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So, what do you use it for and when? ...I'm just curious as to what objects/uses you guys use your classics for.

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Well, I guess Shane deserves a serious answer from me - although that is QUITE hard to get!

I only have refractors, so I mostly use the smaller ones for planetary while the larger ones are for all targets.

I primarily enjoy taking them out to star watches so I can educate both astronomers and the public that there is nothing wrong with owning (or looking to purchase) an older telescope.

When it looks like a star watch is going to be on a night with exceptional sky conditions, I'll bring out the 4" Unitron with the weight-driven clock drive. It's a beauty and a true classic. I must admit that I kinda enjoy it when another astronomer at the star watch has a power cell that goes dead. I walk over to tell him/her that they need to get a Unitron - and then rewind my weight drive with the distinctive clicking sound from the ratchet mechanism in the drive... for another hour of battery-free observing.


But there are nights when I just like to take one of my vintage scopes out, using .965 eyepieces and enjoy the nostalgia of using, simpler equipment to (visually) accomplish just about the same thing that the shorter focal length refractors can do today.

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Preston

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Isaiah 40:26

SV115T,NHII,SV70,SV50 and Tele Vue Ranger

Vintage Refractors: Asahi-Pentax, Edmund Scientific, Tasco, Unitron

60mm Telescope Club

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