Berry & Mackay 3" Refractor Restoration Diary

[Kunama]

9 February 2013
Lars advertises the sale of this fine old girl (pictures to be added soon)
Berry & Mackay of Aberdeen 3" F14.4 brass refractor on 'library' stand, circa 1880.

10 February 2013
I show pictures to my wife and brainwash her into thinking it is just what I need to buy.
(This task was make much harder by the fact that I had just spent Thousands of $$$$$ on a Takahashi TSA120 Apochromat)

10 February 2013 the deal is done, just have to get in the car and drive to Sydney
( a late evening trip to our apartment in Cronulla was accompanied by the heaviest rain and lightning for some time, no surprises there!)

11 February 2013 left Cronulla to Bathurst via the beautiful Blue Mountains
(totally fogged out so no views for me) met up with Lars and collected the scope, a beautiful relic of astronomy's past all in brass.

Updates to follow as time allows but the plan is to dismantle the scope and mount completely for a thorough clean and polish.
It would appear that the whole scope was once painted black as was the custom in days of old.
I think she will be polished, waxed and then allowed to mellow with time.
A new focuser knob will need to be made by my watchmaker friend.
An objective cap will need to be spun from brass.

Who would have thought retiring would see me busier than I ever was while working.

[ZeroID]

Excellent, look forward to following thsi. I am beginning to think we need an 'Old Scopes and Restorations' arae on here like CN has.

There is btw a beautiful Unitron 4" Refractor for sale over here on TradeMe. Asking $2500 as a Buy Now, bids start at $1600. Wish I had the funds to grab it, its a stunner.

[brian nordstrom]

:thumbsup: Sweet Matt , Are you going to use this a scope in its own rite , or mount it on the Istar as a guide/finder? .
It would look cool on that I think ?
Looking forward to the resto story and photos .
Fellow Istar owner ,
Brian.

[Kunama]

Hi Brent, No point me looking at any more scopes for a while, I would only lose them in the divorce settlement!

Hey Brian, I have not decided yet which stand to put it onto maybe I will use the other one I am doing up. I cleaned the eyepiece this morning and once the objective is cleaned and collimation checked I will see how it goes.
It will be a scope that will travel with me to gatherings along with the Tak TSA120.
Cheers, Matt

[brian nordstrom]

:thanx: I was in a rush to finish the message as we had a problem in the w/s , all fixed now.
Sorry mate .
MMMmmm , Tak TSA120 , nice scopes .:) .When is it due ? it will be a good match on your Vixen mount , my SKY90 loves my Vixen SP , underated mounts by most who think they are like the Synta clones , not even close !
Brian

[Kunama]

The Tak arrived yesterday and the Parallax Rings and things today!
The Berry& Mackay refractor comes with a beautiful tabletop stand but I think the one pictured below will become its travel tripod once it grows some legs.

[Rigel003]

Nice to see the Tak in its new home Matt. Looks very portable on that mount. The Istar is a monster by comparison. I'll look forward to following your restoration project.

[Kunama]

Thanks Graeme, as soon as I had set it up on the GPD2 the rain started.
I guess that means the B&M scope will get some loving!

[lhansen]

Hi Matt

I think I have located a focuser knob of the same vintage - stand by

Cheers

Lars

[Kunama]

Thanks Lars. I dismantled the objective last night, cleaned all surfaces of the doublet and found that the elements had rotated 120 degrees from the alignment marks. Once realigned and reassembled the view improved about 100%.
I then dismantled the eyepiece and cleaned it. It works but with my tired eyes was a challenge, so this morning I converted a 25mm plossl and fitted it into the focuser tube and the views are excellent !!!!

The next step will be to cut a matching thread on the plossl body. That probably has not been done very often.

I think I will store the original eyepiece in a safe place.

[Kunama]

And so it begins:

Dismantling well underway and cleaning and polishing commenced as well:)

Here she is all broken up:

[Kunama]

First item to be cleaned, the 'pier' section of the mount - seems at some stage someone has handled it with some chemical on their hands as there were several quite definite fingerprints etched into the surface, alas they are now gone !!!

[lhansen]

Hi Matt

How the heck did you manage to dissasemble the objective, I tried on one occasion, failed and decided it was too risky - well done

Cheers

Lars

[Kunama]

Lars, the knurled front ring was dented and would not budge but the rear one unscrewed with the use of rubber gloves for friction on the cell and knurling. I did find a small crack in the very edge of the front element where the brass rim had the dent :(, it however does not affect the image/view at all:).
The crack is very small, inside the element and no glass has been lost :thumbsup:.
It looks like a tiny hair on the surface.
I am going to pull it apart when I am next in Canberra and go to see my mate at O'Brien Glass where I will vacuum inject some clear resin into it :eyepop: (just like the windscreen repairers do on car windscreens, albeit on a much smaller scale. :P
The rear element was rotated 120 degrees from where it should have been. There were markings on the edge of each element and also on the inner surface of the cell. Once cleaned and aligned correctly and with the use of the 25mm plossl which I wrapped with nylon tape to take up the slack and then fitted inside the drawtube, the view even in daytime from home to Round Mountain was as sharp as my Istar. I was stunned.:eyepop:

[LewisM]

Magnificent.

