Just Joined ..... hello!

[MegaDonutz]

Thanks for the welcome!

So...my 'interesting 'scope'.... well my father had a mirror in his workshop, he had bought it off a guy at his work place,  and when I was young I asked him if he could make a telescope with it. So, off we went to London, Farringdon Rd to Fullerscopes. They made up the mirror into a large Newtonian, and supplied a mount as well. I use to use it a lot, could see the red spot on Jupiter easily, but being young I neglected the mirrors and wasn't that careful with it.

Fast forwards many years and my father was just about to get rid of the telescope and mount as it was cluttering up his office. I said I would have it. I stripped the mirror cell down and got the 8" mirror out. It has an engraving on the back of it of " H.Wildey 1950".... I realised that this was a much talked about man in the astronomy world!

Anyway got Galv Optics in Essex to re-coat the mirrors.  and I reassembled it all back together. The mount is currently seized and I will have to do some more work there. Anyway, so far without a proper stable mount its difficult to use on a lightweight tripod, but I have seen Jupiter again.

I found a web link recently to a scanned copy of the 1985 BCF catalogue. The telescope is basically the same as their F8   8 1/2" Grey tube model shown on page 36. Mk 1 components and a Mk3 mount.

[MegaDonutz]

Picture of the H.Wildey 1950 mirror before re-coating....

[glowjet]

Hi Jay and welcome to SGL