Larry Geary
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 09/24/06
Posts: 1585
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Quote:
didn't know that Questar's were so rare, here is one on Houston's craiglist, I wondered why the price was so high!
Only the Questar 12 is rare. Almost none were made.
That seller is loco. A fully mounted Questar should go for closer to twice that price. And the QMax is a specialized high resolution spectrograph that by itself costs around $4,000.
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When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness. -- Alexis de Tocqueville
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Bonco
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/17/06
Posts: 3036
Loc: Florida
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Quote:
I didn't know that Questar's were so rare, here is one on Houston's craiglist, I wondered why the price was so high!
Questar
Well this thread has wandered all over the place. Questars are not "rare" but are highly sought after for the reasons I posted earlier. They are out of my price range but I'd love to own one just for the quality and uniqueness.
Bonco
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RV6
Meade 2045
6 inch f/4 RFT R. Fagin Optics
TV Genesis
2.4 inch Lafayette Equitorial
3 inch Polarex Equitorial
10 inch Zhumell
PST 40mm Solar scope
4 inch F/15 Antares
2.4 inch Unitron Equitorial
Tasco 10K 80mm/1200mm (Carton)
Towa 339 Restored (Carton)
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jgw12936
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/28/07
Posts: 1023
Loc: The Woodlands, TX
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Well,
This posts' wandering has helped my naivete, I'm learning to appreciate what I can't afford!
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Jim
FSQ 106EDXII
Mach1GTO
ML 11002 with Astrodon filters
http://jimwood.smugmug.com/
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Jon Isaacs
Postmaster
Reged: 06/16/04
Posts: 32442
Loc: San Diego, California
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I've never seen an imager, his AP1200 loaded down with 6" refractors and 14" RC scopes, say "But I'd sell it all in a heartbeat if I could just have a Questar!"
jon
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Glassthrower
Vendor - Galactic Stone & Ironworks
Reged: 04/07/05
Posts: 17931
Loc: Oort Cloud 9
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Quote:
Well,
This posts' wandering has helped my naivete, I'm learning to appreciate what I can't afford!
Jim, I once shared your opinion of high-end gear. I thought to myself - are these people NUTS? Spending thousands on a small refractor or 3.5" Mak? Insanity! Then, I had a chance to look through premium glass - Televue, Pentax, and others. I now see what the ranting and raving is all about. If I had the financial ability, my sigline would be STUPID!
STUPID I say! 
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Michael Gilmer - Member of the Meteoritical Society & Collector of Falling Stars.
☄ ⒼⒶⓁⒶⒸⓉⒾⒸ ⓈⓉⓄⓃⒺ ☞ www.galactic-stone.com
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jgw12936
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/28/07
Posts: 1023
Loc: The Woodlands, TX
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Mike,
I know what you mean, I'm learning that there are lot's of variations, but premium glass is premium for a reason. I had the chance to aquire a Tele Vue Pronto recently, and I know this is the bottom of the Tele Vue scale at this point, but the views with this 70mm little guy are superb.
Jim
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Jim
FSQ 106EDXII
Mach1GTO
ML 11002 with Astrodon filters
http://jimwood.smugmug.com/
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trainsktg
Post Laureate
Reged: 08/23/05
Posts: 4952
Loc: Pacific Northwest
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The rarest Questar is the original 5" prototype.
Keith
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He was a good little monkey and always very curious.
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BHunt
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 12/31/06
Posts: 1387
Loc: NJ and PA
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Keith,
Does your Dad have one?
Bill
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PJ Anway
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 06/04/03
Posts: 2165
Loc: North Coast
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I just got a reply to my inquiries about the Zeiss ED80/840 lens I recently purchased. I had contacted Baader Planetarium who was a Zeiss dealer in Germany for many years and who are now the only authorized repair facility for Zeiss scopes. They told me that only thirty ED80's were made and that they were made in 1994/1995. They told me that they could not reveal specifically what glass was used, but said that it was the highest quality ED glass available (I'm guessing that would probably be FPL-53).
Anyway, with only 30 in existence, that would make the Zeiss ED80/840 pretty rare.
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Clear Skies,
PJ
http://doublestarobserver.com
Refl.- 203/1420, Refr.- 100/1000, 75/500, 63/840, Bino.- 15X60, 10X50
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bierbelly
Postmaster
Reged: 01/23/04
Posts: 6179
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Quote:
I have a girlfriend. The good thing is she has a scope. Lol a Orion 12XTi to be exact and her dads got a Discovery 17.5 Truss dob. But there is more to life then astronomy I am aware. But it helps when the girl is into the hobby as well.
DANG! Does her dad own a liquor store too? 
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12" DSH
8" f/4 Vega MakNewt
6" MN66
TV85
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Gerd
sage
Reged: 09/02/05
Posts: 324
Loc: near Stuttgart Schwabenländle
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Zeiss APQ 200.
Nobody knows a prototype really exist?    
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Gerd
Member of the Backnanger Sterngucker
(stargazers of the area round Backnang, Germany)
www.bksterngucker.de
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Clive Gibbons
Mostly Harmless
Reged: 05/26/05
Posts: 16724
Loc: Oort Cloud
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IIRC, D&G offered a 5.1" f/9 APO several years ago.
Anybody have one of those?
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A few telescopes of dubious value.
Understanding wife and two curious cats.
"Semper ubi sub ubi"
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maknewtnut
Member
Reged: 10/08/06
Posts: 1333
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D&G 130 f/9 apo(I used to own one)
WO 80/600(LZOS not LOMO)in Yang tube(still do)
Actually, I think there's more Comet Catchers and orange SCT's out there than one might think.
