Prinz Astral

[bomberbaz]

I have found a few of these of the interweb for sale. They look to have a decent wooden tripod but not sure if this is adaptable to be able to take modern mounts, see here

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373826188789?hash=item5709c6f5f5%3Ag%3ADLUAAOSwH2Nht63q&LH_Auction=1

Pictures are not the best but just wondering if anyone has played around with one and has any feedback.

It is mainly the tripod I want but I will also play around with the OTA and adapt to take 1.25 eyepieces if I go for it.

@Peter Drew have you come across them?

Thanks everyone else for any help they can give

Steve

[rcwinter]

If you can find an Astral 500 it’s a far better scope and mount 

[Peter Drew]

Seen a  few.  If cheap enough it's fun to play around with, objectives can be quite good at F11 but the rest is the usual   ............    🙂

[mikeDnight]

The Prinz Astral 500 was my first scope, bought in 1980 for £130. It came with solar projection screen, three eyepieces, a diagonal prism and a barlow. It was great, or at least I thought it was great, and it looked superb on its equatorial mount. With it I made many sunspot drawings, and it gave me my first reasonable look at Jupiter with its moon's, and Saturn and its rings. It had a nice focuser, although it only took .96 eyepieces. It was the poor eyepieces that really held it back, but with a good plossl it would be an enjoyable scope to use. I currently have a Prinz Astral 500 tube that I saved from a skip, but no mount. I also have a 60mm Tasco complete, but its tripod is a tubular steel affair, so not as nice as the Astral500, but is an earlier 60's model. The Prinz Astral might be looked down on by many, but it was enough to fuel my enthusiasm for astronomy and refractors that has lasted more than 40 years.

 

[bomberbaz]

3 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

Seen a  few.  If cheap enough it's fun to play around with, objectives can be quite good at F11 but the rest is the usual   ............    🙂

Any thoughts on the tripod, visually it looks nice and sturdy

[SuburbanMak]

6 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Any thoughts on the tripod, visually it looks nice and sturdy

I have the Prinz 330 60 x710 on an identical tripod with an Alt Az head.  Short answer is if you’re buying this do it for the OTA - tripod is pretty as a display item but wobbly as all jelly.  

I used mine as a permanent solar white light set up over the summer and quite soon switched out the tripod for a set of cheapo eBay Chinese guide rings and my Manfrotto 55 & found it an infinitely better experience. 

The optics on my 330 (circle K) are great however, perfect star test and presents stars as little balls on a black background - very sharp performer. Can carry outside on the photo tripod in seconds & basically zero cool down time, was great for quick peeks at the planets over the summer & is good on the moon & doubles within its grasp look great. 
 

Yours here is a “circle T “ so should be of similar quality. If the price stays low it’s a fun nostalgia item & you might be lucky enough to pick up an optical gem. 

 

 

[bish]

My first scope in the early 80’s was a print astral varipower (x25,  x50 and x75 if I remember correctly)

[malc-c]

Prinz Astral was Dixons "own brand".  In reality they all came out of the same factory that made the cheaper Tasco scopes that would often appear in Argos or Grattons catalogues.  The one difference being that Prinz Astral scopes were more  for enthusiasts rather than the casual user (apart form the 4T and 11TR reflectors Tasco offered), and for the day and price points performed well.  But don't be fooled by the high magnification from such a short focal length... cheap poor quality barlows were needed to get near that and the image was really bad.

The one in the listing does appear to be in good order, and you would be supporting a worth while charity, even if the scope wasn't purchased for practical use, it's worth having as a piece of historical nostalgia if you have the space.

[John]

One of the first telescopes I used was a Prinz Astral 60mm refractor. I borrowed it from a friend for a couple of months in the mid-1970's and observed Jupiter, which was well placed that year, over a period of a couple of months (from my bedroom window ).

After I had saved up my paper round money for a while I was able to buy a 2nd hand Tasco 60mm (which I still have) complete in it's wooden trunk for the princely sum of £45.00 !

Having used my old Tasco recently with decent eyepieces and a lot more experience under my belt, I think the optics of these scopes were pretty good but the economies were generally on the eyepieces and mount that were supplied with them. 

They got a lot of us started in the hobby though and there is NOTHING that matches the first views of the moon, Saturn and Jupiter that you get, no matter how humble the scope is

Edited December 15, 2021 by John

[bomberbaz]

Thanks for the info everyone, as mentioned by @@malc-c it is for a charity and in good order. I will have a go but not spending a fortune. 

