One mans rubbish...

[mareman48]

Was out walking yesterday and spotted a Helios 8" telescope, on a heap of rubbish outside someones house, so I knocked on the door and asked if they were throwing it out.

The lady said yes, as no one had ever used it and its just catching dust and rust, I asked if I could take it and she said yes.

 

I promptly ran back to my friends car and we drove back and collected the scope, tripod and mount, On close examination it has never been used or even mounted on the tripod, the screws were all rusted and there was white emulsion all over the entire scope, (splashes and blobs of paint )

So I spent the most part of yesterday stripping down the the Mount, regressing and removing all the rust from the screws., same with the tripod.

 

I then stripped down the OTA and blew out all the dust, cleaned the primary and secondary mirror, cleaned the finder scope, which is a good quality model , must be an upgrade, and the dovetail with is a bronze colour .

All in all a good find, now donated to lovely family who will appreciate and use it to its full potential.

 

Pics attached of the finished product. ( if you look closely you can still see some of the paint spots) 

 

Tried everything but still can't remove the paint.....

Edited June 10, 2023 by mareman48

[JeremyS]

What a super find.

Add a few more paint splashes and it’ll look all artistic with white stars on a velvet black night sky 😊

[mikeDnight]

Fantastic!  It's sad to imagine a perfectly good and capable telescope like that could be discarded on a scrap heap. I'm really glad you found it and gave it some TLC.

[Alan White]

Great find, super effort and what a really good ending. 
I hope the new owners truly enjoy it to full potential.

 

[tomato]

Great post! So now I’m looking in every skip I see hoping to find a discarded 17” PlaneWave…😉

[John]

Good work !

I used to have one of those - nice scope 🙂

They did a 6 inch refractor version as well - see if you can find one of those next 😁

[F15Rules]

Well done you, and such a generous gesture👍😊

Dave

[mareman48]

1 hour ago, John said:

Good work !

I used to have one of those - nice scope 🙂

They did a 6 inch refractor version as well - see if you can find one of those next 😁

On the look out for an AM5 😂😂

[The Lapwing]

We live in a crazy throw away world, obsessed with consummation and disposal before moving on to repeat. It’s no wonder we are in the mess we’re in. 

[carastro]

Wow, great find and bit of luck.

 

[StevieDvd]

'...there was white emotion...' and '...obsessed with consummation...' - guess I'm still learning astronomy terms 😁🤣

[mareman48]

Good old predicted text 😂

[Sunshine]

That’s great! Im inspired to drive around Toronto looking for a TOA-130 on a heap of trash somewhere!

[Captain Scarlet]

11 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

That’s great! Im inspired to drive around Toronto looking for a TOA-130 on a heap of trash somewhere!

Head over to @jetstream’s, pretty sure he’s got a 120 he doesn’t want. You’re both in Canada so he’ll be just round the corner 😁

Edited June 10, 2023 by Captain Scarlet

[Sunshine]

2 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Head over to @jetstream’s, pretty sure he’s got a 120 he doesn’t want. You’re both in Canada so he’ll be just round the corner 😁

Im sure if he does I’ll be the first to know, speak to him by text regularly and yes, he’s within the same province and a short 17hr drive down the street 😅

Edited June 10, 2023 by Sunshine

[Alan White]

13 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Im sure if he does I’ll be the first to know, speak to him by text regularly and yes, he’s within the same province and a short 17hr drive down the street 😅

Virtually next door then, in large teritory terms.

[jetstream]

On 10/06/2023 at 15:52, Captain Scarlet said:

Head over to @jetstream’s, pretty sure he’s got a 120 he doesn’t want. You’re both in Canada so he’ll be just round the corner 😁

Lol! Right now my St Croix fishing rod has taken priority to the dismay of the local walleye population 😈 The sky is filled with forest fire smoke again, pretty bad actually and just started today. Big fire about 130 miles north of here rumour has it. And so my scopes sit idle...