Some time ago, I purchased an old 80mm f/15 Scope.
It was a little sad in its condition...needed a new Focuser...the Optics are in top shape....it just needed a little TLC to bring it back to life.
A strip down / sand & repaint / New MoonLite Focuser ..... ready to put to use.
First light last night .... clear skies over Deception Bay ... Jupiter / Mars and Saturn were easily visible with the naked eye.
Eyepieces used, 21mm Denkmeier / 18mm Smooth side Japanese Plossl / 35mm Ultrascopic / WO 15mm @72*
I used a 1.25 Baader Prism Diagonal because ( believe it or not ) was better then my 2" inch WO Quartz Diagonal ... just gave me a brighter image.....
First Jupiter ... just lovely to see ... bands easily seen and 4 of her moons. Jupiter was bright to look at as it steadily moved across the fov
and to my delight , not a hint of any CA whatsoever.
I followed it for sometime and ' tweaked ' the Focuser as I changed to different eyepieces.
Mars .... was like an ' orange ball ' ..... had a ' orangery ' appearance and bright to, but not blinding , watched her for a while, but didn't spend to much time there.
Now Saturn, she was something else.....leaning on an angle with its rings almost sideways to us was just beautiful. I stayed with the 15mm @72* for most of my viewing on her. The background night sky was black on black which made viewing very pleasing with any Scope for that matter.
The ' separating ' of the rings from the planet stood out ever so clearly.
The f/15 focal length gave exceptionally sharp views .... focusing was a breeze and eyepieces snapped into focus readily. No ' hunting ' for the right ' spot ' ... clean / sharp viewing.
who was it that said ' f/15 rules ' .... Mr Moore if I remember rightly, and he has good reason to say this.
But for me .... any Scope with decent optics and quality is a joy to use.
An f/15 has its place in the stable of this hobby, to be enjoyed along with all the rest.
Col....
Last edited by FlashDrive; 05-05-2016 at 06:36 PM.
Reason: text correction
I've got an f11 Achro as a sighting refinement scope on the mount. I am always impressed by what I see in that. Love to get hold of an old school f15 scope for planetary but you just don't see them very often over here.
Nice work Col
My RN8F8 Newt is a longer focal length than is usual these days, 8" mirror @ f8. Easy to focus and no apparent coma. It's a sod in my wee Observatory, has to be parked E-W and almost touches the back wall when slewing but it will be going back onto the mount shortly to give me another imaging scale.
I was lusting after that Zeiss 80mm that was for sale here. I looked through a Zeiss (60mm ??) years ago and it was picture perfect. However, even at the lower end of the market, there were lots of nice 60-80mm refractors made years ago. I think even the el plastico I'm doing up has nice enough optics.
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Originally Posted by Atmos
Looks really nice Col! Location appears reasonably unobstructed too which is a bonus
And his lawns are well kept. I'm thinking of letting him do mine.
Last edited by AstralTraveller; 06-05-2016 at 09:21 AM.
It's a beautiful looking scope Col. Well done on the restoration, I'm glad it was worth the time and money.
I don't generally like fast scopes for luna and planetary viewing because of the lack of contrast. Plus the focus hunting you sometimes have to do to get it sharp.
Well done, I'm a little envious :-)
I like those long f scopes , for a while I had one of those Vixen A80mf f11.4 . It was cheap but surprising'ly good , very little CA if any, all it needed was a good focuser
Saturn, she was something else.....leaning on an angle with its rings almost sideways to us was just beautiful. I stayed with the 15mm @72* for most of my viewing on her. The background night sky was black on black which made viewing very pleasing with any Scope for that matter.
