Swift 831 project

[chicharrero]

I have just acquired a 1960s Swift 831 refractor (see photo). It was described quite fairly as having rusty and dirty parts and not guaranteed to be complete, but I thought I'd take a punt and it was being sold for a good cause.

Anyway I'm quite optimistic that it might have some life in it. Everything seems to be there except for one part, the secondary drawtube (number 9 in the parts list). One of the eyepieces is cracked. The mount and tripod seem to work perfectly well. So this looks like it might be a fun project for when I have a bit more time in the summer holiday.

However, I have no idea how I should go about trying to clean dirty optics. Any advice would be gratefully received!

And the missing part will need some sort of replacement. I'm happy to improvise something, perhaps with parts from a plumber, and it might make sense to make it a 1.25" tube. Any suggestions? Of course, in the highly unlikely event that anyone has a spare Swift 831 secondary drawtube knocking around, I'd love to hear from you!

 

 

[chicharrero]

Aha! The "missing" drawtube was hiding inside the other drawtube! It is complete with all accessories, including instruction manual, Swift cleaning cloth and lethal sun filter.

So I've put it all together and observed the light fitting on the far wall of the room down the hallway... I think this is progress.