Show us your mini scope

[Peter_D]

Tasco 9VR on a Slik-67 tripod.

[Peter_D]

 

Bresser 80mm Mangin-Cassegrain

[Graham Darke]

Primarily used for imaging but I discovered recently that it is very sharp visually too. My TS71SD quad 

[happy-kat]

Straight through configuration, yet to try the 1.6x barlow in front of a diagonal as that I understand should work too. ED50

Also have a C70 mini mak with custom backplate.

[Nakedgun]

13 hours ago, F15Rules said:

 

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Nakedgun

[Nakedgun]

20 hours ago, Pancho61 said:

mini scope collection some items was sold for new stuff.  Love this models.

From left to right:

Vixen Planet 80S frist model

Vixen Halley 70S

Meade

Vixen 60S

Pentax J60c

 

Nice little squad, there!

What's the Pentax case in back all about, did the scope come packaged in that??

Edited December 9, 2020 by Nakedgun

[Nakedgun]

8 hours ago, Philip R said:

I posted these earlier in the year, in another section of SGL, whilst I was on furlough...

  
 

...and "yes!" It does work. 😜

 

What is it?

[F15Rules]

13 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nice thread! I have a couple which fit the bill. My William Optics Zenithstar 66SD - very useful on a tripod for quick grab and go, but also good for birdwatching. And the Altair Astro 60mm guidescope, which when fitted with a 21mm Hyperion gives a view of nearly 6 degrees, exit pupil of nearly 6 mm and is a true “richest field” telescope. Incredibly light weight too. In fact I must get it out again! 😁

Hi Robert,

A lovely pair there..the Zenithstar is beautiful! And your Altair guidescope reminded me that I had one a few years ago on my 5" F15 achromat as a finder..here it is, now on the big scopes' current owners pier setup (Steve aka "Saganite" here on SGL..). As you say, a great little widefield scope - F4, I think, so plenty of little seagulls at the edge of the field!😂🤣

Dave

Edited December 9, 2020 by F15Rules

[Stu]

Great thread Dave, right up my street.

A selection of my small scopes past and present on various different mounts and setups.

WO ZS SD66mm

Carton 60 f16.7

Tak FS60C

Tak-FC76DC

TS 72mm f6

80mm converted binocular!

65mm Mini Mak

TV76

PST40

These ones I still have...

TAL Alkor (65mm f7.7)

Zeiss Telementor (63mm f13.3)

’Penguin’ 76mm mini dob

There is also FLO’s very nice Scopetech STL80 f15 in there too which I still have for the moment but that breaks the rules a bit much perhaps?

I once made a 50mm scope from a binocular objective, an old toothpaste dispenser and film canister. It worked surprisingly well! 🤪🤪 EDIT just found a picture of it 👍

The WO 66mm came on safari to Tanzania with me, and I took the FC76DC abroad a few times I think. Still regret selling the FC76DC, such a lovely, sharp little scope.

The sad realisation I came to with many of these is that the FC100DC can come with me pretty anywhere the others could go, and outperforms them all, so I tend to stick with that. I get my little scope kicks from the more quirky ones such as the Telementor and Alkor which are both full of character and are amazing for their size.

[F15Rules]

5 minutes ago, Nakedgun said:

 

What is it?

Is it a binocular tube with a diagonal and TV eyepiece fitted?

[F15Rules]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

There is also FLO’s very nice Scopetech STL80 f15 in there too which I still have for the moment but that breaks the rules a bit much perhaps?

That's a heck of a selection of mini goodies there Stu! Sadly, I fear the Scopetech 80mm F15 is a bit of a big boy for this company..- but I'd dearly love to here your thoughts on it as a long achronut! Do you have plans to write up a review of it?

Pretty Please??😉👍

Dave

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

That's a heck of a selection of mini goodies there Stu! Sadly, I fear the Scopetech 80mm F15 is a bit of a big boy for this company..- but I'd dearly love to here your thoughts on it as a long achronut! Do you have plans to write up a review of it?

Pretty Please??😉👍

Dave

Thanks Dave 👍👍

I have written some thoughts but can expand on them again if you would like. Some clear skies would help!!

[F15Rules]

PS Stu..that little TAL Alcor is amazing for its size, isn't it? And so quirky!!- it feels like it was a battlesight on a Russian Tank at one point, not what you'd call elegant, but sharp as a razor. There have been one or two on fleabay recently, all quite cheap - but you'd need to hire an artic to carry the weight of it!🤣🤣

[Captain Scarlet]

I believe @GavStar has a serious contender in this category ... ?

[AdeKing]

I have four "small" refractors in my arsenal, well five actually if you count the Lunt LS60, but thats a specialist one-trick pony so I don't really count it.

I have a lovely little William Optics ZS66SD in blue (rather faded now), a recently acquired though first generation (I think) William Optics ZS70, a Stellarvue 50mm finder and the "small" one is  a Topic branded Towa 339 80mm f/15, though its a bit long  and 10mm to large a diameter to be considered "small" as set out in the rules of this thread, but what the heck. 

