Scope search. No joy in finding my target. Your stories.

[Telescope40]

Hello. Have one scope at the moment and it should be more then enough - A Tak FS128. Owned for a year. Very fortunate to have it along with certain SGL members who assisted in getting my mucky paws on it. 

However. I do rather fancy a 8in SCT to go along with it.  Used to own, a decade ago, a Meade LX90 10 inch  which gave me many hours of fun. Only parted with it as rather a lump when negotiating the stairs in the house I owned at the time.

Anyway I've been looking for a Meade 8in LXD55 SCT in it's white livery. I'm not really fancying the Meade blue paint job as the white paint finish will roll rather well with my Tak and Rowan mount. 

Any luck ?  Absolutely nothing apart from tumbleweeds and one advert on ye old FB Astro skit selling group page about 18 months ago.  Don't think these OTA's exist. 

Anyone else looking for a specific scope ATM and found that you are looking for a Unicorn scope. 

John 

[Peter Drew]

No big deal to paint a blue tube white.      🙂

[Telescope40]

9 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

No big deal to paint a blue tube white.      🙂

Fair point @Peter Drew but I ain’t too impressed with my paint skills 😂😂

[mikeDnight]

Some Celestron's are white!  I think that these days they all originate from China, so I imagine their optical quality will be the same. And historically, Celestron were a tad above Meade I believe. Having said that, I had a wonderful view of the dark dust lanes in M31 through a friend's 8" Meade SCT - I was very impressed. However the next day my friend put his SCT up for sale and it sold immediately.  I asked why he chose to sell it, and he said "Compared to your refractor, a 120 Equinox ED, the stars in the SCT were #*@₩!"  Of course you'd have the best of both worlds with your FS128 and an 8" SCT - especially a white one!

[Paz]

Years back I really wanted a Skywatcher 180mm Maksutov and looked for a long time, but on the rare occasions one came up econd hand I'd either be beaten to the draw or I held back due to asking prices. After a long time, maybe more than a year, I gave up and looked for a C8 instead, and there are many more C8s out there so I landed one second hand pretty much immediately.

[Elp]

A specific Borg, either no one buys them, or no one wants to let go of them. Could buy new but where's the fun in that?

Edited November 12, 2023 by Elp

[Stu]

In my case it was an FS-128. I had wanted one for years, and the few that came up were either too far away (or involved hopping on a plane), or were at a time I did not have funds available. More recently I gave up hope and bought an LZOS 130mm f6 for a lot of money! Eventually one came up in a very convenient place, and being sold by someone I knew, so the deal was done, and the LZOS moved on.

The only others I’ve been tempted by but never managed are of course the AP 105mm Traveller, and the Baader 95mm Travel companion. Somehow though, I’m happy with the FC-100DC and don’t think I would swap even if one became available and funds were no issue. Well, maybe the AP would be tempting 🤣

[RobertI]

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I asked why he chose to sell it, and he said "Compared to your refractor, a 120 Equinox ED, the stars in the SCT were #*@₩!"

Yes, I don’t get airy discs with my C8, only ‘hairy discs’. 🙂

[bosun21]

I believe that the white Celestron SCT's were the last ones to be produced in California if I'm remembering correctly.

[John]

I don't think I've ever pursued a specific scope 🤔

I tend more towards having an idea in the back of my mind of the sort of thing that I might like to try and some desirable examples, get the funds lined up then jump in when something along those lines, that looks good, comes up. 

I have searched for specific eyepieces in the past though and generally this meant that, almost magically, there were none at all to be seen for sale, for months on end 🙄

 

[F15Rules]

Quote from John..

"Hello. Have one scope at the moment and it should be more then enough - A Tak FS128. Owned for a year. Very fortunate to have it along with certain SGL members who assisted in getting my mucky paws on it. 

However. I do rather fancy a 8in SCT to go along with it."

Tell me, John..did you fit ear muffs on your FS128 as you were composing this blasphemy??🥴 🤦‍♂️😱🧐😂

Dave

[Telescope40]

Dave.  The Tak is fully aware of my musings and is safe in the knowledge. My main answer to you would be the word - Vixen ??  Why have one scope when you can have more. 

Unless this particular scope I fancy, partially for aesthetic reasons,  pops up on an ad somewhere in the future, I will happily continue with a monogamous relationship with my 128. Really appreciate your concern and will pass on your message to my Takahashi. 

Hope all is well with you 

 

John  

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

12 hours ago, bosun21 said:

I believe that the white Celestron SCT's were the last ones to be produced in California if I'm remembering correctly.

