What's the oldest astro gear you have?

[Highburymark]

Having sold my Meade ETX 105 and having left my collection of Meade Plossls on the back seat of the 507 bus to Stoke Newington, my oldest astro gear is seven years newer than this thread.

[Peter Drew]

My oldest telescope is a 3" brass refractor by Davis of Cheltenham, circa late 1700's.  My first self built telescope that I still have is a 90mm Maksutov made mid 1970's.  🙂

Edited November 7, 2020 by Peter Drew
typo

[Mark at Beaufort]

Well this is nice to revive this old thread.

I bought a pair of Russian 7x50 binos on the 22nd July, 1968 from a shop in Southsea. I still use them from time to time.

My other old piece of kit is a Coronado PST which I bought to take to the Annular Eclipse in Spain in 2005. Since then I bought a Double Stack.

[Stu]

14 minutes ago, Space Hopper said:

Crikey, this is an old thread ; has time stood still ? 😃

For me my oldest current gear are my Canon 15x50 is binocs.

2004 vintage, still in regular use and still going strong.

I remember buying them to watch the 2004 Venus transit, i was in between telescopes at the time, and i used a homemade solar cover to view the event. They performed great.

A memorable and once in a lifetime event for me.

Indeed it is!! Zombie thread!!

I wonder what the earliest thread on the forum is? Not sure when it started.

For me my oldest scope would either be my Zeiss Telementor II which is probably 30 years old or Vixen FL102S which is perhaps a little younger but not too much.

 

[AdeKing]

My oldest kit is probably my Towa 339 80mm f/15 refractor that I think dates from the 1970s so a similar vintage to myself.

 

[DirkSteele]

An ancient thread comes back to life.  Time for a full resurection by SGL members.

 

The oldest equipment in my collection is the Celestron Nexstar C11 which I bought in late 2002 from David Hinds.  Given they are now shutting down, a nice addition to this thread I think.

[Rusted]

I still have a brass, push-pull focuser with RAS thread and two simple, RAS eyepieces to match. 1/2" & 3/4".
Possibly Hinds and late 1950s? Bought from a dealer's advert in Exchange & Mart I think.
My first DIY telescope [early teens] was a 60mm 1/2 diopter [2000mm focal length] spectacle lens in a home made "aerial" telescope.
I still have the "objective" lens somewhere. Covered in Plasticine from being held in its plywood mount.
Built using only a hand wound drill and padsaw handle with a broken-off hacksaw blade.
The OTA was hung from the washing line post in the back garden.
I saw a colourful Saturn [very] briefly at a ridiculously high magnification!

[DaveL59]

I guess this old 3-inch scope in my collection qualifies here 🙂

Vintage unknown, no markings of any kind to indicate maker but likely 40+ years, brass drawtube with fine focus threads. Bought earlier this year from a chap of similar vintage to me and it was his dad's and had been stored in the loft for many years. Came with a brass 0.965 plossl eyepiece and with now additional 0.965 prism and eyepieces or the 1.25-inch adaptor does give very nice views.

Oldest optical stuff I have, maybe the Hensholdt Wetzlar Jagd's of around 1945 vintage or J Barker mini reverse porro from anywhere in the 1920-1960's period, probably french build given the white clay holding the prisms.

[TerryMcK]

A pair of binoculars from 1979. Carl Zeiss Jena East German - Jenoptem 10 x 50. They are surprisingly good and I got them brand new back then.

[markse68]

Nothing particularly antique but I guess my main scope- my fullerscope must be 40 odd years old and i use it all the time. I’ve a few old TV eps that are probably a similar age too and perform great. 

Mark

[Roy Challen]

3 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

My oldest telescope is a 3" brass refractor by Davis of Cheltenham, circa late 1700's.

You win!

I think my eyes are the oldest astro equipment I have, they're 45 in a couple of weeks.

My Skylight is based on a Prinz 660, so it could be older, but I can't prove it, and my Tak mount is probably mid/late 80s.

[L8-Nite]

Astro Theology book, with star charts; dated 1715

[MrFreeze]

Having got rid of my old Tasco reflector, this lot is my oldest and dates back to the late 1970s. The binocular case had an accident fairly recently, but the binoculars themselves are still used occasionally, and still perform brilliantly.The eyepieces suffered from being in a genuine Meade eyepiece case for several years - the blue foam turned into some nasty treacle like corrosive substance that ate the anodising off the eyepieces in places. After an awful lot of cleaning they aren't sticky anymore, but they don't look as pristine as they did when put into the case for 'protection'. As they were not cheap when purchased, I've not been that fond of Meade since then!

