Anyone know what scope this is?

[F15Rules]

Hi all,

I've been asked by a friend in our village what scope this is..as a refractor only man, I know very little about Dobsonian reflectors..

It has Star 250 and a Union Jack flag on it..is it therefore a 10"? Or maybe an 8"?

If anyone can shed any light on it, I'd be grateful😉..and so would my friend!😄

cheers,

Dave

Edited July 20 by F15Rules
Typo

[bosun21]

Looks like a DIY scope to me. The base and the tube covering with what looks like wrinkles leads me down this road. Probably an older tube from another scope and fitted to a base with the addition of altitude bearings. Then again I could be completely wrong.

[John]

It looks like a scope produced by one of the small retailers back in the late 1980's. There were a number of them back then - 1 man bands usually. 

I've still got a pile of catalogues somewhere. I'll see if I can find anything more.

[globular]

I think Fullerscopes might have made a Star 250..... not sure why I think that though... must have seen it somewhere at some point... but a quick google doesn't seem to confirm it... <shrug>

[Astrobits]

That's one of mine.

Made about middle of the 90's, one of my earlier ones, later ones had 4 vane spiders. It has a 10" (250mm) F/5 mirror. I made some with float glass and some with Suprax low expansion glass. Can't tell which this one is without removing the mirror from the tube. The tube is galvanised steel ( rolled for me by a local dust extraction company, they were limited to tubes 4 feet long so I had to make the mirrors focal lengths to suit ) powder coated on the outside. The Focusser is by Irvin ( still got some of them in a box under my workbench ).  The finder looks to be the 50mm from GSO.

The handle is original. I always thought to make them easy to move about.

It looks to be in excellent condition.

Nigel

 

[F15Rules]

Hi Nigel,

Many thanks for your post, most interesting!😊👍

I will discuss more with my friend (who is currently isolating with Covid), and report back on any other history I can find on the scope.

I also plan to try out the scope at some point, if I can master the dark art of the collimation of these beasts!😜😂

Thanks again,

Dave

[Astrobits]

I only hope that the mirror has not been removed for re-coating and replaced incorrectly. Otherwise collimation should be a doddle.

Nigel