The history of my telescope collection - what’s yours?

[Paul M]

Circa 1976: Dixon's own brand 60mm refractor. Wouldn't entertain it now but then it was my gateway to the Universe. Went out on loan in the 90's, don't remember who or where!

Early 80's: Tasco 3.5in reflector. Pants as pants could be but I was given it. That too went out on permanent loan

Mid 80's: my dream scope bought out of my meagre income. Fullerscope's 6.25 in 'export' Newtonian. Still got that but not much used. Great scope though.

[ hiatus]

2013 ish,: Skywatcher 250PDS and EQ6 Pro. Good scope but not easy to use visually on that mount. Still getting use. My main scope.

2019: Celstron 127 SLT. I like the scope but the mount isn't to my liking. So it's been going on the NEQ6. 

 

 

[Highburymark]

Here’s mine:

* Meade ETX 105 - superb optics, tragic electronics. I can still see those super sharp ETX lunar mountain ranges 

* C6 - never really got on with this scope. Although it was collimated to within an inch of its life, stars seemed flabby after the ETX

* SW Equinox 80ED - super little scope. Has anyone ever had a bad Equinox? For an F/6.25 doublet, really packed a punch 

* Lunt LS50 - got me hooked on solar. Great scope which I double stacked a few months later.

* C8 Edge - my biggest ever scope. Loved the views 

* Takahashi FC-100DC - this one I still have, and always will. Main lunar and planetary scope, but also for solar with a Quark, WL with a wedge, and night vision. Has also been a great travel scope

* Lunt LS60 - also double stacked - have used almost every sunny day for past three years

* PVS-14 night vision monocular with Photonis 4G tube - ok not really a telescope but used with my scopes to make deep sky observing possible from the most light polluted locations. A revelation

* Takahashi Epsilon 130d - this one I still have - a banana coloured F/3.3 ‘hyperbolic Newtonian’ bought for night vision from fellow SGL member. Fast optics suck in light - love this telescope

* TeleVue 85 - still have, always will - bought mainly as a travel scope, but gets lots of other use. Completely different to the super light FC-100. TV85 feels like it’s hewn from granite.... and soon to take delivery of two external 70mm solar ha filters from Solarscope on the Isle of Man to fit on the TV85 and replace the Lunt LS60. 

Once Lunt 60 is sold, will just have three scopes - the two Taks and TV85, and can’t see myself adding to this list list for a long time.

[Neil H]

Hi everyone here is my story , was on eBay found a Celestron astro master 130  on bids or offer so I put offer in of £50 the guy never even answered me , it didn't sell week later he sold it for £49 be should had took my £50 lol

So in the mean time I found powerseeker 114 EQ  new un used so paid for it when I got it OMG used and abused so with the help of the members on here it got cleaned mirrors ,collimated and used then the focuser failed just as that happened a skywatcher 150/750 on an EQ3-2 came up local so I got it omg what a nice telescope so flocked it put springs I the main mirror , made a really good friend on here wookie1965 , he sent me a message that a Orion Optics VX8l on a HEQ5 came up for sale an hour from me ,so put in an offer of £600 said to my wife I want get it for that price so will be ready to pay out a bit more , OMG I got back a yes so picked it up flocked it made Wilcox rings and this is were I am at now , works well with the eyepieces I upgraded on John's advice 

John that a hell of a list of telescope I had to Google a lot of them 

Sorry its a long story but would like to thank everyone on here for helping me so I am were I am now 

[wookie1965]

I started off with Binoculars for 20 years every time I wanted to get a scope something would break in the house.

First Scope was a Skywatcher 150p on a EQ3-2 mount

A C4r on a EQ3-2 

A Skywatcher 200p on a EQ5 goto mount 

Tal 100rs

Meade 127mm achromatic   

[JOC]

I've got The two in my signature.

With SGL's help I got the Skywatcher Skyliner 200P (8") FlexTube GOTO 1200mm F/L (F6); Alt-Azimuth Mount; SynScan AZ Handset (now WiFi widget and phone) about 4-5 yrs ago, then I got the Grab 'n' go vintage (1970's) Vixen 80S Tabletop (if telescopes can be 'cute', it's 'cute'!!) 1.25" adapter and 45" prism and 90" mirror diagonals for it from SGL classifieds about a year later - it's also now got a perfectly adequate cheap tripod from SGL classifieds, but I think it would still be classed as an Alt-Azimuth mount as it only moves up and down and left and right on little twiddly knobs and doesn't track.  It came entirely self sufficient with a little baby table top mount and mini tripod that all sort-of folds up inside itself

[DaveL59]

ah ok, my back story then...

Bought an old pair of ex army issue binos as a kid overseas, which Dad got his army guys to refurb, think they're 6x or 8x30, black leather over brass body IIRC. Will have to see if I can get them back of my little sis who "borrowed" them years ago but now she has glasses not sure she even uses them these day. So that was 50 years ago. Back then I had a couple books on the planets but unfortunately no fund to afford the cost of a scope as they were pretty expensive back then, not to mention long and we moved every couple years so very likely to be destroyed in shipping.

