Show us your Frac

[Seafury]

Hi Dave that looks very familiar  

[F15Rules]

That looks excellent Dave

I'll be very interested to hear how it performs for you. I've been eyeing up those for a while now, having owned the earlier version (with the shorter dew cap and dark grey trim) a few years back and enjoyed it. You certainly get a lot of good looking scope for your money !

I wish people would unexpectedly offer me nice scopes

Hi John,

Thanks for the kind comments . I don't know if you recall but yours was actually bought from me - must be around 5-6 years ago now?! This one I would say is identical design-wise, to the Meade AR5 as it was then, but has a more polished finish, both literally and figuratively...it's shinier, has a good overall fit and finish (especially for the selling price new, which was under around £300), and it does look pretty imposing in the flesh. It's not what I'd call "elegant", in the way a D&G might be described, but certainly has "attitude", if you see what I mean.

Starcluster - yes, it will have come from the same factory, as it looks pretty much identical - Jinghua Optical of China I believe.

Chris - yes, it's actually that scope...long story, but the original sale fell through and the seller contacted me as "next in line" so to speak!

Fondofchips - good to hear you still have the Lyra, that is a cracking scope, really liked it.

Jules - yes, I missed having one yet again and got lucky with an Astroboot reverse auction   . Will have a shoot out with these two scopes so the question is, will the Tal survive the encounter?  

Seafury - I've seen a few of your posts on CN USA - have you actually looked through your AR127 yet???  

I can't speak too highly of the supplied accessories with the scope. In daylight testing the diagonal matches anything I've ever looked through and feels so solid. First light will be the acid test of course, but I expect it to be excellent.

I will sell on the stock Bresser Meade 25mm 2" ep only as I have a Moonfish 80 deg in 30mm and the Meade 5000 25mm and also the 2" Meade HD60 32mm and a Revelation 42mm 2" - so my low power widefield bases are well covered!

All we need now are some clear skies  

Dave

[F15Rules]

Oops, sorry Derek, I didn't mean to leave you out! ...I'm actually happy that I missed the TV diagonal the other night, as the Bresser is so good - I'm sure the TV is better but am very happy with the Bresser. Oh, and I'm loving your thread on the Polarex Unitron

Dave

[DRT]

Oops, sorry Derek, I didn't mean to leave you out! ...I'm actually happy that I missed the TV diagonal the other night, as the Bresser is so good - I'm sure the TV is better but am very happy with the Bresser. Oh, and I'm loving your thread on the Polarex Unitron

Dave

No worries, Dave - I can just feel flattered that you thought I deserved a separate post

Glad it has worked out fine with the diagonal - I know Shane is chuffed with securing the TV and it is good to know you are please with what you now have. Everybody wins!

I must say the Polarex Unitron is a fascinating little project, but I am seriously considering outsourcing the rubbing down of the tripod to Mrs T to keep her busy when I'm at work

[Seafury]

Hi Dave, yes I have once or twice I tried to compare it to the Lyra and came to the conclusion that although the Lyra is a smaller scope it gave a brighter, clearer image although to be fair I have absolutley no idea what I am doing or seeing most of the time

Gordon

[John]

Hi John,

Thanks for the kind comments . I don't know if you recall but yours was actually bought from me - must be around 5-6 years ago now?......

Hi Dave,

Now you remind me, you are quite right - it was originally yours. An excellent scope and my first "big" refractor

[laservet]

Astro-Physics 175 EDF on a 900 GTO mount.

[Stu]

Astro-Physics 175 EDF on a 900 GTO mount.

Gorgeous! Bet the views are amazing

[F15Rules]

AP 175 ED..that's not a frac, it's an anti-aircraft missile launcher!./and I'm not in the least bit envious!

Dave

[nightfisher]

AP 175 ED..that's not a frac, it's an anti-aircraft missile launcher!./and I'm not in the least bit envious!

Dave

Dave, how old is your TAL and what colour lens has it, i would guess the pale green coating?

[chiltonstar]

Talking of anti-aircraft missiles, my first ever frac - ca 1983, home made OTA, still in use! It's an f13 102mm achromat and still (last night!) gives gorgeous views of planets and doubles. Last night's views of delta Cygni and Saturn were still impressive, with a beautiful rendition of the peachy-cream colour of Saturn and its rings.

Chris

[Chris]

Paul, I think you've just played an Ace card, what a frac! 

