Show us your Looooong Slooooow Newtonian Reflectors

[CCD-Freak]

Let's see your long focal length "planet killer" Newts. 

Here is my 8" F8 that I built around a $40 Edmund mirror I bought at the Texas Star Party swap meet back in the mid 90s. 

It puts up some fine planetary and lunar images.

 

[CCD-Freak]

I built this 12.5" F8 back in 1977 from whatever junk I had.  It was painted a green color which was the only color I had on hand.  It provided fantastic views.  

A buddy of mine called it the Hulk since it was "Big, Mean and Green"    It was dismantled due to it's massive weight but I still have the mirror and I plan to build a new "planet cannon" with it.

 

[NGC 1502]

Great to hear about your projects 👍

If you do a search for planetary scopes by Gary Seronik he too made a planet-killer. I recall it was a long focus 6” Newt with a tiny secondary. Gary was with Sky & Telescope magazine for many years.  
 

Thread drift warning 😊…….I have an Edmunds Astroscan that Gary worked on by shimming the front optical window. It was owned by Ade Ashford who also worked at S&T. When Ade moved back to the UK he brought that Astroscan, I subsequently bought it. The Astroscan is at the opposite end of the spectrum of scopes….horses for courses…..

Ed.

[Stu]

Nice scopes.

A few Orion Optics scopes from me:

My current Orion Optics 8” f8 which is an excellent lunar and planetary scope with 1/10th wave optics.

A 6” f11, again 1/10th wave which I had a couple of. This one somewhat optimistically mounted on a Vixen GP!

Finally, a rather crazy 12” f6, 1/12th wave before I got it on a dob mount. Should have kept this one really, very nice scope.

That said, the 8” is such a practical, lightweight and easy scope to put out it gets plenty of use. It’s a bit spindly and prone to vibration so the EQ Platform really helps with stability for high power viewing.

 

 

 

 

[neil phillips]

The 6" F11 looks like something Galileo would have built. I asked John a while ago how much to make one. As i dont think they make them as standard anymore. The price was way more than the F8. I just didnt order. But they sound on paper very good.

[neil phillips]

Borderline planetary scope slow (ish) 10" F6.3 with a slightly smaller than standard Antares 1/30th Secondary

 

[fifeskies]

10inch f6.3, Orion Optics UK

 

Edited March 29, 2022 by fifeskies

[CCD-Freak]

Great submissions so far but there must be more out there. (^8