Actually, the EdgeHD series are all white, and Baader sells modified Celestron SCTs in white livery. However, these are Tri-band SCTs, in which the correct plate has a coating which acts as an ERF, passing Ca-K, O-III and H-alpha bands, and reflecting the rest. Really only useful for solar (where O-III takes the place of solar continuum), or narrow-band DSO imaging.

[bosun21]

3 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Actually, the EdgeHD series are all white, and Baader sells modified Celestron SCTs in white livery. However, these are Tri-band SCTs, in which the correct plate has a coating which acts as an ERF, passing Ca-K, O-III and H-alpha bands, and reflecting the rest. Really only useful for solar (where O-III takes the place of solar continuum), or narrow-band DSO imaging.

Yes indeed, as is the RASA. I should have said the standard design SCT's.

[Franklin]

On 12/11/2023 at 15:59, Telescope40 said:

Anyone else looking for a specific scope ATM and found that you are looking for a Unicorn scope. 

The final run of the Vixen FL102S F9 from 2003 in Sphinx/WT livery. 30 years of hunting down Vixen scopes and I have never seen one of these anywhere but they must have made at least one, as it was photographed for the 2003 Vixen catalogue. I'd sell all my scopes to get my hands on this one but I think it's probably just a dream!😁

[JeremyS]

14 minutes ago, Franklin said:

The final run of the Vixen FL102S F9 from 2003 in Sphinx/WT livery. 30 years of hunting down Vixen scopes and I have never seen one of these anywhere but they must have made at least one, as it was photographed for the 2003 Vixen catalogue. I'd sell all my scopes to get my hands on this one but I think it's probably just a dream!😁

Have you got a pic as not sure what it looks like?

[Franklin]

14 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Have you got a pic as not sure what it looks like?

 

[Franklin]

Guess I'll have to make do with this ED102S F9 from the same year, I'm not complaining!

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Franklin

[John]

48 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Guess I'll have to make do with this ED102S F9 from the same year, I'm not complaining!

 

Lovely !

2003 must have been the last year they produced the ED102S and the ED102SS ?

Then I think they pulled them to move to a new eco-glass leading eventually to the ED103 F/7.7 

[Franklin]

51 minutes ago, John said:

Lovely !

2003 must have been the last year they produced the ED102S and the ED102SS ?

Then I think they pulled them to move to a new eco-glass leading eventually to the ED103 F/7.7 

According to the catalogues I have the FL102S was last listed in 2003 but the ED102S and the ED102SS continued and were listed in the 2004 catalogue. The 2005 catalogue shows the first listing of the ED103S F7.7 which later, in 2018, became the current SD103S.

[wesdon1]

On 12/11/2023 at 15:59, Telescope40 said:

Hello. Have one scope at the moment and it should be more then enough - A Tak FS128. Owned for a year. Very fortunate to have it along with certain SGL members who assisted in getting my mucky paws on it. 

However. I do rather fancy a 8in SCT to go along with it.  Used to own, a decade ago, a Meade LX90 10 inch  which gave me many hours of fun. Only parted with it as rather a lump when negotiating the stairs in the house I owned at the time.

Anyway I've been looking for a Meade 8in LXD55 SCT in it's white livery. I'm not really fancying the Meade blue paint job as the white paint finish will roll rather well with my Tak and Rowan mount. 

Any luck ?  Absolutely nothing apart from tumbleweeds and one advert on ye old FB Astro skit selling group page about 18 months ago.  Don't think these OTA's exist. 

Anyone else looking for a specific scope ATM and found that you are looking for a Unicorn scope. 

John 

@Telescope40 Mate I've seen a few 6inch MEADE LXD55 SCT's for sale on eBay and the like during the last couple of years, and I think I might have even seen the 8ich'er's that you're after? They were the white painted versions too. Furthermore, I notice that in general, the MEADE SCT's go for less money than their equivalent sized/spec'd 'scopes from other big manufacturers like Celestron, Skywatcher etc? ( I obsessively, almost daily via my phone to and from work, search eBay and the like to see what 'scopes and other astro gear are for sale, and so I have developed a good sense of what's trending, what the current going rates are for particular types of gear like OTA's, full setups, EP's, Astro-cameras etc etc etc ) So if you would like me to, I will keep an eye out for the scope you're after and when/if I find one, I'll PM you on here? 

Let me know mate.

Regards, Wes.

Edited November 18, 2023 by wesdon1
spelling mistake