Identifying yet more old eyepieces and accessories

[badhex]

Hello all,

I picked up this 0.965" barlow recently, which came with 12mm Kellner and yellow filter, and rather rustic diagonal. The barlow and EP look of good quality, both apparently made in Japan and virtually if not completely unused. 

I would like to try and track down a bit more info about the maker. The makers stamp or mark is not present, only that they are of Japanese origin. I've seen the barlow branded as Celestron elsewhere and possibly the same EP, although mine only has a sticker saying JAPAN, where the other said JAPAN with a Circle-T for the legendary Tani-san. Could it be that later or earlier version simply did not have the Circle-T on the sticker, I wonder? 

Any clues to who may have manufactured these would be welcome! 

[markse68]

Maybe Kowa? they made a lot of telescope optics back in the day for various brands I think

Mark

[Louis D]

6 hours ago, badhex said:

rather rustic diagonal

I don't see a diagonal in your photo, but I do see an inline image erecting assembly.  I believe it uses Porro prisms like a binocular, so no spike on bright stars like an Amici erecting prism diagonal.

[badhex]

11 hours ago, markse68 said:

Maybe Kowa? they made a lot of telescope optics back in the day for various brands I think

Mark

Thanks Mark, will have a dig around. 

[badhex]

5 hours ago, Louis D said:

I don't see a diagonal in your photo, but I do see an inline image erecting assembly.  I believe it uses Porro prisms like a binocular, so no spike on bright stars like an Amici erecting prism diagonal.

Haha whoops, operative part of a diagonal being that it changes the image path diagonally, and this items obviously does not. Clearly I was not thinking 'straight'.

I believe you are correct, it does look like it has prisms in there. Still, not much use for a newt so I'll set up a post to give it away.

[DaveL59]

They look similar to what was supplied with many older scopes like the Prinz and others. If you knew which scope they came from then that may give a clue as there was often a mark on the label of the scope to denote who made it, circle-V,  T, diamond-Z etc. The H20, HM6 and Or4 below came to me via a fellow member here from a Prinz 660 as I recall and are unmarked as to maker but very similar in design to your one.

Edited July 24, 2022 by DaveL59

[SthBohemia]

42 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

They look similar to what was supplied with many older scopes

Old memories up there ^^ 🙂 

During the 60's they were the standard eyepieces supplied with Unitron (some were branded Unitron) refractors and the 'local made' newts and Dall-Kirks by Eric Whitcombe, Crows Nest, Ozzie land. Bloody hell I'm feelin' old 😞

As Eric only sold refractors made by Unitron, Orange style Celestrons circa 1970 and his home made specials I imagine he purchased the EP's from Unitron or a closely linked company to Unitron.

They were a bit expensive at (average) $A6.00 each! A 12.5" mirror kit, with a thick lump of pyrex, not the 0.25mm thick modern ones, plus plate glass tool, grits blah blah blah  was $A42.50! Bah, I shouldaa bought a gross of em! Still have some of the old 0.96 whatever EP's AND actually USE them. The 40mm AH still gives a damn good image as does the 12.5mm Kellner!!

[Louis D]

6 hours ago, badhex said:

Haha whoops, operative part of a diagonal being that it changes the image path diagonally, and this items obviously does not. Clearly I was not thinking 'straight'.

I believe you are correct, it does look like it has prisms in there. Still, not much use for a newt so I'll set up a post to give it away.

And it wouldn't likely come to focus anyway.  The optical path through those is pretty long.