Amazing what turns up on Ebay these days.

[Franklin]

Some may remember a collection of Zeiss Abbe Ortho's for auction on Ebay a year or so ago. They were being sold by The British Heart Foundation and went for a big price. Well, last week there was an Astrophysics 6" Triplet f/12 refractor up for auction in the UK. It had no rings and the sliding dew shield was missing but it was supplied in the original grey AP case. A huge telescope and very collectable I would imagine. It went for just over 1.5k which I believe is a fair price all things considered. I'm not very knowledgeable on AP scopes but I believe this one is from the 1980's and the triplet could either be air-spaced or oil-spaced. Would be great if the successful bidder was one of the SGL crew, as I would love to see more and learn more about this fantastic giant refractor from yesteryear.

[F15Rules]

I didn't see that one Tim, sounds interesting..

Dave

[John]

I noticed that AP scope on e.bay and wondered what it went for. 

This old AP catalogue covers that model I think:

880315.pdf (astro-physics.info)

 

[Stu]

I was watching that one, and the crazy part of me was half tempted, but fortunately the sane side won 🤪🤣.

Would be very interesting to know how it performs, I agree.

[Franklin]

7 hours ago, John said:

This old AP catalogue covers that model I think:

I think it was this one and it looks like there was no dew shield or the tube just extended beyond?

 

[Mr Spock]

Fabulous scope, but at f12, a 6" is going to need a serious mount. Definitely an observatory instrument.

[John]

3 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Fabulous scope, but at f12, a 6" is going to need a serious mount. Definitely an observatory instrument.

Yep - I found a 6" F/12 too much of a good thing when I owned one 🙄

It made an EQ6 on 3 inch steel tube tripod legs seem quite puny !

 

[Space Hopper]

6 foot long tube, wow, but i'm surprised the quoted weight is not more than 21 lb.

Some of the earlier designs were oil spaced, some were air spaced, so difficult to pinpoint which one this is.

£1500 -/+ is perhaps a very good investment if the scope can be fully restored and serviced. Some of them go for 3 times that price and more over in the US.

I'd be very interested to read about this scopes history over the years...

[Franklin]

Wouldn't be surprised if this was bought by a club or some other institute. Restored, on an EQ8 or similar, in an observatory, this will make a fantastic society scope.

[Alan White]

I too saw this listing and just thought, wow that's a beast and passed on by.
But having read the above can see it was clearly more than a wow moment in reality.

If someone anyone of us know was the buyer, please let us know and share some pictures.