that object. 

4.  What is the condition of the optics?  Both objective and eyepieces - they might need cleaning.

The first object I would try to see at night would be the Moon, as it's relatively easy to find.

Here is a link to a lot of old scope manuals, just do a search on the page for "Swift" and there are two refractor manuals in pdf format:

http://geogdata.csun.edu/~voltaire/classics/

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

   - ian