Helping to sell Jeffkop's gear

[iceman]

Unfortunately one of our members, Jeffkop, died earlier this year from a brain tumour. His wife is looking to sell the sell the scope (not including the small one on the top in this picture), the mount and the observatory for $20,000. He had invested $40,000 in the gear.

It's at Tuckurimba near Lismore on the Far North Coast of NSW.

Donna (his wife) is feeling very overwhelmed in trying to sell the equipment and wondered if anyone who lived close could help and have a chat – who knew about telescopes, mounts and observatories – then she would really love a visit to help her in selling it.

PLease get in touch if you can help.

[GrahamL]

pm sent

[LewisM]

What a shame.

I always had wondered why he never responded to my enquiry about the TSA102. Now I know :(

I wish the VERY best for his wife and family.

[gbeal]

Yeah, came as a shock to me when I read it this morning, small family we are all in, and news like this comes hard.
Gary

[PCH]

How sad - may he rest in peace and my heartfelt sympathy to his family :(

[gregbradley]

Sorry to hear that, he was a nice guy. I sold him the BRC250 about 6 years back. The BRC 250 is a 10 inch Tak Baker Ritchie Chretien telescope and is F5. It is a very solid telescope and like a giant FSQ. Its easy to get superb images out of it. When I had it I checked the collimation with a Tak collimation scope and it was perfect. The BRC250 has very small spot sizes and the mirrors would've been made by a Tak legend who is known for his superb mirror work. It worked well with a KAF8300 sensor camera (good for galaxies) and also a 16803. It would be good with the STL11.

I can vouch for the excellence of this scope. F5 is a very fast but still somewhat tolerant. It has a helical focuser and I used it with a FLI PDF Focuser and focus was easy. It also is easy to rotate the image rig.

All in all a superb setup. I would estimate it is worth AUD$12-14. Tak has made a new BRC250 called the CCA250. Its USD$16,795. That is about AUD$26,000 shipped and landed GST included. Expensive. The newer model is much the same except it has a few fans at the rear, and a carbon fibre tube. This one has a temperature compensating rod which meant focus was pretty stable so carbon fibre whilst most likely better is not everything compared to this model. I did not notice thermal currents on this either so the new model has some niceties but they are not essential.

Also there are some reducers and extenders that work with this model. They are for the new model but I think almost for sure they will work on this older model although that should be verified with Tak USA.

As I recall I sold it to Jeff for about AUD$12.5K I think.

They are a rare scope and solid.

An SBIG STL11 routinely go for about USD$4200 on Astromart sometimes including filters other times not. I think I would list that on Astromart for US$3900 and the filters for US$500. US buyers don't like buying from overseas so you have to give them a little incentive plus the exchange rate means its better to sell to them for US$3900= AUD$5,000 which would be harder to get from a local sale. You can mail it at Pack N Send and they can pack it and insure it for a reasonable amount. They have branches in most major cities.

The BRC250 would be nice to sell locally. If selling on Astromart you'd have to check sales histories but I think the last I saw went for around US$8900 plus shipping which is AUD$11,600 currently + shipping (about AUD$750 for a heavy scope like that).

I hope this helps.

Greg.

[GrahamL]

Hi

I've been in touch with Jeffs wife today and she is able to move forward with
selling the above mentioned equipment now .

I'm going to catch up tomorrow morning and have a look over whats there and discuss how she wants to sell,any questions or info required please let me know and I'll take that along.

regards
graham

[Merlin66]

Graham,
I would (having had to do something similar....) concentrate on preparing an inventory of EVERYTHING - equipment, accessories, books etc. With as much detail as can be obtained (receipts etc.) and plenty of photos.
It may then be possible to arrange sales based on an individual item or group some together as a package.
I found the worst part was trying to ensure payment and the job of postage and packaging.
Pass on our condolences and let Donna know we're here to help.
Best of luck.

[wasyoungonce]

Sorry to hear of Jeffs Passing. He was a decent chap.

[GrahamL]

Hi all

I spent a little time with Jeffs wife Donna on a the weekend and had a brief look around at his gear and have a rough idea whats there .

Sirus 2.3 m dome ( i think ) good condition 3 storage pods
have no idea how to open ?

Tak BRC 250 optics as best as i can see ( refuse to use torch ) look ok
covered with tarp and end cap in place.

Tak TSA 102 didn't look at optics end cap in place as stated this scope is going to another I believe .

Tak sky 90 clamshell attached

Tak 6x30 finder no stalk , but havn't really looked yet

Tak f/reducer and likely some tak adapters and such , again havn't really
looked close yet.

Tv 4x powermate
Tv 3x barlow

Losmandy titan mount
gemini 2
new hand controller purchased 2014 $1295 receipt on hand.
Custom made pier
Custom made heater I believe

Tower in one storage Pod , Jeff told me was building up system to run remotely from house , does seem to be cabled in to do as such


ST11 pelican cases power supply ect

ST 2000xm sitting on electrical engineers workbench unkown condition


There is more and will have a close look soon


I do believe it would be beneficial to remove scopes and cameras and possibly mount as well from dome soonish , not theres anything seriously
wrong in there , thoughts anyone ?


Would anyone know what the weight of the BRC would be roughly ?

Also would anyone have some advice on removing and storing the camera
The helical focuser like the scope is a massive piece of kit and I cant figure out which locking rings release what .

Please let me know if more info is needed astrophotography I know nothing about and almost everything in front of me is just all about that :)
cheers graham

[lazjen]

If the dome has been well setup, the gear is probably ok in there, after all, that's part of its purpose.

By opening the dome, do you mean the shutters? If so, there's either going to be a mechanical winder to do it, or I suspect in this case since that's an obvious thing to use, there's a motorised control in place. Check at the control box for a device that should control the dome rotation and the shutter.

[GrahamL]

Cheers yes there is a control box.

it is well set up the the floor is timber with around 12mm gaps between
boards , there is a mud wasp nest on the wall and a few ants around the edges , I think its more a case its not in use regarding leaving all the gear in there ?