Possible supplier for a 3" f12 refractor in 1973???

[Merlin66]

The thread on the Frank's cardboard tube scope reminded me about a 3" f12 refractor I bought in South Africa in 1973. Came in the usual Japanese fitted wooden box - looked and smelled great.

I'm trying to find out which make it probably was..... usual white tube, 1.25" eyepieces wooden tripod and "average" small EQ mount.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Towa or Prinz or Unitron or TASCO

Any ideas???

[Roy Challen]

Could be any of quite a large number of brands, all basically the same but with different names. Yamamoto, Swift, SYW, Royal Tokyo etc, etc. 1.25" would've been quite unusual in 1973, so may be a clue.

Loads of info on CN

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/649766-classic-60mm-japanese-refractor/

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/342860-japanese-telescope/

 

Edited April 10, 2021 by Roy Challen

[Merlin66]

Roy,

I found the CN links to be very US oriented......

It wasn’t a SWIFT but....a Royal?????

[Roy Challen]

Agreed re: CN, but there's not much info about such scopes sold in SA back then. I was hoping there'd be a mention of 1.25" eyepieces in one of those threads...

...like this one

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/196876-yamamoto-3in-f12-refractor/

Edited April 10, 2021 by Roy Challen

[DAVE AMENDALL]

Hi, Sounds like my first scope 1969. like you say lovely wooden box that smelt of fresh pine. The 3 eyepieces supplied were smaller than 1.25". You got a barlow as well. Astro Optical Co inc Now Takahashi ?    ...Dave

[Roy Challen]

6 minutes ago, DAVE AMENDALL said:

Hi, Sounds like my first scope 1969. like you say lovely wooden box that smelt of fresh pine. The 3 eyepieces supplied were smaller than 1.25". You got a barlow as well. Astro Optical Co inc Now Takahashi ?    ...Dave

That looks lovely, Dave, both the telescope and the mount.

[Merlin66]

From memory the EQ mount was black.

you may be correct about the eyepieces, I need to re-visit my observing logs of the time to see which eyepieces were used.

 

[DAVE AMENDALL]

5 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

From memory the EQ mount was black.

you may be correct about the eyepieces, I need to re-visit my observing logs of the time to see which eyepieces were used.

 

I think the size of the the eyepiece diameter was 0.96 ?. The mount was originally black.............Dave