[Roy Challen]

I had a Prinz 660 with the mount and tripod (Prinz is now a Skylight). The mount was rubbish, but the legs are actually pretty good. I teamed them up with a Skytee 2 and Berlebach tray, that was a great combo, should've kept it.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Roy Challen

[bomberbaz]

34 minutes ago, Roy Challen said:

I had a Prinz 660 with the mount and tripod (Prinz is now a Skylight). The mount was rubbish, but the legs are actually pretty good. I teamed them up with a Skytee 2 and Berlebach tray, that was a great combo, should've kept it.

I have a tripod that came with the SW AZ GTI outfit, The tripod is very flimsy. So I was thinking of using the wooden legs for that, not sure if the tray assembly would transfer over though but thanks for this. 

[bomberbaz]

it went for 68 quid thzat scope in my opening link, higher than I wanted to pay. I have my eye on some others but most are lacking a good view of the objective. I have requested such and will not buy unless these are forth coming.

[bish]

I keep looking out for another varipower to buy for nostalgia (I sold mine when the mount broke). It has to be blue though.  At the time I wanted a tasco from the catalogue because the ad said they magnified by x400.

[F15Rules]

Sorry I'm late seeing this thread🙂.

As a 15 year old in early 1971 I was a big fan of Prinz scopes from Dixon's Photographic on the high street. I used to gaze at the range on display in their window, clutching my Observers Book of Astronomy and wishing to get one.

The top of the range was the 76mm F16 660 model, the only "full 3" aperture refractor they offered, all the rest were 60mm. The 76mm F16 looked huge compared to the rest!

In descending order (and from dearest to cheapest), the models were: 660, 550, 440, 330, 220 and 100. I owned the 100, a variable zoom power shorter focus (around F11) which was on a rickety Altaz and yolk mount. It was poor, but better than no scope, which is what I had before!

Next I had the 330, which was on an equatorial mount, a very nice miniature version of the 660, very nice optics and I had my first proper look at Saturn within it..as John said, NO later view with however big a scope will IMHO better the sheer thrill of that first view of Saturn and it's rings..and Titan of course.

Finally, I had the 550. Finished in white Tube, longer at F15, and a decent grey painted eq mount (think "Swift" grey), decent finder, lovely optics, so so eyepieces and diagonal prism all 0.965" so small and narrow view. The tripod was ok but not particularly steady, especially at high powers, but again, everything at that time was relative. The Prinz 330 and up were definitely "proper scopes" and introduced many people of my generation to our hobby.

I did eventually, and many years later, buy an original 660. This was white with black painted eq mount, and with a 1.25" adapter.pprobed to be an excellent scope on lunar and  double stars. However, with such a long scope at F15 (1140mm!!), the supplied tripod was too flimsy to give the best platform for the scopes optics to really shine.

I fixed that by getting a CG5 class steel tripod which matched the tube well.

In summary, I'd say the original Prinz tubes are worth considering for the optics, but the tripods are not.

Also, later Prinz models numbered 500, ,400, 300 instead of 550, 440, 330 were much less robustly constructed, with many more plastic parts, unlike the original 550 & co range which used metal focuser wheels, not plastic ones, for example.

Here's a link to a CN post with some comparisons of the earlier Kenko 550 Vs the later Circle T scopes, and some pics from the same thread clearly I think showing the difference in the 550 Kenko build quality (all metal) Vs the later Circle T 500 (much more plastic).

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/337451-prinz-optics-550-anybody-have-one/

Also a link to a thread I started in 2010 about the Prinz 660 I acquired..

Prinz 550 original box

Prinz 550 focuser. Notice similarity to Swift scopes colour scheme..

Later, 1980s model Prinz 500 focuser. Optics were generally ok, but note altogether more flimsy looking focuser build, plastic wheels etc..

Earlier Prinz (Kenko 550) on original eq mount and tripod..

Original, robustly built Prinz 550 mount..no plastic here!!

Prinz 660 76mm F16.5 on original eq mount and Celestron CG5 tripod

Edited December 17, 2021 by F15Rules
Photo added, additional text info added

[F15Rules]

On 15/12/2021 at 10:01, malc-c said:

Prinz Astral was Dixons "own brand".  In reality they all came out of the same factory that made the cheaper Tasco scopes that would often appear in Argos or Grattons catalogues. 

I'm afraid that is factually incorrect..please see my posts above.

Prinz branded scopes were made by at least 2, and probably 3 manufacturers over the period of c 15 years they were available..🙂

Dave

Edited December 17, 2021 by F15Rules
Additional text info