David

 

[AKB]

I have a 6.25" mirror I ground when I was 17...

...Oh dear...

...that’s 50 years ago!

Sentimental reasons.  Definitely. 

[messier 111]

pair of binoculars, celestron made in japan in the 90s.
8x50 bak 4, 8 degrees of fields.

[Luke]

It's maybe either a pair of binoculars or something boring like an extension tube! So I will pick on my eyepieces. We switched mostly to Tele Vue Delos eyepieces and were tempted to sell our Radians, but we really enjoyed them for solar viewing and I am so glad we kept them. They are the 5mm and 8mm. I imagine any Tele Vue eyepiece could last a VERY long time and now I hope these ones will never be moved on!

Telescope-wise, hmmm, I would guess it is our 10-inch GSO dob, which we bought in 2012. Truth be told, I regret earlier selling the Skywatcher 12 inch solid tube dob. It was better optically than the GSO, and it was a very convenient scope, not that heavy, ready to use almost instantly. A really nice weight to light bucket ratio!

I wish they still made these! The Flextubes are super neat for being compact and for taking to star parties, but I do like the convenience of a solid tube dob, given the amount of cloud we get.

That said, I do like the dob base of the GSO, and the views are decent with a Tele Vue Paracorr coma corrector on.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Luke

[LongJohn54]

I began reading this thread without noticing the first post date.  I got a shock at seeing the second post and had to have a close look at the post dates.

Alberio380 (Dr Tom Clackson) passed away on 27 Sept 2015 whilst cycling to help at an outreach event run by The Astronomical Society of Glasgow of which he was Treasurer.

https://www.theasg.org.uk/index.php/all-articles/21-dr-tom-clackson

I bought my first refractor (TS 127 as seen in my profile picture) from Tom and after spending a couple of hours at his home chatting about all things astro left with my new scope and another hundred quids worth of 'bits n pieces' that he threw in for free.   He was also generous with his time and knowledge and I learnt a lot from him.  A real character and still missed.

Edited November 8, 2020 by LongJohn54

[callisto]

Mine is a pair of 10x50 Russian bino's I purchased some 28 years ago.....Still in great condition and built like a tank

[markse68]

8 hours ago, Luke said:

I wish they still made these! The Flextubes are super neat for being compact and for taking to star parties, but I do like the convenience of a solid tube dob, given the amount of cloud we get.

Found this nice little cartoon in the 1972 Fullerscope catalog I just received  Oh maybe this is my oldest astro “gear” 😂

Mark

[markse68]

22 hours ago, L8-Nite said:

Astro Theology book, with star charts; dated 1715

 

That’s a beautiful moon map L8- can’t make out the signature- can you help? I’d love a print of it for the wall

Mark

[L8-Nite]

Took the photos awhile ago. The book is in storage at the moment, but I will try and get a better photo for you tomorrow;  until then, here is a photo of the inside cover page.

 

[andrew s]

I tend to give my old kit away so the oldest gear I have are my 69 yr old eyes. 👀

Regards Andrew 

[CCD-Freak]

I think this is my oldest piece of astro gear.  It is older than I am and it still puts up a good image.

I also have a Celestron C8 from 1979. and some eyepieces that date back to the 50s.

 

John Love
CCD-Freak
WD5IKX

 

[Mark Hardaker]

Well thanks for your comments.  I’m fairly new to the Lounge and haven’t figured what’s where yet. I searched the net for info on my trusty JKMH and the thread by NAZARI appeared!  Just goes to show that what you say online will never ever go away, it seems!  

Thanks for your thoughts

 

Cheers

[Hawksmoor]

I did until three years ago, have a hand held 50mm refractor which I was given for my 11th birthday in 1961 but I gave the scope to one of my grandchildren who expressed an interest in it. I remember the first time I looked at the Pleiades with it, knocked my knee length socks off!

I do have and still use a 90mm ETX RA mak which my wife gave me on my fiftieth birthday, this month it will be 21 years old. I no longer use the mount. The scope now rides on my Star Adventurer and still provides a nice lunar or solar image - used it for both lunar and partial solar eclipses and Venus and Mercury transits. Many years ago I took it with me to New Zealand and can remember setting it up at a viewing point looking out over the bay near Christchurch. I used it to observe the Jewelbox open star cluster and the globular star cluster Omega Centauri. Fabulous night and wonderful objects to view. Great little scope -  the poor man's Questar - made in Irvine California before they got outsourced.

Night all George