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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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Ok it arrived today- just 26 hours after I won it on ebay - guess which seller got really good feedback.
there are a couple of minor problems, the finders got a couple of clamshell clips (still gives a good image though in daytime) and theres a small ding in the tube.
but the optics look good, its a japanese (circle T) 60x910mm and the focuser mechanisms got no slop, the mount works smoothly and everything about the scope seems great, it came with a single H20 eyepiece, an erecting prism, a prism diagonal (.965-.965) and gets a good image on the aerial mast of the building a mile or so away theres a nice little (working) light on the accessory tray and the mount has a gear so the drive can be motorized.
Grendel
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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and the image erector
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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the mount
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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the objective looks good
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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the focuser
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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the clamshells in the finder
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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and finally a dinky little light on the accessory tray
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DaveTinning
member
Reged: 01/03/09
Posts: 44
Loc: Central England
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Hi Grendel, hope you like your new toy...I've bought 2 of these on the bay this year..One cost me £18.50 (around $30 for our US cousins) and is in mint condition. The other cost me £25 ($40) and was in pieces and basically a wreck - I threw the tube in the trash!
The scopes were the later (early 80s) versions of the original Prinz Astral 550 models, both made by Towa and sold by Dixons Optical in the UK. The earlier 550 was in classic white finish, the later 500 in Royal Blue..I prefer the White myself, but each to their own... 
The Scope itself is pretty good optically...Towa weren't the very best opticians but were very good at producing consistently good, reliable lenses and scopes. THe mounting is wonderfully smooth, with nice gearing. You might find the sticky old grease has gone a bit "lumpy", but a good clean and relube is easy to do.
I have a late 1960s Tasco 14TE which is also Towa made. It definitely has the optical edge on the Astral 500, the colour correction is astounding, but visually the 500 will show anything that the Tasco will. And for a 60mm, the performance on double stars at high power never ceases to make me smile  ..or grin, even!
It's worth getting a hybrid diagonal, you can get them from Scope n Skies website in the UK, for just £10, and you can use modern 1.25" eyepieces with bigger fov and often noticeably better images - although the original 0,965" ones are not bad at all.
Hope you enjoy your first light, clear skies to you..
Dave 
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Tal 125R F9 refractor on CG-5
Tal 100RS F10 on Bresser Meade Mon-2
Meade AR6 152mm F8 refractor
Topic (Towa)D80mm F1200mm F15 Refractor 1970s
Tasco 14-Te Refractor 1969
Prinz Astral 500 D60mm F910mm Refractor c1980
I like refractors..:-)
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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typically with new scopes the fog rolled in as I got home, might have cleared a bit now, maybe I will pop outside for a short while in a minute
Grendel
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grendel
sage
Reged: 04/12/09
Posts: 245
Loc: Canterbury, Kent, UK
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well the optics are good, I tried all my .965" eyepieces on the moon through the fog, and despite the fog I managed to go the full range of eyepieces from the H20 to the SR4 and with a hybrid diagonal, all the way from a 29mm plossl to a 5mm ortho. so from about 30x all the way up to 225x and I could still hit focus, Gassendi had 3 peaks visible and some of the smaller craters in the mare were visible. I am really pleased with this scope.
Grendel
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clintwhitman
Caveman
Reged: 01/01/07
Posts: 2431
Loc: ValVerde CA(SoEasyaCavemanCanD...
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The littel scopes are great Towa knew how to make the lenes.. The real test will be on some Double stars or seeing the 5th in Orion!! 
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Clint&Debbie Whitman (aveman
1960s 6"F15 Jaegers-Unipons by John Pons on a Byers 812, 1947 4" F15 TINSLEY, 1965 10" F8 CAVE, 1950 5CM & 6.5CM Nippon Kogakus (the twins), 1960s UNITRONS a 152 restored a 160 numbered green lens original mint a 114 original 50s mint, 1950s UNITRON M100 100mm F15 OTA, WO 80mm Florite, ASTROPHYSICS 155 EDFS on LOSMANDY G11, a bunch of Tascos,Sears Mayflowers The list goes on Add infinitum.
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