Has anyone heard of telescopes built by I Floreani?

[nyultap (Peti)]

Hi there,


First post on the forum, so sorry if the topic is in the wrong sub forum.

I came across a serious looking reflector at a garage sale in Central Victoria.

The sale was organized by a guy, who's father sadly passed away and he is trying to sell off his dad's belongings.

Amongst it was this reflector but unfortunately he had no information on it whatsoever, neither there is anything written on the scope or stand to give away the specs.

The telescope looks like, it was built in the 70s-80s. It is a robust all metal construction, I assume it weights between 50-100kg with stand.

The primary mirror measures somewhere between 7-8in and both the primary and secondary mirror look they are in good condition and was kept covered whilst in storage.

Oddly, the eyepiece socket seems like an 0.965in one, which in my understanding is not a common diameter.

It is on an equatorial mount, which moves pretty smoothly and looks well balanced despite the dirt and the dust. Overall, the telescope needs a good clean but seems like in good working order.


My question is, did anyone hear about these telescopes before or have experience with them.

The built quality is extraordinary but don't know anything about its optical performance. The price he is asking for is probably a real bargain, but would like to get some opinions from people who know more about the topic, before I invest in it.


Many thanks in advance!

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Not familiar with the telescope but the eyepiece was a common size on Japanese telescopes right through the 80s and into the 90s. As for other scopes made elsewhere I have no idea, I'm only familiar with cheaper scopes I'd bought around the time.
When I say cheaper I mean from a camera store, the only place I could find a telescope when I wanted one and it was far from cheap for a Tasco. I'd still have my original Tasco 0.965" 4mm eyepiece a single eyelash could block right out (and maybe others, I gave the decent quality things to my sister with a smaller scope I'd put the original Tasco focuser on). it too had .965" but it's focuser was rubbish compared to the Tasco unit (I'd modified it to remove slop).

0.965" Eyepieces

0.965" eyepieces are from an older standard that was common among inexpensive mass produced department store telescopes. These telescopes were great for beginning astronomers and are often still good to this day. If you need to get some additional eyepieces for an .965-inch telescope, OPT has the...

[nyultap (Peti)]

Hi Leo.G,


Thanks for the reply, is it possible to find quality 0.965 eyepieces these days? The seller doesn't seem to have them anymore

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Wow... That's a monster of a scope. It looks like you could drive over it with a truck and not damage it.

I have an M42x0.75 down to (I presume) 0.965" adaptor and a 20mm eyepiece that came with my 'Megalens'. Yours if you want it.

Cheers,
V.

[nyultap (Peti)]

Thanks for the offer, much appreciated!

[By.Jove (Jove)]

0.965" eyepieces were the standard in that era up until around 1980 when 1.25" very quickly became common.

The usual brand was Unitron and they still appear occasionally on Astromart; if you posted a "wanted" ad there it's quite likely someone will reply. Unitron sets were usually a mixed bag of orthos (O) in 4,5,6,7, 9mm; Kellner's (K) 12.5 and 25mm as I recall, and some Huygens (H) which were quite sharp and colour-free but had a horribly small field of view. For example https://astromart.com/classifieds/as...ow/unitron-set

Also, Nikon made some really good 0.965 orthos too, I think 7, 9 and 12.5mm.

As for what's worth keeping.. the mount looks great bt how well it works can only be decided by a night under the stars in the hands of someone knowledgeable. But if the optics are good the OTA could easily go on a modern mount such as HEQ5 or EQ6.

If you do buy the scope and get it going again, please post some pics !

[nyultap (Peti)]

Thanks for the pointers, I'll have a look at astromart and see what comes up!

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Apologies for the slight derail of the conversation, but is the eyepiece in the attached images a Huygens?

Aside from the 'H20mm / Japan' there are no markings that I can see.

Thanks,
V.

Originally Posted by By.Jove

Huygens (H) which were quite sharp and colour-free but had a horribly small field of view.

[Saturnine (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by AstroViking

Apologies for the slight derail of the conversation, but is the eyepiece in the attached images a Huygens?

Aside from the 'H20mm / Japan' there are no markings that I can see.

Thanks,
V.

Yes , the H20 stands for Huygens 20mm lens.

[Leo.G (Leo)]

0.965" eyepieces were the standard in that era up until around 1980 when 1.25" very quickly became common.

Possibly a standard on more expensive telescopes but my Tasco 17TR was new in 1990 and still had the smaller eyepiece. Common on what were referred to as department store telescopes, mine came from a camera store and in the scheme of things was far from cheap.


I'll have to have a look through a tub I have, I may still have some smaller eyepieces but they were never good. My younger sister was travelling across Aus in an RV and I gave her a 70mm refractor with an alt/az mount and the better quality eyepieces I'd purchased for when she got out in the dark, her and her husband liked the night sky. I quickly swapped the focuser off the Tasco over to the smaller scope because it was firmer (and modified to remove slop) and fit a WO unit on an adaptor on my 80mm Tasco.