New old refractor added to the family

[Knighty2112]

A new (old) 'frac added to my wee family of scopes. From an Astromedia kit of a slightly smaller copy of one of Galileo's refractors. Not had a chance to view the night sky yet, but get a 12x magnification, so should be able to see the moon in a little more detail. Field of view is small, but as one of the first kind of telescopes made this was cutting edge back in the day I guess!  

Hope for a chance tonight to observe something if the clouds permit!  

[Galen Gilmore]

Now that's what I call vintage!

[Knighty2112]

Just now, Galen Gilmore said:

Now that's what I call vintage!

Sure is!  

[BigBeard]

Cor blimey, I thought that was a didgeridoo for a minute

[dobbie]

Can you play a tune! On it ?

[John]

it will be very interesting to use that I'd imagine

Get a replica of one of Helvelius's scopes to compare it with :

 

 

[Dave1]

9 minutes ago, John said:

it will be very interesting to use that I'd imagine

Get a replica of one of Helvelius's scopes to compare it with :

 

 

I'm sure recently there's been a modern recreation of that! Full size too! Will try and dig it out.

[Knighty2112]

1 hour ago, John said:

it will be very interesting to use that I'd imagine

Get a replica of one of Helvelius's scopes to compare it with :

 

 

Cor blimey! That would take some doing! Think I'll stick with just the Galileo one for now thanks!  

[MarsG76]

Nice one.. curious to read about what you see through it?

[Knighty2112]

7 hours ago, MarsG76 said:

Nice one.. curious to read about what you see through it?

Managed a very brief look at Vega last night. Was hoping to check out the moon later on, but cloud cover and tiredness stopped that. Hoping to get the moon in view at some point. Because of the very narrow field of view, and lack of any kind of sighting tool other than lining up the scope visually with the object it is vey hard to line things up in the eyepiece end. Don't plan to use the scope much after viewing the moon through it, as it will just be in the house as a decorative piece really (need to get a small shelf for it to sit on). 

[MarsG76]

11 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Managed a very brief look at Vega last night. Was hoping to check out the moon later on, but cloud cover and tiredness stopped that. Hoping to get the moon in view at some point. Because of the very narrow field of view, and lack of any kind of sighting tool other than lining up the scope visually with the object it is vey hard to line things up in the eyepiece end. Don't plan to use the scope much after viewing the moon through it, as it will just be in the house as a decorative piece really (need to get a small shelf for it to sit on). 

Cool... Once you see the moon, you'll know exactly what Galileo saw.

[Knighty2112]

With a clear sky after sunset, and the crescent moon shining in the sky I finally got a chance to use the telescope on the moon earlier on this evening. After adjusting the focus slightly I managed to get a very pleasing view of the moon, which with the 12x magnification gave a very sharp image the the craters and features on the moon. Considering these are not glass lenses, with no coating on them I was extremely surprised at the view through them. I then tried the scope on Saturn, and finally after a while got it in view, but the magnification is too low to show the rings, only slightly suggesting that Saturn is not a star. To be honest lining up the scope with anything but the moon is a right pain, and can guess that Galileo got very frustrated at times lining anything but the moon up to view.

All in all very surprised at the clear view of the moon you get with this scope. Whilst it won't be used much further except for maybe a few more glimpses of the moon, it is good to have an idea of what the views these early telescopes of the time gave for observers of the day.