Here's a trip down memory lane:
Here is my very first serious telescope, a 3 inch F16 Unitron achromatic refractor, on an excellent altazimuth mount.
The mount was a superb piece of machinery; not too heavy, precise, stable, and with microscrew controls that enabled very small & precise movements of the telescope. This is, in general, a much better mounting design than most of the small altazimuth mounts that are available today.
The supplied 30mm finder had good optics; better than many similar finders that you see today.
The Optics of the 3 inch were fairly good, but not brilliant. Worst thing was the supplied, small O.D., Huyghens and Ramsden eyepieces.
I got this telescope for $200 in about 1976, which was a good price, as the Unitron 3inch refractor had been at least twice this price, beforehand.
It may be hard for some of you "relative newbies" to believe, but a three or four inch refractor was regarded as a serious and quite powerful instrument, in those far-off days "way back when"! A 6 inch Newtonian on a german equatorial mount was a very expensive thing to buy in the 1970s
cheers, madbadgalaxyman
Oh, and one more thing, the focusser was excellent; smooth and precise.
Overall, the three inch Unitron Refractor was an
excellent choice, at the time, for a beginning observer.
Useability and
ease of setup of this instrument were Excellent.