Nothing, absolutely NOTHING beats a refractor. Leave it neglected for 135 years, clean the lens and good to go. Sorry, can't say that about reflectors ;)

Wish I had seen Lars had it, but NOT been watching classifieds lately. SO content with Lars' former FL102S, that I don't hunt anything any more. Maybe I should start looking :)

[Kunama]

A little more progress today:

1. Beautiful handmade components

2. Like a little Lighthouse, shining for all to see, the Azimuth bearing on top of the post is a smooth as silk

[Kunama]

21.2.13
The Little Lighthouse has grown some legs!

The beautiful legs were wire brushed to get rid of the rust, then washed and readied for paint yesterday.
Today they were treated to 2 coats of Rust-Guard Satin Epoxy followed by a coat of clear lacquer and look like new again.
I decided that a coat of lacquer would also be applied to the brass to protect the finish as I intend to use this scope once completed.
Due to silver soldered joints being obvious on the tangent arm pivot I have epoxy painted it satin black as well.
The pivot mounting plate came up beautifully with polishing and will remain nice and shiny.

Tomorrow I hope to get the Altitude pivot/tube mounting plate polished up ready for lacquer.

Here is a progress pic of the base/pier:

[Kunama]

After agonising over what to do with this scope for some time, yesterday a decision had to be made:

I dismantled the OTA into its myriad components. Would you believe it is made of 36 separate components.

The lens elements were first removed and safely wrapped into storage.
It appears that the tube has been through a lot in its lifetime, some not so nice things along the way.

From my quick appraisal it seems that the tube started out as a nicely polished brass masterpiece in 1880.
Somewhere along the way someone decided they did not like the upkeep of brass so it was treated to a thick coat of 'Stove Black Patina' or similar gunk.
Then down the road of its lifetime a new caretaker decided to remove most of the said 'patina' possibly with steel wool.
The scope was then left to age for some time before another caretaker came up with the idea that black paint was the way to go and ,
you guessed it, this decision was later regretted and a chemical agent was used to strip that paint off causing pitting on the brass surface and 'swipe' patterns along the tube.

The next treatment seems to have been either beeswax or car polish ..... and this is where we were yesterday.

I decided that I will be using this scope as a working example of astronomy in the 1880s and as such it should look like it did in 1880.

I first washed the components to remove the wax, then cleaned them.
Each item was then examined for faults to make sure that proper collimation was achievable, focuser travel and action could be returned to a nice smooth movement,
a couple of the larger dents in the tube were removed etc.

The components were then individually polished to remove old paints, chemical stains and corrosion.
I made sure to leave all the little nicks, scrapes and dings in their place as proof of a lifetime of use.

The resulting OTA is now a bit too shiny so once assembled it will be left untreated so it can tarnish with dignity knowing it will no longer live in fear of paint brushes.

I have also considered some 'brass ageing' treatment methods which actually age brass 50 years in 30 minutes but I would have to get access to a pizza oven to do this. Mmmmmm .....pizza :P

Food for thought.

(Now I just have to remove the clear varnish from the standpost so they can grow old together :love: )
1: Reassembled OTA
2: Rack & Pinion circa 1880
3: Lens cell and counter cell

[astroboy]

Great Job Matt
I used to admire that scope but knew I couldn't do the restoration justice , I glad you have .
Pity about the dent , I think Lars used it for some heavy negotiating over telescope purchases , he has to use a lead pipe for that now !!!

Zane

[Kunama]

Thanks Zane,
I managed to get the largest dent out by wooden dollies cut with the correct radius, I had to make them small enough to drop inside the tube through the baffle openings, then once inside, I had to jiggle the tube around till the dollies were in the correct place. then it was just a case of a very long wedge in the form of a large screwdriver inserted between the dollies and twisted, and no more dent.

The hardest part was getting the little blighters out through the baffles.

Luckily I am reasonably patient ( I make sure I have something dispensable nearby so I don't smash the valuable stuff out of frustration )

[lhansen]

Hi Matt

Looks like you have done your usual superb job, well done!

Are you going to fit the elevation adjustment rack and pinion?

Regards

Lars

Ps/- I've got this 1760 refractor that needs a bit of a cleanup ;)

[Kunama]

Thanks Lars, as you know this is a beautiful and very unique telescope, it is now included in Neil English's Website for Classic Telescopes. I am hoping being in Scotland, he will be able to shed more light on the history of it. (How does a man with the surname English, born in Ireland, get away with living in Scotland - must be difficult for him at footy finals week.)
Yes the elevation rack will be going back on it, I just have to source some brass tubing 17mm ID, or 17mm OD and fit a little sleeve inside to extend the rod about 120mm to get to lower altitudes.

As for any more projects to take on ......................... :question::question:

[lhansen]

Well maybe you can give me some hints. :)

[Kunama]

Are you planning on restoring the scope that is in your office???

That would be nice to see.

I just found some threaded brass tube in Mitre10 this arvo and will just have to turn it down to the right diameter (& remove the external thread in the process) so the elevation R&P tube sounds like a goer.

[lhansen]

Seems a shame to leave it after seeing what you have done with the berry.

Optically, it won't be in the ballpark, being a non achromatic, but the aesthetics are seriously nice. I was thinking snake skin?

[Kunama]

Go all the way, get some crocodile belly leather!
Can you email me a couple of pics of it.

[lhansen]

I'll take some piccies on monday

[Kunama]

Dear diary, getting tired of polishing and filing Brass !

Amazing how nice a plumbing fitting can look with some attention,
the picture shows the threaded pipe after 2 hours of filing and polishing.
The Altitude adjuster is now the correct length again:

[Kunama]

Haven't updated this thread in a long time....

The scope has been sitting on my dresser for 2 years now and slowly the brass has been darkening to a much deeper hue.

I think I have finally found who gave birth to this scope, it appears that this is in fact a Troughton & Simms 3.125" refractor marketed as a Berry & Mackay and made about 1880.