Bintel 12inch F5 scopes... optics question

[kinetic]

Hi group,
This is my first post to IIS,

Has anyone cannibalised the parts of the Bintel 12 inch Dobs
and used them for a GEM-Newt arrangement?
Apart from the one review on here I have read, is there any
review on the optical quality of the 12inch primary available?

The Bintel scopes value seems too good to be true....
A few Plossls, Crayford focuser, what seems to be a good
Chinese primary...steel tube.
I was thinking of getting one just to use the bits for a GEM
config in my observatory.

Any thoughts would be very appreciated,

Cheers,
Steve.

[GrahamL]

hi steve

:welcome: I bought a 12" gso mirror from telescopes and astronomy in adelaide and am very happy with it ..I use it for visual only and rarely go past 200x .

I recall the odd bit of info on the optical quality of them from around the web ..some surface roughness was mentioned a bit ? .. but "generaly "they were pretty good for a mass produced product .

[kinetic]

Thanks for the advice, I would probably get the scope from here (Adelaide)
because for the Bintel or Andrews Communications prices plus about
$100-150 postage it would just about equal T&A O'Halloran Hill's price.

I had considered mirror only option too but I can't go past the value
of the bits thrown in! :):D

I would only have to modify my GEM cradle as my homemade mount is
over-engineered and always could easily accommodate a bigger OTA.
(currently houses a homemade 8"F7 Newt).

regards,
Steve.

[renormalised]

Like your avatar, Steve. The latest in modern telescope technology:P:D

Welcome to IIS:D

[kinetic]

[quote=renormalised;337994]Like your avatar, Steve. The latest in modern telescope technology:P:D

I'm sure that's what Isaac said :lol:

Steve

[tornado33]

Photon Collector (Paul) has put a Bintel 12 inch on a GEM mount for astrophotography. Here it is (http://www.skylab.com.au/pmsa/index.html)
As for the Optics, Pauls works very well, and visually looks great too. I once saw Jupiter through another mates 12 inch bintel dob and the detail at hight power was excellent, so yes their optics are fine. One little thing though, the original mirror coatings appear a little grimy, that is hard to remove. Paul has since had his recoated, it now sports a pristine quartz overcoated coating.
Scott

[kinetic]

Scott,

Many thanks for the link...
Paul's site is a perfect example of what I want
to do.
I will try and pm Paul for some advice.
Thanks again,

Steve