'The Repair Shop' restoring an old scope!

[Gasman]

Hi folks

Just watched an interesting episode on BBC1 where a chap and his son brought an old homemade reflector made by his late father to see if the guys could repair it and make it workable again. Amazing build from old parts found around Portsmouth area, mirror fomerly a porthole various other bits and bob's to make an equatorial mount. They got the mirror recoated and made a great job of the restoration. Took me back a few years having made my own reflector and mirror 😁. Should be on catchup!

Steve

[Alien 13]

I do like that program, on one episode they stripped and refurbished some WW2 binoculars, fascinating stuff.

Alan

[Alien 13]

1 hour ago, Gasman said:

Hi folks

Just watched an interesting episode on BBC1 where a chap and his son brought an old homemade reflector made by his late father to see if the guys could repair it and make it workable again. Amazing build from old parts found around Portsmouth area, mirror fomerly a porthole various other bits and bob's to make an equatorial mount. They got the mirror recoated and made a great job of the restoration. Took me back a few years having made my own reflector and mirror 😁. Should be on catchup!

Steve

Its on BBC iPlayer...

Alan

[Gina]

Watched it too.  I always watch that programme.

[L8-Nite]

Just caught up on recordings and enjoyed the episode. Not mentioned, but it appeared that they also flocked the inside of the wood tube.

[Gina]

Think I'll watch that episode again on iPlayer - didn't notice that they'd flocked the tube.  The expertise of those people never ceases to amaze me!

[Dave Lloyd]

The guy that built it was something else. The mount with it's gate valve taphead and wormgear slow motions was simply amazing. 

[tomato]

Thanks for this, just found it on iPlayer. Hats off to the original constructor, what an amazing scope and mount, and the repair shop team did a fine job. 

An excellent bit of TV.

[Tomatobro]

But look for the dust on the mirror as it was put in the tube!

I guess it was all staged for the camera though so the dust might have been removed before the final fitting.

 

[Gina]

They said they got the mirror resilvered.

[tomato]

2 minutes ago, Tomatobro said:

But look for the dust on the mirror as it was put in the tube!

I guess it was all staged for the camera though so the dust might have been removed before the final fitting.

 

I think this is what @Tomatobro was referring to:

 

[Davey-T]

Sooo about half an hour ago I thought I'd watch this episode but after a recent Virgin box update, at their insistence, what was previously a simple job of pushing the red button for the iPlayer has become a maze of authorization codes and needing to use the laptop to log onto BBC site, find my BBC password that I haven't needed for yonks at the end of lot's of screen clicking they ask if I have a TV licence so what was the point of it all.

Having eventually muddled my way to iPlayer, that now takes ten times as long as previously to come to life, I'm presented with a list of episodes with intro's on some that don't actually get to mention the program content before tailing off so have to scroll around hoping to stumble upon it, if this is progress they can stuff it 

Just hope it's all been worth it 😂

Dave

[tomato]

Yes, iPlayer seems to have got more officious and slower in equal measure in recent years, oddly it always seems to run quicker and more reliably on hand held devices rather than the telly, maybe I need a new ‘smart” TV?

[Alien 13]

16 minutes ago, tomato said:

Yes, iPlayer seems to have got more officious and slower in equal measure in recent years, oddly it always seems to run quicker and more reliably on hand held devices rather than the telly, maybe I need a new ‘smart” TV?

Just buy a dongle, problem solved.

Alan

[banjaxed]

I have watched the Repair Shop for a while now and it always amazes me how skilful those people are. The mount they repaired looked a lot heavier and solid than some modern ones.

[saac]

That was a lovely telescope. It was the kind that I imagined Ogilvy the astronomer in HG Wells' War of The World would have used to observe the green flares from Mars  

Jim 

Edited December 15, 2019 by saac

[Dave Lloyd]

17 minutes ago, saac said:

That was a lovely telescope. It was the kind that I imagined Ogilvy the astronomer in HG Wells' War of The World would have used to observe the green flares from Mars  

Jim 

Yes, quite steampunk. 

[Nigella Bryant]

Brilliant programme, love it, great episode with that self built telescope too. 

[happy-kat]

I'll have to catch up and watch that episode.

[andrew s]

I always enjoy the repair shop.  Just a pleasure to see such skills deployed by such delightful craftsmen and women. 

The redcoat of the mirror was by Orion Optics. Pity it got dusty but a hazard of a shared workspace. 

Regards Andrew 

[Gina]

Easy enough to blow the dust off.

[baggywrinkle]

Great program, the skills shown are amazing. Loved both the telescope programs.

[Star101]

I do like the Repair Shop TV program. I do sometimes wonder how much they charge for those repairs 😮 

No one ever appears to mention it....HOW £$£$£ MUCH!!!  😂

[Star101]

iPlayer BBC1- Repair Shop Series 5 Episode 16- 7 minutes onwards.

[Nigella Bryant]

I've applied to go on it to repair my 66 year old Teddy, voice box stopped working and paws are a little tatty and ears tatty and floppy, eye's don't match cus both we're lost but replaced with plastic one's. He deserves some tlc at 66. Only had a generic email back saying there's lots of applications.