Fullerscopes 8" Newt plus mount - a bargain?

[outoffocus]

Came with a few extras as well.......The telescope was purchased in the early 1980's and is in good condition. The mirrors were re-silvered in 2006. The equatorial pedestal stand has manual slow motions to each axis and setting circles. It comes with 6mm,12mm,25mm eyepiece lenses, a 31.7mm 2x BL and a 11/4" diagonal prism.

[Paul M]

That's a lovely looking example What a bargain!!

My Mk111 mount had an 240v AC synchronous motor on RA and manual DEC. I was never keen on running it from mains.

I added a Synchronous motor to the DEC and built a variable speed drive that ran off 12v DC. With the 240v AC it produced not being referenced to earth (as is domestic mains) it was much safer to use outside.

It worked very well but got vandalised in our old back yard and kind of abandoned out in the weather for some time as astronomy took a backseat in my life.

The scope is still good, the mount would make a great refurb job sometime.

[korginger]

Wow! thats even better than my find lol.

Someone asked on the post about the mirror - its got handwritten on the back;

3048A

fl 1285mm (50.6ins)

Made in England

Not sure how much this means but there it is.

I was wondering if anyone on here does the recoating? the mirror surface is in poor condition

[HD-AP]

Wow! thats even better than my find lol.

Someone asked on the post about the mirror - its got handwritten on the back;

3048A

fl 1285mm (50.6ins)

Made in England

Not sure how much this means but there it is.

I was wondering if anyone on here does the recoating? the mirror surface is in poor condition

Hi

You have a david hinds grade A mirror so it will perform well.

Coating companies are few and far between galvoptics, vacuum coatings ltd and orion optics are the main ones .

Galvoptics do a goob job.

cheers

[Laurie61]

Wow! thats even better than my find lol.

Someone asked on the post about the mirror - its got handwritten on the back;

3048A

fl 1285mm (50.6ins)

Made in England

Not sure how much this means but there it is.

I was wondering if anyone on here does the recoating? the mirror surface is in poor condition

There's a good chance that this scope is an 8.5" as this was the standard size, although mine is an 8.75". This would make the scope about f6

This is mine, bought in 78.

[Peter Drew]

Variations in mirror diameters were due to the availability of mirror blanks at the time, the 8.75 ones were usually plate glass but of similar optical finished quality to the Pyrex ones.

[Laurie61]

Variations in mirror diameters were due to the availability of mirror blanks at the time, the 8.75 ones were usually plate glass but of similar optical finished quality to the Pyrex ones.

This is interesting, I had assumed my mirror was Pyrex but having dug out the original invoice it does not specify what type of glass would be used.

[HD-AP]

Hi

If your mirror is from the 1980's it's probably pyrex , hinds mirror blanks were moulded this you can see by looking at the back of the mirror and by the colour of the glass i think plate glass was used on their 1/4 er wave C-GRADE mirrors.

The origional poster got a real bargain as the mirrors alone are worth that as is the mount .

[Laurie61]

Hi

If your mirror is from the 1980's it's probably pyrex , hinds mirror blanks were moulded this you can see by looking at the back of the mirror and by the colour of the glass i think plate glass was used on their 1/4 er wave C-GRADE mirrors.

The origional poster got a real bargain as the mirrors alone are worth that as is the mount .

This is the back of my 8.75". There looks to be marks which were caused by the mirror being held whilst being ground ? The other photo's show year of manufacture and Focal length.

[HD-AP]

This is the back of my 8.75". There looks to be marks which were caused by the mirror being held whilst being ground ? The other photo's show year of manufacture and Focal length.

Hi

It's a pyrex mirror does it have a serial number ?

I had an 8.75 inch which i bought new in 1985 i used to have 6 fullerscopes telescopes i have sold all but two a 10 inch photographic newtonian on a mk4 mount with all of the accesories as shown on page 39 of the catalogue ,and an 8.5 inch on a mk3 mount.

There is a fullerscopes blog maintained by chris b if you search the archive section you will find plenty of fullerscopes plus information about them including some of my equipment .

regards

clive

[HD-AP]

Hi

It's a pyrex mirror does it have a serial number ?

I had an 8.75 inch which i bought new in 1985 i used to have 6 fullerscopes telescopes i have sold all but two a 10 inch photographic newtonian on a mk4 mount with all of the accesories as shown on page 39 of the catalogue ,and an 8.5 inch on a mk3 mount.

There is a fullerscopes blog maintained by chris b if you search the archive section you will find plenty of fullerscopes plus information about them including some of my equipment .

regards

clive

The fullerscopes blog can be found at http://fullerscopes.blogspot.co.uk/

cheers

[Laurie61]

Thanks for the link Clive, will go and have a good look through the archive. Unfortunately my mirror has no serial number, just the f.l and date it was made. Despite having other scopes, since buying the Fullerscopes, I have not been tempted to sell it as it performs so well. Instead it has been slowly upgraded over the years with the mirrors re coated, hi lux mirror coatings, the original 1.25" focuser replaced with a 2" and the tube partially flocked. I had a conversation with John at OO and he suggested having the primary mirror tested on the optical bench to see how good it is. When it needs re coating will probably let him test it, will be interesting to see what the actual figure of the mirror is.