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Skylight Telescopes reminiscing


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I came across some photos of the IAS exhibition in Leamington Spa in 2014. It was the first, and so far, the only Astronomy exhibition that I've ever been to, and I found it fascinating.

I found three stands in particular of interest: RIchard Day's Skylight Telescopes, John Timmins Peak2Valley scopes and Mark at Moonraker Telescopes. What they all had in common was a love of long focus traditional refractors, and there were some truly lovely scopes on show.

None in my opinion were more beautiful to look at than Richard's handmade range, and I for one am really sad that he is no longer active as a telescope maker.

I also had some interesting discussions with Mark from Moonraker at this event, and they resulted in him doing some major work on my then D&G USA 5" F15 refractor, "Andromeda", now in the loving care of Steve (Saganite). Mark's work and attention to detail were amazing, and he was completely self taught in machining, believe it or not.  He sourced a lovely Moonlite focuser, in polished aluminium, for Andromeda, flocked the tube, and cut about 130mm off the tube to allow native binoviewing. I was delighted with his work, and I hope Richard and Mark's scopes are still delighting users in 100 years time, as the old Cooke refractors of the 19th century still do now.

The photos below, I hope, shows what care and attention went into Richard and Marks work. If any of you have photos of scopes from any of the above manufacturers, it would be lovely to see them👍.

Dave

 

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IMG_20141128_133935293.jpg

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Edited by F15Rules
Photos added
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This is not a Moonraker or a Skylight I'm afraid and has a much plainer, though very well made, finish. I did buy it from John Timmins of Peak2valley though and he delivered it in person. There was also an F/15 version in his vehicle which, after seeing the size of it, made me glad that I went for F/12 :rolleyes2:

The Istar Perseus AT150-12:

https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_09_2013/post-118-0-58096600-1379495995.jpg

https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_08_2013/post-118-0-83989200-1377563973.jpg

https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_08_2013/post-118-0-29748100-1377563955.jpg

 

https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_04_2014/post-118-0-06290300-1397061555.jpg

 

Edited by John
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I was at that same show Dave and had a natter with Richard and John. I seem to remember John was displaying a 6" brass Fullerscopes refractor on his stand, modern optics in it. It was a good show.

I had bought my old 4" F15 Fullerscopes deluxe refractor off John a few months before.

Edited by philj
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1 hour ago, John said:

This is not a Moonraker or a Skylight I'm afraid and has a much plainer, though very well made, finish. I did buy it from John Timmins of Peak2valley though and he delivered it in person. There was also an F/15 version in his vehicle which, after seeing the size of it, made me glad that I went for F/12 :rolleyes2:

The Istar Perseus AT150-12:

https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_09_2013/post-118-0-58096600-1379495995.jpg

https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_08_2013/post-118-0-83989200-1377563973.jpg

https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_08_2013/post-118-0-29748100-1377563955.jpg

 

https://stargazerslounge.com/uploads/monthly_04_2014/post-118-0-06290300-1397061555.jpg

 

That was a monster, John, quite scary in "Menacing Black"😁.

Dave

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1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

That was a monster, John, quite scary in "Menacing Black"😁.

Dave

Scary weight as well. That tube weighed over 30 lbs :shocked:

I had dreams of a scope like one of those Victorian astronomers but in the end I realised that I had "bitten off more than I could chew" as the saying goes. Even the EQ6 / Meade Giant Field tripod combo felt a bit flimsy with that scope on board. I guess a Fullerscopes Mk IV on a large pillar would have done the trick but any thought of portability would go out the door. Scopes like that need a permanent mounting in an observatory I think.

Optically the scope was very good when I did managed to observe something with it.

All in all, a big learning experience for me :smiley:

If I ever get a 6 inch refractor again it will need to be an F/8 so probably not an achromat.

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On the topic of Moonraker scopes, I missed the installation of the new public observing deck at the Lowell Observatory in 2019 by a couple of months but one of their instruments was this magnificent Mark Turner 8 inch F/12 achromat:

moonraker_website.jpg

As it happened, when we were there in September 2019, I bumped into Steve / @Saganite who now owns Andromeda of course :icon_biggrin:

 

 

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51 minutes ago, John said:

On the topic of Moonraker scopes, I missed the installation of the new public observing deck at the Lowell Observatory in 2019 by a couple of months but one of their instruments was this magnificent Mark Turner 8 inch F/12 achromat:

moonraker_website.jpg

As it happened, when we were there in September 2019, I bumped into Steve / @Saganite who now owns Andromeda of course :icon_biggrin:

 

 

 Now that is a special colour scheme 👍🏻

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4 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I came across some photos of the IAS exhibition in Leamington Spa in 2014. It was the first, and so far, the only Astronomy exhibition that I've ever been to, and I found it fascinating.

I found three stands in particular of interest: RIchard Day's Skylight Telescopes, John Timmins Peak2Valley scopes and Mark at Moonraker Telescopes. What they all had in common was a love of long focus traditional refractors, and there were some truly lovely scopes on show.

None in my opinion were more beautiful to look at than Richard's handmade range, and I for one am really sad that he is no longer active as a telescope maker.

I also had some interesting discussions with Mark from Moonraker at this event, and they resulted in him doing some major work on my then D&G USA 5" F15 refractor, "Andromeda", now in the loving care of Steve (Saganite). Mark's work and attention to detail were amazing, and he was completely self taught in machining, believe it or not.  He sourced a lovely Moonlite focuser, in polished aluminium, for Andromeda, flocked the tube, and cut about 130mm off the tube to allow native binoviewing. I was delighted with his work, and I hope Richard and Mark's scopes are still delighting users in 100 years time, as the old Cooke refractors of the 19th century still do now.

The photos below, I hope, shows what care and attention went into Richard and Marks work. If any of you have photos of scopes from any of the above manufacturers, it would be lovely to see them👍.

Dave

 

016.thumb.jpg.4fe2ad817fc65b9605309d7221ee8991.jpg

IMG_20141128_133633086.jpg

IMG_20141128_133935293.jpg

post-4043-0-90842600-1410436013_thumb.jpg

IMG_20141129_104851324_HDR.jpg

Impressive OTAs, but they’ve each got one feature missing. And we all know what it is Dave…

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Some details of my Skylight 4" f13 (and one with my TAL 125R, which is f8.9, for size comparison). It was delivered all the way to York by Richard in person, so I had the pleasure of meeting him as well as corresponding with him. I still own and use this telescope - great for punching through indifferent seeing, and excellent for double stars.

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Edited by Marki
Text typos
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Found some pics from the same IAS show as Dave - early June 2014...

_DSC9966.thumb.JPG.5f5e85ede77d4600dd02bd7759943129.JPG

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Here, Mark had one of the few early Half Hitch FTX mounts that made it into the UK. As I recall, he'd wanted to 'chrome it up' to match the scope, but the guy who made the mount, the late Charles Riddle, didn't give his permission for that to happen.
Still, mount and scope complement each other here...

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Damian

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  • 2 months later...

I am still the proud custodian of one of Richards creations. Skylight 60mm F16.7. My niece who is 4 years old, is starting to take a natural interest in the night sky. So I am to get a mount sorted my Skylight to introduce her into astronomy.

Skylight60mm-F16-7.jpg 

Edited by Dave1
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  • 5 months later...

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