I'm actually not sure if I want to sell this scope - but it bothers me that it's been sitting in storage not being used for too long. So let's see if it's suitable for someone. It might be the most capable small travel scope I've ever seen - We've taken it on trips in our 4wd and it's not hard to just pack and pull it out when the location or weather suits. You can see the scope setup at Wolfe Creek Meteorite crater, observing the far north objects we miss from Victoria.
It has an interesting heritage - I purchased the scope some years back from the Canadian astronomy author Alan Dyer - He wrote the Backyard Astronomers guide and this telescope was featured. I saw the scope in the book and asked Alan about it one time we were observing together here in Australia - he told me the story.
He needed a scope he could use here in Australia once a year when he does the southern skies, he kept it out here for about a decade and took it on trips until he switched to imaging as his primary astronomy efforts. The maker was Dwight Hansen in Edmonton, who was setting up a small company, Hansen Optical, to sell these scopes under the name Genstar. Alan featured it in the Backyard Astronomer’s Guide to promote his work. Dwight disappeared and the scope never made it to mass production - I believe 5 or 6 were made. Alan bought one and had the poles custom made to collapse even smaller for flying. The optics are by Barry Arnold, who was a professional optics maker and amateur astronomer in Edmonton. Alan describes Dwight as a master machinist and Barry as a master optician. Suffice to say it's a unique telescope with a level of construction you would only find by going totally custom.
I had always said to Alan if he was ever prepared to sell the scope I was first in line - after many years of me admiring it he made the call!
The primary is a 10" F5 mirror. The secondary and upper tube ring is extremely light, and requires the 1.25" focuser. A Rigel finder makes pointing and star hopping easy with your iPhone, iPad or star charts. The scope itself is almost 100% machined aluminium and runs on a set of bearings.
There is a light shield and cloth shroud. The case fits everything except the poles - Eyepieces, laser and tools to collimate the primary and secondary mirrors etc. The full box is dense when packed ~22kg. The poles are separate but don't weigh much at all. I typically keep them full length in a length of 75mm pipe - they can be shortened and put in a small bag if you need to go extreme.
The storage box is 40.5cm x 33cm x 26cm
The poles in a tube are 103cm at full length, or 66cm collapsed down.
The included eyepiece are a 24mm Panoptic, 13mm Nagler and 7mm Nagler - An ideal set of fields for this scope. I bought these new from Bintel and they have only ever been used with this scope, so very minimal really.
24mm Pan - 53x - 1.3 degree FOV with a 4.8mm exit pupil.
13mm Nag - 98x - 084 degree FOV with a 2.6mm exit pupil.
7mm Nag - 181x - 0.45 degree FOV with a 1.4mm exit pupil (very sharp planetary views with this combination)
It has a dew + rain cover as well.
I'm honestly not quite sure how to figure out a fair price - The Eyepieces alone are $2k+ from Bintel and all out of stock. ~$4750 ? and depending on location I can figure out shipping via Pack and Send.
Last edited by jamespierce; 11-08-2023 at 12:15 PM.
