After agonising over what to do with this scope for some time, yesterday a decision had to be made:
I dismantled the OTA into its myriad components. Would you believe it is made of 36 separate components.
The lens elements were first removed and safely wrapped into storage.
It appears that the tube has been through a lot in its lifetime, some not so nice things along the way.
From my quick appraisal it seems that the tube started out as a nicely polished brass masterpiece in 1880.
Somewhere along the way someone decided they did not like the upkeep of brass so it was treated to a thick coat of 'Stove Black Patina' or similar gunk.
Then down the road of its lifetime a new caretaker decided to remove most of the said 'patina' possibly with steel wool.
The scope was then left to age for some time before another caretaker came up with the idea that black paint was the way to go and ,
you guessed it, this decision was later regretted and a chemical agent was used to strip that paint off causing pitting on the brass surface and 'swipe' patterns along the tube.
The next treatment seems to have been either beeswax or car polish ..... and this is where we were yesterday.
I decided that I will be using this scope as a working example of astronomy in the 1880s and as such it should look like it did in 1880.
I first washed the components to remove the wax, then cleaned them.
Each item was then examined for faults to make sure that proper collimation was achievable, focuser travel and action could be returned to a nice smooth movement,
a couple of the larger dents in the tube were removed etc.
The components were then individually polished to remove old paints, chemical stains and corrosion.
I made sure to leave all the little nicks, scrapes and dings in their place as proof of a lifetime of use.
The resulting OTA is now a bit too shiny so once assembled it will be left untreated so it can tarnish with dignity knowing it will no longer live in fear of paint brushes.
I have also considered some 'brass ageing' treatment methods which actually age brass 50 years in 30 minutes but I would have to get access to a pizza oven to do this. Mmmmmm .....pizza
Food for thought.
(Now I just have to remove the clear varnish from the standpost so they can grow old together
)
1: Reassembled OTA
2: Rack & Pinion circa 1880
3: Lens cell and counter cell
Sweet Matt , Are you going to use this a scope in its own rite , or mount it on the Istar as a guide/finder? .
I was in a rush to finish the message as we had a problem in the w/s , all fixed now.
.When is it due ? it will be a good match on your Vixen mount , my SKY90 loves my Vixen SP , underated mounts by most who think they are like the Synta clones , not even close ! 
, it however does not affect the image/view at all
(just like the windscreen repairers do on car windscreens, albeit on a much smaller scale. 
