Show us your Frac

[John]

Third time lucky !

They are wonderful scopes. I have the Tak FC-100DL

 

[wookie1965]

My Meade with Skywatcher dual speed focuser.

[MBJ]

[Stub Mandrel]

66 ED with a difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by Stub Mandrel

[garryblueboy]

My Two Visual 100mm scopes 

[deejay]

Got another Prinz 550 today, but I am a little confused the last picture shows the one I already own, whilst the first lot shows the one I got today for £26. The quality of the grey mount over the black crackle mount is many many times better, it's closer to vixen quality than prinz. There are steel liners within the casting which have the threads in them as opposed to just drilled and tapped solid alloy. The optics in today's find are Circle K whilst the optics in the one I already own are Circle T.

The tripod is twice as rigid also. How can they be the same model. The difference is literally chalk and cheese

Edited September 10, 2018 by deejay

[Dave1]

5 hours ago, deejay said:

Got another Prinz 550 today, but I am a little confused the last picture shows the one I already own, whilst the first lot shows the one I got today for £26. The quality of the grey mount over the black crackle mount is many many times better, it's closer to vixen quality than prinz. There are steel liners within the casting which have the threads in them as opposed to just drilled and tapped solid alloy. The optics in today's find are Circle K whilst the optics in the one I already own are Circle T.

The tripod is twice as rigid also. How can they be the same model. The difference is literally chalk and cheese

Looks very good! Interested in reading your first light report with this telescope. 

[John]

6 hours ago, deejay said:

.... How can they be the same model. The difference is literally chalk and cheese

 

I think Prinz were a brand name used by Dixons, the highstreet photo and electronics retailer. Dixons would source their stock from different manufacturers during the lifetime of the model. The one you have more recently acquired is an older one (1960's perhaps ?) wheras the one you already have is a later one, possibly from the 1970's or 1980's. Dixons sought the lowest manufacturing cost to maximise profitability and, over time, unfortunately the quality suffered. Dixons ceased trading in 2014 after 77 years of business.

It will be interesting to see how the optical performance of these two scope compares. The result might not mirror the apparent external quality of manufacture ?

[deejay]

A bit more info on the two scopes, the higher quality 60's model is designated the Astral 550, the 70's lesser quality item is designated the Astral 500. They are both essentially the same scope spec wise but the quality is very different. The later 500 has a long pull out  focusser for rough focus and the 550 doesn't, so it may prove more difficult to reach focus with some eyepieces. The 550 has a one and a half inch tube and i have been able to screw out the eyepiece holder and put a sleeve in and use a 1.25 diagonal and eyepiece. Very good daytime optical performance, I cant find much difference between the two, optically, that is.

I think the 550 may be a keeper

[deejay]

1.25 adaptation showing below, sorry about the cheap Seben image erector, it was just to hand. 

Edited September 11, 2018 by deejay
spelling

[Rainmaker]

I am suffering a bout of 'Reverse Aperture Fever' at the moment:

Takahashi FOA60 F8.8 with Baader Zeiss T2 Prism on a SW AZ-GTi / Manfrotto MT055CXPro3 combination

Total weight 7.1Kg  Grab&Go Nirvana, gives beautiful views of doubles ....

 

[mikeDnight]

16 hours ago, Rainmaker said:

I am suffering a bout of 'Reverse Aperture Fever' at the moment:

Takahashi FOA60 F8.8 with Baader Zeiss T2 Prism on a SW AZ-GTi / Manfrotto MT055CXPro3 combination

Total weight 7.1Kg  Grab&Go Nirvana, gives beautiful views of doubles ....

 

That's beautiful Matt!

A few years ago I bought an Equinox ED80 purely for its portability. It was only after I began using it that it very quickly revealed itself to be a very capable scope. I used it far more often than my Equinox 120, and on some nights it even gave a more pleasant view. It was certainly easier to use, so I found myself going out into the garden for just a five or ten minute session. More often than not those few minutes turned into an hour or more, observing the moon using a binoviewer. Jupiter revealed five belts with the red spot easily visible, as were shadow transits and some of the major belt detail. Dropping down in aperture can certainly prove useful at times.

Edited September 13, 2018 by mikeDnight

[RT65CB-SWL]

My TeleVue Ranger moonlighting as a 'white light' solar 'scope with a Lunt solar wedge.

Edited September 13, 2018 by Philip R

[John]

I'm getting fonder and fonder of my TV Ranger. I've used it for white light (as per your setup) and it's done very nicely. At night it seems to do more than I've any right to expect from such a small, lightwweight scope. It's the 1st sub-100mm scope that I've felt that I actually want to hang onto. Plus I've got Al's signature on the manual !

[Chris]

On 08/09/2018 at 19:14, garryblueboy said:

My Two Visual 100mm scopes 

Now how primed is this setup for a Televue Takahashi shootout! 

[garryblueboy]

3 hours ago, Lockie said:

Now how primed is this setup for a Televue Takahashi shootout! 

All ready completed Chris and Sadly the Tak is now gone to a new home to fund something close to my heart 

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, garryblueboy said:

All ready completed Chris and Sadly the Tak is now gone to a new home to fund something close to my heart 

You do get through your scopes at a fair rate Garry! Get to try plenty of different ones out that way I guess.

[garryblueboy]

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

You do get through your scopes at a fair rate Garry! Get to try plenty of different ones out that way I guess.

Yes stu but the Tak would’ve stayed had it not been for Kerry 

[Stu]

23 minutes ago, garryblueboy said:

Yes stu but the Tak would’ve stayed had it not been for Kerry 

Ah yes  

[Chris]

37 minutes ago, garryblueboy said:

All ready completed Chris and Sadly the Tak is now gone to a new home to fund something close to my heart 

I obviously missed all the action, anyway, I hope you enjoy the new thing when you get it  

[Tyson M]

I replaced the ED120 for some more aperture- TS152 f5.9 achro. So far, so good under the stars. 

 

The SV80L lomo is my solar and planetary scope for its superior contrast and I found myself using the ED120 for deep sky only, so I figured I would try something bigger since my mount can handle it.

 

 

 

 

[garryblueboy]

It Was a sad Day when I said good by to My Takahashi 100DF but for a very good reason this beauty came available  thanks to Kerry Lewis and I’m smiling again 

[garryblueboy]

So now my visual set up looks like this and hope it stays this way for some time lol 

[Chris]

Ah, I recognise this Atlux with the Moonraker balance bar! I think you must be the 3rd or even the 4th forum member to own this scope now? Nice to see it kept on the forum, it's becoming mildly famous  

Congratulations  

[garryblueboy]

30 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Ah, I recognise this Atlux with the Moonraker balance bar! I think you must be the 3rd or even the 4th forum member to own this scope now? Nice to see it kept on the forum, it's becoming mildly famous  

Congratulations  

Yes Chris it’s somewhat of a celebratry now wonder if it will charge appearance fees ? 

Edited September 16, 2018 by garryblueboy