Around 15 years back I picked up an old 10x50 in a curio shop, needed work but looked ok in that they were complete, but one occular was flapping loose and full of dust, bur for £5 what the heck. I lived by the Thames then so thought it'd be nice to get a better look at passing ships etc. Collimation was so good it felt like your eyes being ripped out of their sockets  So they sat unloved for a while till I moved house and was between jobs, so something to do, learn something new etc. Turns out these were an old Japanese pair branded Burleigh and stamped JE54. So I stripped these down and cleaned everything up, spend ages making up shims to get the prism tilt just so and now they're nice and clear and aligned for my eyes. Testing on the stars rekindles an interest and I was enjoying the view of the orion nebula etc.

So I started collecting binos, always liked the skeleton type miniatures but also a few others came into the growing collection, all bought at bargain/good prices and fettled as needed. Way too many now tho lol. A partial (not even half!) of the collection for your enjoyment.

So as I worked on each and checked alignment against the stars, interest in seeing further grew and I decided I needed a scope, another slippery slope to step onto it seems.

First up after a lot of reading was a TAL-1, but the seller went silent, so I found a NatGeo 76x350 locally going for £10. OK a bit of a toy maybe but heck at that price. Picked it up and never got on with dob-type setup tho its not the best example I know. Still it gave fair views and I tweaked it her e and there so its now much better with a low cost plossl eyepiece update. Next I found an SW130EQ2 with clock drive, not too far and £70 later it was mine. A more proper scope and it works really well, is a little wobbly in the EQ2 mount. 

Still seeking a TAL though, I then found a TAL-M, in the wooden case too, so a further £60 and it too was mine. Fits nicely in the boot in the case so an easy if heavy one to take about. It was a bit tatty with lots of paint scars and is now being restored, slowly. Missing were the 32mm diameter extension for higher mag and a 25mm eyepiece but still very usable. 

Next up came a TAL100RS, a proper scope (a big lens on the end of a tube for me lol). Long round trip to Coventry to collect but its lovely, on an EQ5 mount with full set of TAL eyepieces its a treasure.

I then bought a used EQ5-SynScan and that GoTo gear is now serving the TAL100RS, with the now spare EQ5 needing an overhaul as the axes stick here and there making tho GoTo grate and stop slewing.

So a few months back I found an older TAL-1 which was pre-1.25 inch eyepieces, so bought that for £60 to have a hens-teeth 25mm plossl. Yep I bought the whole scope for one eyepiece  It also had the TAL clip-on filters which compliment the TAL-M nicely too. Now the chap I bought this from was the very first owner of this scope, so I couldn't just cannibalise it, it had to be made useful again, so I shifted the primary mirror up and tweaked the focuser retainer to hold 1.25-inch eyepieces to make it usable with regular eyepieces.  I've since swapped the focuser on to a TAL 1.25-inch one which keeps it reasonably original and fully usable and at some stage I'll refresh the paint on it too.

Ignore the weird thing in the SW130 focuser - having a play with a CCTV module to see if it'll get any pics of the moon but never got round to doing much with it... yet.

So there we have it, the collection so far. Would I go after another scope, probably yes if a nice telementor or a Prinz 660 perhaps, as I said, slippery slope  

 

[DaveL59]

argh and now I wrote that, an email alert saying there's a T2 up for sale! What to do!

Must resist, must resist, keep saying it David! Furlough so reduced income so for sure I can't afford to right now, pity  

[Whistlin Bob]

6 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Here’s mine:

* Meade ETX 105 - superb optics, tragic electronics.

Oh yes! I've felt that pain! I've de-forked mine and have a summer plan to sort it out. The camera mount I have it on now has spaghetti for legs!

[JOC]

On 04/05/2020 at 14:27, DaveL59 said:

So I started collecting binos,

I've never seen anyone with a large collection of binoculars.  I;ve actually got several pairs myself.  My first set I don't tend to use, but they were my granddad's and as a child I used to feel very special as granddad would let me use them (with the cord over my head!) to see special birds where he and nan lived.  When he died Nana gave them to me.  They are officers' binoculars from WWII in a hard case and I think granddad used them when he was in the Home Guard as he had a reserved occupation in the railways during the war.

Edited May 6, 2020 by JOC

[DaveL59]

The old ones I got as a kid we were stationed in Singapore, they were ex issue with the willie dixons mark on them and a little tatty. My dad was Q so he got them refurb'd and they came back to me in a nice new case, all black and shiny, I was well chuffed. That was late 60's as I recall and I've not seen them in 20 odd years since they were "borrowed". Sadly tho I do remember that the markings were removed or covered over (might still be there under the paint) so no idea what the maker was but they were ZCF type and not IF and unlikely to have been WW2 issue. I'd never part with them even tho I have far better pairs to use, just because of that history. I just hope little sis stored them well and they're not full of fungus  

I guess I've around 30-35 pairs in all now, a small collection compared to others - I bet Mr Drew has a fair few more than me