I've just got to ask so please forgive me, what is that on your avatar??

[Chris]

Wow Chris you made this! Now this is what I've been thinking of recently

Long fracs have such inherently low spherical aberration, CA, and good depth of focus yet the only f13-15's available now days seem to be the lovely but obviously expensive Skylights and Moonrakers, although I think Antares of Cananade do an f/13.

I wish they still sold 'budget' f15's, they don't have to be particularly well figured as high f/ratio is so forgiving.

I've started looking at building my own 4" f/13-15. 

[F15Rules]

Chris, (Chiltonstar)

That's a lovely scope. Who made the Lena, do you know? I think F13 is a great balance between depth of focus and low CA and the portability of an F10 such as the TalRS.

Chris (Lock-too many Chris's!), yes, why not have a crack at building your own long frac? THAT would be a project worth following!

Jules..I think my Tal is c 2011 build. Lens is not greenish ( the Bresser AR127 is very green tinted), but is a lighter bluey colour like the one you bought from me a while back. Its a nice scope:-)

Dave

[chiltonstar]

Chris, (Chiltonstar)

That's a lovely scope. Who made the Lena, do you know? I think F13 is a great balance between depth of focus and low CA and the portability of an F10 such as the TalRS.

Dave

The objective was made by Vixen and was sold for a time in the UK before they switched to a shorter fl. I agree, F13 is a good compromise, good detail, cheaper EPs and still (just about) manageable on an EQ mount!

Chris

[Chris]

Chris (Lock-too many Chris's!), yes, why not have a crack at building your own long frac? THAT would be a project worth following!

Dave

I've been looking into this a little bit and Istar do a 100mm f/12 for 335 pounds plus shipping (US?), the only thing is I can buy the entire Lyra Optic 4" f/11 for less. (which is tempting).

Then there is this 104mm f/12 for 120 shipped, but there are no mention of coatings which means a loss of contrast and 4% light off the bat.

http://www.astrophoto.co.uk/surplusobjectives.php

Can't find any 4" f13-15's, I would have to grind one up I reckon 

[Stu]

You might find something useful here? Or some advice at least

http://www.irpoyser.co.uk/index.php?page=120

[spaceboy]

Here are a few from my collection over the years both past and present.

My first refractor was an f/8 Evostar 120 which I still regret selling...

This was replaced with a Celestron f/9 C100ED which despite having no CA, for me never lived up to the EVO so is pictured here on the chopping block..

Purchasing a used GOTO AZ mount I found myself with a SLT 60 f/10 which actually ended up as being one of my most used scopes for daytime WL, terrestrial spotter and quick grab and go lunar double star scope. This now belongs to my son.

Getting the refractor bug again an f/10 EVO 90 entered my collection along with a well corrected Antares sentinel f/6 80mm for wide field grab and go..

Soon to be joined by one of my most favoured but heavy refractors the Bresser AR127L...

Only to be replaced by my aperture hungry Evostar 150 f/8 which now resides in my current collection along side an ST102 f/4.9, ST120 f/5 and LS60Tha f/8.3

[Chris]

Hi Stu, great resource thanks for that I've sent them an email regarding long focus achromat objectives. I think I'm steering the thread away from it's purpose a bit so I will start a separate thread for this possible venture

[Chris]

Nice bunch of fracs Spaceboy

Apart from the apartment store plasic frac I had age 7, the Evo120 was my first proper frac as well. 

[Moonshane]

I'll add some pics at some point. I have now a 120mm Skywatcher ED, 100mm PSTAL, and a 80mm Meade triplet.

[John]

You have had some nice refractors there Spaceboy

I've lost track of my old ones that I've posted here so apologies if there are any repeats. Here are my old ED100 (original blue tube), a bunch of Chinese 6" F/8's (Helios 150, Meade AR6, Konus 150 and Skywatcher 150), Bresser 127L, Meade AR5 LXD75, William Optics Megrez 90, Konus ST80 and the Vixen ED102SS which is sharing a mount with some of the others. All gone now except for the little Vixen 

[spaceboy]

You forgot the ISTAR Jonh

[F15Rules]

You forgot the ISTAR Jonh

Naw....he was just saving the best til last !!   :grin:  

Dave

[damnut]

John, Spaceboy,

Lovely setups gentlemen, I love the skytee / sabre mounts, you can use and abuse those with load & multiple scopes.