OK moderators, this is an example of a self serving post ;*)
Mark
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skyward_eyes
Vendor-Woodland Hills/Focus
Reged: 12/12/06
Posts: 3352
Loc: California
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Yes I am sure there are more Orange Tubes and Comet Catchers. But the Orange Tube series seems to be more wanted my astronomers. And Comet Catchers are very nice and are still sought after.
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Kevin LeGore
kevin@telescopes.net
Woodland Hills Camera & Telescopes
www.telescopes.net
Focus on Astronomy Outreach Project
www.focusonastronomy.org
Director and Founder
k.legore@focusonastronomy.org
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Clive Gibbons
Mostly Harmless
Reged: 05/26/05
Posts: 16724
Loc: Oort Cloud
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Quote:
D&G 130 f/9 apo(I used to own one)
Cool, Mark! 
How did the D&G APO perform?
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A few telescopes of dubious value.
Understanding wife and two curious cats.
"Semper ubi sub ubi"
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JohnG
sage
Reged: 12/16/06
Posts: 357
Loc: Wake Village, Texas - East Tex...
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Post deleted by JohnG
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Clive Gibbons
Mostly Harmless
Reged: 05/26/05
Posts: 16724
Loc: Oort Cloud
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Hi John.
I'm also getting to the point where portability is very important! 
Good Comet Catchers are the rare ones.
There's quite a few lurking about and many, many were sold around the time of Comet Halley. Image quality ranged quite a bit...
I've used a few of them (one for a Halley excursion back in '86) and used to sell them in our shop.
They had v. large secondary obstructions, thanks to their f/3.6 speed. Coma equivalent to a traditional f/5 paraboloid.
Collimation was a pain. The focuser was novel in design (same as used in the Vixen-made 6" f/5 and 8" f/4 Newts), but finicky and sometimes had a rather "rubbery" feel to the action. Quite a bit of vignetting when used for photography, because of the restrictive size of the focuser accessory diameter.
All that being said, I did like the ones which had good optics. 
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A few telescopes of dubious value.
Understanding wife and two curious cats.
"Semper ubi sub ubi"
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Lew Chilton
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/20/05
Posts: 1642
Loc: SoCal
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The Celestron pictured here is the very first Celestron, although its maker, Tom Johnson, hadn't coined the name yet.
The just completed scope, an 18-inch pictured here, was not a Schmidt-Cassegrain but a classic Cassegrain, as I recall. I took this picture circa 1969-1970 at Tom Johnson's home in Inglewood, Calif. He lived in a tract house in those days. Because the optics had not yet been aluminized, we only looked at Venus.
That's Tom Johnson on the left, Dave Balogh in the middle, and me on the right. I believe an article about this scope appeared in Sky & Tel a few years after I took this picture.
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I don't get no respect, but my scopes do! 
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1961 Swift 60mm model 839 (2); TV-102/GM-8; 1959 8" f/6 Treckerscope; 1959 8" f/7.4 Murray Scope; 1978 4" Edmund Astroscan; c. 1992 4-inch Celestron-Vixen SP-C102; c. 1950 20X60 Saturn spotting scope; 1963 7X50 Nippon Kogaku binoculars; Unitron #114 alt-az mount (Swifty-tron); Takahashi TOA-130S/EM-200USD3.
Sold: my Fecker Celestar-4 after 40 yrs. of ownership (1970-2010).
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twhite
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 01/28/06
Posts: 1497
Loc: Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, USA
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Clive is right -- good ones are the rare ones. I've got a good one, and love it. It's a lot of fun. I did the Messier Marathon with mine this year mounted on a Vixen fork mount.
They don't come up for sale too often (though there's one on eBay now -- be warned, though, that I plan to bid on it, as I want the box.  ) and good ones generally fetch ~$300.
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Tony White
Astronomy Club of Tulsa
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18" f/4.5 Pegasus/homebuilt dob
TMB 152 - TMB 105 - AP 105EDF - Antares Elite 105/1500 - Unitron 102/1500 - Celestron C102F -Celestron C80F - Unitron 131-C - Unitron 140 - Brandon 80 f/6 - Coronado MaxScope 60 0.5A - and more...
Celestron Ultima 11, Orion Optics OMC-140, Celestron CometCatcher
AP1200GTO - AP400GTO - Vixen GP - DiscMount DM-6 -Lapides Tak Teegul - and more...
Garrett GT100-45, Celestron 11x80, Eagle Optics 10x50ED, Celestron 6.5x44ED
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JohnG
sage
Reged: 12/16/06
Posts: 357
Loc: Wake Village, Texas - East Tex...
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Perhaps this is staying away from the subject of the rarest telescopes, for certainly those must be things like the Porter Garden Telescope, etc., but there are some later scopes that might be considered rare.
For instance, I own an 8 inch Sky Research f/2.9 rich field. These were advertised in Sky and Telescope for awhile more than twenty years ago. I don't have any pictures at present or I'd show you all this strange duck. It was obviously "manufactured" home-brew style since the primary is mounted on a Kenneth Novak cassegrain back plate and mirror cell. The primary has a center hole. Maybe it was originally a Cassegrain? The 2.10 secondary is glued to a wooden plug held in a glass window. All this was mounted in a sonotube. I haven't used it in a long time but it seemed to give pretty good views at low power.
For a rich field I suppose I should have bought one like six inch Criterion on the cover of this old Fawcett book I've kept since 1967. Price was $169. Criterion said it could be used hand-held just like the girl is showing. Inside is a picture of a lady holding an Optical Craftsmen six inch rich field. The six inch was $135 and the eight inch was $250.
While it's true that most of the reflectors manufactured by the famous companies back then were longer focal lengths for all around viewing, they did make some specifically for low power use.
So, how rare are these? Has anyone seen or have one of the Criterion or Optical Craftsmen rich fields?
JohnG
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