Fullerscopes telescopes - still in use?

[trynda1701]

So, based on a post about a old Fullerscopes equatorial mount found here...

 

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/310005-fullerscope-mount/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-3402468

 

...and a couple of forum members showing their own Fullerscopes telescopes there, are there any others who still have, and especially USE their Fullerscopes?

 

There were a couple of Newtonian scopes shown on that thread above, I'd love to see more. But I'd also like to see any refractors still in use. I almost went for a three inch refractor back in the early 80s. If folks are still using them, I'd love to hear thoughts and some pics would be nice too.

 

I've read about quality control issues on the mounts, but what were the scopes like,  mirrors and lenses both. Tell us your stories.

 

Mark

[tuckstar]

I know a couple of people with fullerscopes. One has a 10" newt and the other an 8". The 8" was up for sale. The 10" is used regularly, and he has had it from new nearly 40 years ago.

[dph1nm]

I still have my 8.5 inch f6 Newtonian with plastic tube (which was bought as a bunch of components rather than the finished article - cheaper that way I think), although as of last September it has been swapped out for a Skywatcher 12", so not strictly still in use. It now sits forlornly in the corner of the obs under a white sheet. Somewhere in the garden shed I still have the MkII mount it used to sit on, but I don't think this has been used in earnest for 40 years or more!

NigelM

Edited March 14, 2018 by dph1nm

[25585]

Yes, I had a Fullerscope 8.5 inch F8. "A" grade mirrors but "B" everything else. The tube had tube end metal rims & a mirror access door. I upgraded to a Vixen focuser to take a 36.4mm fit Vixen 32mm Erfle. 

Mk 3 mount (best setting circles ever) with an electric RA drive. It was protected by a glass 1 amp fuse which could be bought from Tandy and powered by a lead acid external battery powered by crocodile clips. 

The mirror was excellent & never got out of collimation in its heavy cel. Great for doubles & globulars especially. 

Polar alignment was with the finderscope then the Erfle. Awkward & imprecise. Mount's big failing was it's wobbly swivelling on the pier top. Altitude adjustment by loosening & tightening a big bolt. 

Sold for a Celestron C8 OTA when I moved to a smaller house with high steps & then upsized to a 12 inch F5 Dobsonian eventually. The C8 is still in occasional use. 

OOUK is probably the domestic market's modern day equivalent of Fullerscope for OTAs & sensibly they make & sell Dobsonian mounts too. I wonder what Dudley Fuller would have made Dob mounts from. 

[Cleetus]

I once bought a 6" reflector from them. They had what they called "unit purchase plan" or something like that where you selected  various components to suit your budget. Anyway,  I was unsure whether to choose the grade A or B mirror. So I was chatting to the chap about this and he told  me to go for the B mirror.  I asked him why and he said "well, because of the seeing, there may only be two or maybe three nights a year when the A will be better and you might be at the pictures or the bingo on that night". Priceless. Bought the B in the end and never regretted it.

[Rusted]

I am still using my MkIII and the MkIV. Both have the original bronze wormwheels. 7" 366T on the MkIV.

Both were bought secondhand and fitted with stainless steel shafts to end their long battle against rust.

Both live outside under tarpaulins. Which doesn't suit the plain steel worms.

The MkIV handles my 6" f/8 refractor quite effortlessly. Solid as a rock.

A 5" f/15 was okay too.  My 7" f/12 was slightly beyond its limits.

Though I used it for imaging the Mercury transit with a Neximage.

A 10" f/8 reflector was more of a struggle. Yet Fullerscopes showed a 10" on the MkIII.

Both mountings rely [heavily] on massive, welded stands each too heavy to lift manually.

I had a contact who fitted an AWR belt drive Goto on his MkIV.

Another was restoring a Fullerscopes 12" Cassegrain.

The image below is my MkIV just after I completed its restoration.

Engraved setting circles need a magnifier to read.

I had the Skytracker VFO to go with it until I fried it with the endless Mercury transit.

[HAsun]

Hello,

I have 4" f15 brass and black refractor. It has a very good lens. I have used it up to 380 x when looking at Jupiter last year in good seeing, bit of a dim image though !

It rides on an old Cooke equatorial mount.

 

 

[Paul M]

2 minutes ago, HAsun said:

Hello,

I have 4" f15 brass and black refractor. It has a very good lens. I have used it up to 380 x when looking at Jupiter last year in good seeing, bit of a dim image though !

