The Flagship has finally arrived

[gregbradley]

Just came in today after a 1 year wait. One of only 30 made (#30).:welcome:

A TEC 180mm Fluorite oiled triplet APO F7 1260mm focal length with a feather touch focuser and a matching field flattener.

This will be my flagship telescope.

Here are some photos of it:

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/107885589 the crate arrives!

http://www.pbase.com/image/107885426 end of OTA

http://www.pbase.com/gregbradley/image/107885585 the lens is almost invisible:eyepop:

http://www.pbase.com/image/107885628 the whole OTA in its case

I believe it is the only one in Australia and probably only one of a few in the whole southern hemisphere.

Greg.:D

[turbo_pascale]

That's a special scope indeed.
When is first light scheduled?
What gear is going to be sacrificed, or is it not replacing anything in particular?

Turbo

[xstream]

Oh Greg, what a beautiful looking toy!

You must be constantly salivating with delight. :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

you my friend are a tease. I hope all goes well for the test! Might i ask what the first light will be on?

[Garyh]

Now that`s what I call a refractor!
ohh yeah!

[Dennis]

I’m so grateful that I am at that place in my life, dwelling in that space in my head, where I can look at this beautiful instrument and be so very pleased for you that you have such a fine refractor, yet not feel an ounce of envy.:lol::lol::lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[Rodstar]

As Richie Benault would say, "Absolutely Marvellous!"

[h0ughy]

:scared: Dennis, i am speechless! How could you not want to covet this fine piece of instrumentation:D this is indeed witnessing contentment:whistle:.

Greg does realise that we will now all suffer because there will be no skies available for a long time;) . the wait, i hope, will be worth it for him. it is a long time to wait for a piece of glass (says me still waiting for my double stacked 60mm lunt ordered last feb) but the sheer pleasure of the results will more than compensate:D

[Dennis]

Hi Dave

Hah! My New Years resolution was to enjoy the profound treasures lying deep within my soul, not soley the glittering material possessions that assail my senses daily, giving rise to an endless torrent of mindless consuming with its unquenchable desire to upgrade, up-size, up-gadget, etc.;):whistle::lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[gbeal]

Whatever Dennis is on, I want some. LOL.
Congrats Greg.

[erick]

Better keep it wrapped up. Outside it will get some dust on it or maybe even a drop or two of dew :D

Can you photograph it against an apple or something that will give a sense of size?

[avandonk]

If you want invisible just shine a greenlaser down your scope. The fluorite element does not scatter light at all !

Bert

[atalas]

:eyepop: Oh Greg ! that is a beauty ! Congrats ! can't wait to see the stunning images you'll shoot through that big gun.

[Screwdriverone]

Ooooh you lucky, lucky ba......... :)

Congratulations you proud scope father!

DONT DROP IT!

Cheers

Chris

[renormalised]

We will, now, all defer to your obviously superior astrophotos taken by that Rolls Royce of refractors!!!:D:D

NASA will junk all of their Hubble piccies because your scope will take even better ones:P;):D

How many houses did you mortgage to buy that scope??:D

[Bassnut]

Gaud, a 7" refractor, and a TAK, sheesh, thats huge, obscene even ;-). Top toy Greg. I guess itll take a monster cam, look forward to 1st light.

[renormalised]

Needs, at least, a 40Mpix CCD camera:P:D

First light should be great on the scope.

[dugnsuz]

Nice start to 2009 Greg - that's amazing!!
Doug

[AlexN]

Fantastic bit of gear you have yourself there.. Im green with envy!! :)

Man thats a big bit of glass!

[strongmanmike]

How can one man have had so much astro gear :eyepop: you have moved through all the very best small and medium size amateur high end optical and imaging gear available :doh:...will you just SETTLE DOWN!...you are driving me mad with envy :scared: I can't afford to buy even a heater strap that I need :sadeyes:

Awesome looking scope, if it is a good one (I'm sure it will be) then.. bye bye BRC :hi:

Mike

[Ric]

Blimey what an awesome scope.

My congratulations on a wonderful purchase Greg. Boy are you going to have fun with that toy.

Cheers

[KenGee]

Eh does this mean there's is a BRC on the market? The next thing to get is a mount that you can have all of your scopes on at once. Maybe a nice solid bent knee type, no flip, no flex, no counter weights and no cable issues.

[RB]

LOL now THAT would make a nice guidescope !

Congrats Greg on that "wonderful work of art" !

:eyepop:

[Hagar]

Now that looks nice. The packing crate probably cost more than my scope.
Can't wait to see some results. Should knock a few off their perches.

[Peter Ward]

Nah. I had one. Sold it due spherical error.

Just kidding! :)

Cool toy. Should work very well with the U16

[Omaroo]

And here's me "aspiring" to an FSQ. :lol:

Nice machine. I notice that there is a guy on the the TEC site gallery that actually has the 200. That's obscene. Yours is merely outrageous. :thumbsup:

[montewilson]

I think there were a few for sale on the SPSP swap tables - :lol:

We'll know we've made it when we get less buggered focusers and moon filter and more stuff like that for sale.

