Thanks Alfred, yes I have come to realise the passion that these scopes stir in the loins of astronomers! I recall as a kid looking through the pages of sky and tel at the magical instruments that cost more than a car...
Quote:
Originally Posted by linkpng
Dear Jonathan,
Your Unitron refractors are very rare and very high quality instruments and in principle, cleaned up, worth a lot of money, espcially in their original cases. I have one complete, still in use, dating from the 1960s. In those days Unitron (or Polaris in some parts of the world) were the Rolls Royce of small refractors; that was in the days before ED and APO. They have excellent air spaced doublet objectives and also the small 24.5 mm eyepieces are very respectable. The mechanicals are also very well made with a ful set of collimation screws in the objective cell. Mine has absolutely perfect star images and is lovely on brighter objects. The metal bracket lying in the lower box is the spacer that sits halfway up the (wooden) tripod. They came in Alt-Az and Equatorial varieties.
In the USA and Japan these are collectible and regarded as almost museum pieces and in good condition attract high prices. Have a look on Google. I have seen special web sites dedicated to these Unitron/Polaris instruments. I would strongly suggest you contact a local person with a keen interest in refractors and see how they can be restored. While small, these are just about the best classic 3" refractors ever marketed.
Finally, what ever you do, make sure you record where the spacers are located and mark the orientation of the two lenses with texta - if disassembly is required.
Regards, Alfred
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