It rides on an old Cooke equatorial mount.

 

 

That sounds like a beast of a scope. Do you have any pictures?

Don't hear much about Fullerscope's refractors. I suppose there weren't many made relative to the reflectors.

[Rusted]

 

[trynda1701]

@Rusted

 

That is a wonderful restoration on that MkIV mount. Beautiful. Is that the original colour? Also, I loved the pics of your MkIII mount on the other thread.?

 

Plus, thanks for that video!

 

@HAsun

Yes, would like to see any pictures if you have any. Which country are you based in? X380 magnification on Jupiter doesn't sound like UK skies!?

Edited March 15, 2018 by trynda1701

[Rusted]

Hi

Originally it would have had matt black, wrinkle paint.

I inherited it with scruffy black paint so decided on an update.

The first Hammerite I tried was light metallic blue.

It looked too awful to find polite words to describe it.

So something a little less "sudden" was in order.

It has lasted well out of doors under cover with two original coats about 15 years ago.

A bit of rust is showing on the steel pier now.

I thought I'd paint it all white one day but never have. 

It might put off the birds which like to nest in the base fork.

[CraigT82]

Heads up for any Fullercopes fasn in Scotland...

https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/fullerscopes-telescope/1290837361?utm_source=savedsearches&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GT.TRIGGER.SA&utm_content=none

[John_Prewer]

I'm a bit late to this party.
I've rebuilt the 8.5" Fullersvope Newtonian on its Mk3 mount that I got in the 1970s and purchased a Wildey mirror for it.  A few years ago I also bought what I think is a 1970s Beacon Hill 4" Refractor on a Mk3 Fullerscopes mount that has had the RA & Dec shafts changed to stainless steel and is on a custom stainless steel tripod.  The reflector has an RA drive which years ago I used for photography with a 35mm SLR and I'm looking forward to trying digital.
The Refractor came with a great set of Fullerscope eyepieces and I've bought more on eBay to give me the Fullerscope full set of 6, 9, 12.5, 18, 25, 40mm Orthoscopics and the 20mm Erfle with duplicates for the two 'scopes.  Right now I have plans to put these in an Observatory with a sliding roof that I should start building soon.  Luckily the street lights go out late at night, which is a great inprovement on the 1970s.

[Spock Junior]

Hi. I’m very new to telescopes but have inherited a Fullerscopes item which I’m sure will be fascinating to use properly. 

Ive actually had it in my garden for a few years but only tried to use it a couple of times.

I  have just spent on having the mirrors resilvered which we now fantastic. One big question is to ask what lens should I be using to view stars?  I had managed to to see a great view of part of the moon with one of my lenses but the stars seem no nearer with that lens. 

Can anyone please provide a duffers guide to getting started?

My scope has a 10” mirror at the bottom and an elliptical one which angles the view out to a side lens . I’m afraid I don’t even know what this type of scope is called .

Any help will be welcomed .  Thank you  

 

 

 

[John]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

The scope you have inherited is a newtonian. If you could post an image of it we can give you more info on the model and it's age and specification and recommend some eyepieces.

The stars look like points of light even when magnified hundreds of times with a telescope. You never see them any bigger. A telescope does help you to see fainter stars than you can with your eyes. Some stars are double or triple through the scope. Some cluster together. There are lots of things a scope can show you that our eyes cannot see.

If your scope has a 10 inch main mirror then it is a very capable instrument

[Rusted]

All that John said and welcome. A 10" is still a very powerful instrument even by today's standards.

I own two different Fullerscopes mountings.  The MkIII and the MkIV.  Medium and Heavy duty.
Mountings are the metalwork with shafts which support the telescope and allows it to point around the sky.
Fullerscopes mountings are simple and solid but the drives [motor and gears] are usually rather basic.
They were mostly made back in the 1970s and 1980s. The optics [mirrors and lenses] are well respected.
Fullerscopes produced simple B&W catalogues. Which are handy for identifying the instruments and accessories.

If you can post some pictures here we can tell you a lot more about what you have.

[Peter Drew]

Fullerscopes offered A, B and C quality optics in their Newtonians. The A quality ones were by David Hinds and low expansion glass, the B quality were usually also by David hinds, high optical quality but plate glass. C quality optics were by whoever could make them the cheapest at the time.

