Used Pronto - good bet at £200-£300?

[ollypenrice]

Hi All,

I'm rather missing my Genesis, sold into the capable hands of Richie Jarvis, so I thought I'd say a word about the Pronto I bought from Ben. You can expect to find a used TeleVue Pronto for between £200 and £300, so what do you get? Here's mine. Ben's image, I believe.

http://stargazerslounge.com/attachments/completed/26631d1251892579-televue-pronto-70mm-f6-8-ed-refractor-ota-pronto.jpg

Firstly you get a telescope very obviously built to last over a hundred years. I can't speak for the life of the lens coatings, though they look convincing on older TeleVues. But mechanically the scope is just lovely. It is very simple - a single speed rack and pinion focuser with lock screw, a chrome draw tube, a fully machined front lens cell for the sami-apo air spaced doublet objective of 70.3/480mm. The tube sits in a clamshell mount and can go on a decent camera tripod. All-metal, the dewsheild extends and takes a threaded dust cap. Unlike the similar Ranger the Pronto takes 2 inch EPs, which I think very important.

Everything is over-engineered and moves smoothly yet without play.

The word perfect really does comes to mind. As a carry-on airline scope it is just the job, being compact and reassuringly robust.

Optically there are clever modern doublets which have better colour correction. Of that there is no doubt. This is a 1993 design. If you want a tiny grab and go for the moon and planets this may not be right for you.

I wanted it for widefield viewing of sky vistas and certain extended deep sky objects, notably the Veil and Rosette. Now you're talking!

The Pronto is great. With a 35 Panoptic (marginally smaller than the telescope!) you get a simply fabulous view of tiny sharp bright stars. With an O111 the Rosette is easy, the full circle of nebulosity showng distinctly around NGC2244. The whole circle of the Veil is also visible in the same setup. (I do have a dark clear site.) Other favourites are Stock 2 framed with the Double Cluster or M45 with lots of sky around it as in binoculars. I just feel that stepping back from the cameras or big scopes and taking a more distant view can be a joy.

I have tried another Pronoto with a double stack of Solarscope solar filters on the fromt and it was excellent, though I'm hardly a solar expert. For birding and general terrestrial viewing it is sharp, contrasty and offers attractive views. I'm not competent to comment further.

So, for your two to three hundred quid you get an old-fashioned but very high quality instrument. Depending on your needs a used Pronto surely has to worth considering?

Olly

[NickH]

Nice review Olly, of what is a fine instrument

[JAO]

Olly

An excellent over view of these great little scopes. Mine cost me £999 back in 1992! It has been all over the globe with me and although it shows signs of its travels it is still a great performer and I would never consider parting with it. Great lunar scope, excellent widefield view of DSOs and a winner with my coronado H alpha kit.

A modern classic that still has much to offer, thanks for pointing that out to those who may be less familier with these great little scopes.

Adrian

[Stardust]

I had one for an all too short space of time as a TV85 came up. It is a design classic in my book.