The ZS66SD has probably still is the most used scope in my collection. 

The ZS70 was one of those things that I didn't need but that I'd have regretted not buying if I'd passed on the offer.  Apart from being built like a tank compared to the ZS66SD and having a stock 2" focuser it doesn't really offer me any advantages, but I do love these little WO OTAs.

Moonlited William Optics ZS66SD in blue.

Stellarvue 50mm finder that is often put into service when I have very limited space available.

William Optics ZS70

At the risk of being rapped across the knuckles by @F15Rules here is the Topic branded Towa 339 80mm f/15.

Edited December 9, 2020 by AdeKing
Reduced photo dimensions

[Louis D]

On 08/12/2020 at 08:23, Tiny Clanger said:

That mini mak is cute, is it useful as a tiny travel telescope ?

It's pretty miserable when using much above a 25mm eyepiece due to loads of spherical aberration.  I have it in the PICO-6 livery.  There have been too many reports of this defect to think it's just manufacturing variation.

[F15Rules]

36 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

At the risk of being rapped across the knuckles by @F15Rules here is the Topic branded Towa 339 80mm f/15.

Never, Ade! - having until very recently been the keeper (not owner) of "Bessy", an identical Meade 300 89mm/F15 which had the Moonraker makeover, I could hardly not make an honourable exception for your scope!

Thanks for posting! Here's Bessy below, she has now gone to live in the Lake District where her new keeper will use her for public outreach 👍❤️😊

Dave

[Tiny Clanger]

5 minutes ago, Louis D said:

It's pretty miserable when using much above a 25mm eyepiece due to loads of spherical aberration.  I have it in the PICO-6 livery.  There have been too many reports of this defect to think it's just manufacturing variation.

Thanks for the info. that's a shame, but only to be expected at the price I guess. .

The soup was very good though ! 😀

[Pancho61]

Wow lot of many scope, thanks for this interest tread!!!!

About questions I have collect everywhere where I can Europe, US, Japan etc... For the pentax this is the original box come with the scope. About optical quality, better of this batch is the Vixen Halley pretty good scope ans really smart tripod, planet 80 was not bad but much CA, less control on it. 

I have another what I must take picture tomorrow and push it.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

PS Stu..that little TAL Alcor is amazing for its size, isn't it? And so quirky!!- it feels like it was a battlesight on a Russian Tank at one point, not what you'd call elegant, but sharp as a razor. There have been one or two on fleabay recently, all quite cheap - but you'd need to hire an artic to carry the weight of it!🤣🤣

Yes, it is built like a tank and has lovely sharp optics. I have fitted it with rings and use it on other mounts normally now; although the original mount is very good, it’s not really high enough to be convenient.

I’ve said elsewhere, but I do love viewing double stars through these little scopes; they give big airy disks which I guess hide a lot of mess from the atmosphere so aesthetically they look lovely.

[AdeKing]

19 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Never, Ade! - having until very recently been the keeper (not owner) of "Bessy", an identical Meade 300 89mm/F15 which had the Moonraker makeover, I could hardly not make an honourable exception for your scope!

Thanks for posting! Here's Bessy below, she has now gone to live in the Lake District where her new keeper will use her for public outreach 👍❤️😊

Dave

Thanks for making an exception for my blatant disregard for the rules Dave 😉.

I didn't realise that you and the lovely Bessy had parted company, but am glad to hear that she has gone somewhere that she'll be cherished and get a lot of use.

I'd love to give the Towa f/15 a Moonraker makeover but fear that my wallet would take too long to recover and although the optics are good, I'm not sure that they are that good.

Thanks for the thread, its been fun to participate and great to see so many small scopes being shown off.

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by AdeKing
corrected spelling

[Stu]

59 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

The ZS66SD has probably still is the most used scope in my collection. 

I really liked my little blue ZS SD66mm too Ade, another I regret selling! So tiny and yet very capable.

[AdeKing]

1 minute ago, Stu said:

I really liked my little blue ZS SD66mm too Ade, another I regret selling! So tiny and yet very capable.

Yes, mine is a little gem Stu.  I didn't get on with the original focuser as I found the field of view moved about a lot as the focuser was adjusted, which irritated me so I put a lump of Moonlite on it.

I've since stripped the stock focuser down and re-assembled and re-adjusted and its now much better than it was.

Since getting the ZS70 I've contemplated selling it, but Mrs King won't let me as apparently "it doesn't look like an astronomy telescope because its blue and actually quite nice to look at" which I think is a tad harsh on the rest of my stable of telescopes, as I'm attached to them all, but there you go.

[Nakedgun]

Assuming, Dave, you meant this examination of small scopes to be limited to astronomical, and not purpose-built prismatic terrestrial spotters, here I reveal my next models up the aperture chain: 

 

Borg 60ED f/5.8 on Vixen Mini-Porta

 

 

Takahashi FOA60 f/8.8 on LX70

 

 

[Pancho61]

To complet the information about vixen halley ( orange scope), we have a magazine who done some measurements on it.