Refractor optics were either left overs from Broadhurst Clarkson which Fullerscopes took over or made new using the same processes. I think the bronze gears of the MklV mounts were supplied on the export models, Still today one of the sturdiest mounts for the price.   ?

[Stub Mandrel]

Take a look at this excellent thread to give you an idea of what sorts of things you can expect to see. May I suggest you start with the middle 'star' in Orion's sword which is well placed for viewing at the moment. One of the most spectacular sights in the sky the Orion nebula will show as a complex grouping of young stars lighting the swirling dust clouds which they formed from. In my 10" Newtonian I can see plenty of detail as long as the moon isn't too bright and on a moonless night it is quite spectacular.

Last friday at our astronomy group meeting the chair found M94, a galaxy,  in the same scope. A more typical sight this was a circular disc with the hints of a brighter rim and clear central core, despite the moon and persistent thin cloud.

[Paul M]

Congratulations on owning a Fullerscope! 

I still have my 6in Newtonian that I bought new in the early 80's. They aren't like the glitzy mass produced modern scopes. The A grade mirrors are excellent but the lower grade mirrors won't discernibly inferior to a less experienced user.

Looking forward to seeing some photos of it.

[Spock Junior]

Hello Everyone. I have got a couple of photos to share of my inherited Newtonian Fullerscope. Looking at the detail I feel rather ashamed that I have let, at least the mounting, get rather shabby. It appears to be an alloy which has resisted the weather better than perhaps a steel would have done. I expect you can suggest a restoration technique to preserve it into the future. Keeping it under cover would be helpful of course but I have only managed to wrap it in a plastic sheet these past few years.

I have the rather 'basic' motor separately but we have never tried to connect it and I can see that there needs to be some work done on all the linkages to ever get that to work. I have the large mirror safely in doors ready for when I can confidently choose an eye piece and start gazing.

I have 4 eyepieces named respectively: K - 6mm, K - 12.5, K - 25mm and Orth - 9mm. I'm not sure which one I used last to see very good detail of just a quarter of the moon one night. I have only really had success with the one lens and this is what I was hoping to have help with so that I can work out how to use them effectively and open up my eyes to the astro-view (!)

Thanks for your interest and I look forward to your collective further advice.

[dweller25]

Welcome to SGL @Spock Junior and good luck with the restoration

Edited March 19, 2019 by dweller25

[Stub Mandrel]

That mount casting looks like a die casting. If it is aluminium it should clean up with caustic soda (take care and not for long though!)  It woudl be really nice to get it anodised if you can't source the textured 'black japan' paint (not easy to find).

If a zinc/tin-based alloy the level of corrosion on the surface is worrying.  If contaminated with metals such as lead it can fail like this 35 year old guitar part, it may no be clear but internal cracks have opened up, filled with oxide causing it to swell and crack further:

Tin oxide catalyses its own formation so clean every trace off and then paint it with something like hammerite to exclude all moisture and air.

[Rusted]

I found a custom motorcycle workshop stocked black wrinkle paint.
Which was what was originally used on Fullerscopes stuff.
NOT crackle paint which is quite different and used on retro furniture.

The old paint was rather toxic according to my source.

He emphasised that warmth was vital to a good wrinkle or it would stay boring and glossy.
A heat gun was suggested.

In the end I never used it and went for Hammerite.
Hammerite needs its own special primer to last well on aluminium.

No primer necessary on iron or steel, I believe.
Though it does chip and rust through the paint if left too long outdoors.

[Stub Mandrel]

Etch primer for aluminium, although anodising is best - but of course if you anodise you don't need paint...

[Ove]

Hi Everyone

Yes I know this is an OLD thread with last post March 19th 2019, anyway, its the best place to post i could find on this WWW

So my I was given an old Fullerscopes by my neighbor  and wonder if anyone is still here and if so could help figure out the numbers on the back of the primary mirrior and also a bit more info about it if there is any.

 

Else, plan is to now after i have taking it apart, cleaned everything and made sure every adjustment screw is working smoothly after years being stuck to see if i can get it to work. 
Found that this is a very nice project to do with my 8 year old  Excellent to get her to learn about light, reflection, space and so on!  
It is missing the eyepiece so i need to find a replacement for that.  Think i might also mount my a DSLR on it if working, that would be nice.. 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Ove