90 replies to this topic

[DJD57]

I think the star liner was a american made company in the 70,s can anyone help me here? or does anyone have a classic star liner? dale

[JIMZ7]

Dale hey what's up. Star Liner once made their scopes here in Michigan and later moved to I believe Prescott or Tuczon Arizona. Someone might verify that.

JimBo

[DJD57]

YEAH what,s up i will get more info from where they moved to dale

[Chuck Faranda]

They ended up in Tucson. A search of CN 'Classic' archives will show a few threads about theses American made scopes.

[Robert Provin]

Here's one of their catalogs:
http://geogdata.csun...ar-liner/SL.pdf

Robert

[DJD57]

i heard they were as good as the rest like cave criterion meade etc

[DJD57]

thanks robert great information dale

[rmollise]

i heard they were as good as the rest like cave criterion meade etc

They could be. Always? No. Often? No. Sometimes? Yeah.

[DJD57]

They were all good in those days and were pretty consistent too dale

[rmollise]

They were all good in those days and were pretty consistent too dale

Sorry...not in my experience...and I was around in those days.

[DJD57]

ok things have changed for better in telescopes much better coatings and better mirrors too dale

[tim53]

Well, more consistent perhaps!

I'd take a well-made, well-collimated set of Cave, OC, Criterion, Starliner, Coast Instrument Newtonian optics over most modern mass-produced optics anyday.

...but I would inspect before I bought, or offer based on the risk involved.

-Tim.

[DJD57]

yes I agree the old mirrors were very good and most of the old mirrors were hand made too dale

[rolo]

What company made star liner reflectors??

[DJD57]

ROLLLLLANDO you never call so who made them ???? dale

[clamchip]

From what I can find Star-Liner Co. was the actual company that manufactured these telescopes.
Reflectors 6" to 40", Newtonian and Cassegrain.
I understand some interesting equatorial fork mountings were made and very sharp looking German equatorial.
The Star-Liners seem to fit into that group of telescopes made in the 1960's thru 80's that were made by Amateur Astronomers for Amateur Astronomers and not a bunch of penny pinching bean counters, hence their demise.
It does appear they did make "econo" and "econo deluxe" models to broaden the market.

Robert

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[tim53]

I remember someone (might have been Phil Harrington, but might not) inquiring about purchasing Star-Liner from the family that started/ran the company when they chose to retire. They said that they didn't intend the business to continue beyond their retirement, so they just closed their doors. That would have been early 1990s, IIRC.

-Tim

[rmollise]

What company made star liner reflectors??

Star-liner.

[DJD57]

That is nice robert boy a 6f/8 back then was $185.00 and the star liner mirrors were equal or better than 1/10th wave?/ they fremind me of the cave optical company in there tubes and the mounts dale

[clamchip]

Ad for the more serious Star-Liner Co. Amateur and PROFESSIONAL telescopes to 16" optics to 40"!
I like the cass-newt convertible in the picture. Swap secondaries to go f4 newt or f12 cassegrain. I wonder how that was done, if a cassette system or what.
Robert

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[DJD57]

They made there mirrors hand picked just like cave edmund criterion did in the 70,s dale

[tim53]

Dale:

Just remember that, back when all these companies were claiming 1/10th, 1/20th or even higher quality mirrors, they had no way to quantitatively confirm those values.

Also, 1/10th of what? IR, Red, Green, Blue?

Radio waves?

-Tim

[rmollise]

That is nice robert boy a 6f/8 back then was $185.00 and the star liner mirrors were equal or better than 1/10th wave?/

Well, that's what we HOPED anyway!

[DJD57]

They never did use a faucholt tester or a ronchi tester or what did they test there mirrors with in the 60,s and 70,s dale

[CHASLX200]

They made me a 10" F8.3 OTA back in 1993. Charles from Starliner said he was closing the doors soon, and my OTA was about last one he made.

Chas