What mount will you be putting it on?

[multiweb]

I must be on the same thing ... :whistle: I would never spend that much on a hobby, probably coz I can't :lol: . Still I'd take the family for a trip overseas. :). Congrats on the new toy Greg. ... wait ... who am I kidding. It's a Rolls Royce! ;)

[Screwdriverone]

HA HA HA! Classic!

Mount that puppy on a Guan Sheng Newtonian on an Eq5 type mount as a guidescope for a webcam imager......hmmm, not a bad idea!

Now I just need to rummage around behind the lounge cushions for some money to buy one, or two....

Chris

[allan gould]

Its all been said before. Lovely scope and I hope it gives you much pleasure.

[gregbradley]

Thanks for all the well wishes. I thought about it a long time before pulling the trigger (eh when the dollar was higher too).

Yes I am very happy to recieve such a fine instrument. It is quite large in aperture but not that long - like an FS152 in length similar focal length at 1260mm. It isn't particularly heavy (22kgs or so?) with most of the weight at the lens end.

I consider it a heritage scope as I intend to pass it down over time in the family knowing full well Yuri, like Roland Christen before him, is likely at any tme to stop making large fluorite triplets. Tak has already stopped making fluorite lenses. Yuri recently announced he is no longer making 200mm scopes as the glass supply quality was too inconsistent in the larger sizes. I am sure Roland Christen went down this same path and the difficulty of getting high quality glass plus the time and difficulty of making a large lens just made it impractical. Daniel Verschase has a 200mm fluorite and Yuri did make a couple of those.

This fluorite is from Schott Glass in Germany and I went to TEC in Golden Colorado in March last year for a visit. Yuri showed me the CaF2 blanks for the scope. It was milky looking and about an inch thick. He said it was worth a few thousand dollars. The lenses are ground on a polishing machine which looked computerised and then finished by hand. He makes his own metal parts with a CNC machine and the focuser is a Feathertouch.

I will do the green laser test at one point. My green laser gave out so I'll have to get another one. I've done that test on a FS Tak and it is amazing to see the beam disappear in the fluorite lens.

I am not sure what to do for first light. I won't publish it unless it turns out well thats for sure!

Any suggestions?

I also need adapters (oh not again) to attach my cameras unless I can cobble something together with the lot I already have.

Greg

[Omaroo]

??? What's this about Greg?

EDIT: OK - I get it now. Just tried it on both Taks, and the laser dissappears as it hits the front (fluorite) element to reappear again going through the rear ED element. Cool! Interestingly, the beam also seemed to dissappear when aimed at the 7x50 finder's objective....could it be CaFL?

[MrB]

..

[erick]

From what I read, with fluorite you only see the entry and exit points of the laser beam and it is invisible between them. In other materials, the path of the beam is visible due to scattering of the light.

[avandonk]

Fluorite or Calcium Fluoride in a 'perfect' single crystal has a cubic arrangement of the atoms so it is isotropic (very low birefringence). Unlike any glasses that have impurities and density inhomogenaeities no matter how carefully made, it has very little scattering effect on light. It also has the property of low dispersion. That is variation of refractive index to wavelength.

It is so unlike any glass with inherent impurities and inhomogenaeities. This is why the laser beam disappears.

Bert

[prova]

Congratulations on your special purchase.

:thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

No, don't care - do anything and make it snappy ;):):lol: You've got a bunch of people here dying to hear how it performs! An eyeball star test will do!! (no pressure though :D)

By the way Greg - do you have any money left to buy food? Every time I look you've got another scope ... not that I'm envious or anything :P

Cheers, Marcus

[AlexN]

with a 1260mm focal length, I'd give it first light on NGC2264, With your camera and that scope you should be able to frame it very nicely, have great image scale, enough aperture to capture the faint details and variations in the clouds.. Could be a stunner....

You could be boring and do Eta Carine.. It should also fit nicely into frame... but as has been said before.. its one of those over imaged objects, and to make your image stand out it would have to be stupendously good... Mind you, given your gear and your vast skill set... If anyone could do it!! :)

Marcus - As you say.. he who dies with the most toys wins! :D Greg takes the lead!! :D

[turbo_pascale]

Greg has been in the lead for the past 3 years at least!

Turbo

[gregbradley]

Hi Turbs,

Good to hear from you.

Thanks Alex - NGC2264 not a bad choice. There's some Ha there that can be done whilst the moon is up.

Thanks Marcus I'll see what I can do.

I managed to scrounge around my plethora of adapters and found I can cobble together a setup without waiting for a custom adapter.

Its windy but clear at my dark site tonight so hopefully tomorrow night won't be windy and get dust over that lens!

Greg.

[AlexN]

Ps... Dude.. If you have clear skies at the moment... im writing a really really harsh letter to the skygods.. because its just not fair... If you get a 180mm fluorite triplet and still have clear skies, when I get a months cloud for buying an off axis guider and some dovetail bars. I think those sky gods have started to lose their marbles... :)