Greetings to the Forum, I just joined today so this is one of my first posts so bare with me if I break any protocols or have posted in the wrong section. ( I wasnt sure whether to post here or the Refractor Forum)
I am the owner of a Nikon ED65 Telescope which I bought new in the early 90's. Im ashamed to say that its only been out and used 3 times in that time and still resides in the three boxes it came in today.
I recently found the forum and was looking for others that may also own one of the Nikon scopes and start a discussion as information and details seem to very thin on the ground. I fortunately still have all the sales and instructional material so as well as learning new things about these Refractors I may be able to fill in the gaps for others as well.
In the Mid 80s to Early 90's Nikon offered a range of three Astronomical Refractors. The S65, ED65 and ED100. The two 6.5cm models shared the same and well over engineered equatorial mount and wooden tripod. The ED100 was their flagship and came on a metal pillared stand. Nikon produced a range accessories, drives and eyepieces for the scopes. They only came with couple of eyepieces but I purchased others to give me a near complete set. 5mm, 7mm, 9mm, 12.5mm, 18mm and 25mm all of course the now disregarded 0.965 size. Nikon also offered a 40mm eyepiece but I decided not to purchase it at the time (much to my regret now) as it was not the same tube diameter as the other eyepieces and couldnt be used in standard diagonal and had to be used straight into the telescope tube. It was also twice the price of the other eyepieces. I also purchased the Nikon drive for mine, I remember it taking 7 months to arrive from Japan as it had to be modified to work in the southern hemisphere and was apparently the only time someone in the southern Hemisphere had ordered one. I was very fortunate in that I was working for a photographic company at the time and had a great relationship with the Nikon agents and purchased the Telescope at a run out sale they were having. They then graciously sought out the other eyepieces and accessories from Japan. My understanding was that they had been made in the 80s and simply never sold due to expense and Nikon decided to clear out the range. Given that my Telescope is number 81 and sold at the last discontinued runout, im guessing that all in that there was probably only about 100 S65/ED65 made combined. Before purchase they loaned me the S65 model to try and I felt that the ED model was worth the extra few hundred dollars for the slightly better optics although the mount and everything else was identical. I remember though the ED100 was several thousand dollars in the early 90s and that was its severely discounted price and basically they only had one for sale although they mentioned someone had purchased one previously making two in the Australian market..
I thought maybe there are other owners out there that may like to add something to this discussion so I may learn new things about these great but near unknown scopes. Of course Nikon has made refractors since the 50s so those owners of the even older models please feel free to contribute about what you have and your thoughts about them. Would love to hear from you.
Joel from Australia