35 replies to this topic

[davidmcgo]

Overall, my experience at the Museum was incredible and it was nearly sensory overload to see so many vintage telescopes that I have only read about and all in one place. The zeal, skill, and dedication of these fellow amateur astronomers is creating something unique in the entire world, a hands on experience dedicated to preserving the entire legacy and heritage of telescopes and astronomy in Japan, without which many of us would never have received that first telescope under the Christmas tree in our youth.

Click here to view the article

[Patrik Iver]

Absolutely incredible! 

[Marcus Valdes]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Especially enjoyed seeing the Fujinons!

[Crow Haven]

Wonderful!!! I wish I could visit there!  Thanks for sharing your adventure.

[WALL.E]

Astonishing.

[Jim Curry]

Spectacular!!  As wonderful as it is to see the collection it's also kinda sad to see so many high end instruments languishing.

 

Great story, thanks for putting this together.

 

Jim

[bottlecrusher]

That is so cool.  Those Pentax refractors look so sweet still.  So many of those instruments are amazing 

[Herr Ointment]

This should be the first thing you see on the CN home page.

 

Thanks so much!

[PaulEK]

Wow! So many amazing things. All those Pentax scopes: an entire herd of them! Much of what you show is way beyond anything I could ever dream to afford for my own, but that herd of Pentaxes sticks with me because they represent a dream I still have hopes for.

 

Thanks for posting this. I doubt I'll ever get to Japan, but now I'd love to try!

[galakuma]

Hi davidmcgo.

 

I'm sorry that I'm not good at English.
We are working for opening of museum at March. 13
We’ve build 46cm Calver reflector, 62cm Norizuki’s reflector.

Edited by galakuma, 17 February 2016 - 09:14 AM.

[Bob Abraham]

Wow! I think this is the best article I've ever read on Cloudy Nights, thank you so much for writing it. I am in awe of the accomplishments of Murayama-san and his colleagues... truly amazing.

Edited by Bob Abraham, 17 February 2016 - 09:18 AM.

[davidmcgo]

Hi davidmcgo.

 

I'm sorry that I'm not good at English.
We are working for opening of museum at March. 13
We’ve build 46cm Calver reflector, 62cm Norizuki’s reflector.

 

Hi Galakuma,

 

It was great to meet you in person and see the museum!  Mr. Murayama sent me a picture of the assembled 46cm Calver and 62cm Norizuki reflectors.  Amazing work!

 

Dave

[RichA]

HOW can they render all those fantastic Pentax apos non-usable by sticking them in a museum!!    All I want is just ONE 150mm!!

[Earlw]

Thanks for this!

 

Great article!

 

Cheers,

 

- Earl

[pintog]

Amazing. Thanks for the "tour".

 

George

[djpontone]

Great article,

seems sad to me that these scopes will never see star light again .

[davidmcgo]

Many of them will see starlight.  They are building a dome and concrete pads on the roof,  and use many of the smaller instruments for outreach.

 

Plus they have the roll off roof structure out front.

 

Dave

[starbob1]

Great article and pictures. Words cant describe it. The pic only can. But I did not see one Takahashi. Their contribution to astronomy has to be included. Did I just miss them. Thanks for a great read.

[davidmcgo]

There was a TOA 130 or 150 and maybe a few others, I didn't especially look for Takahashi or include pictures since those aren't too rare over here in the US.

 

Dave

[oldmanastro]

Great article and tremendous collection of historical telescopes specially those venerable Japanese refractors from the 50s and 60s. Thank you for the tour and all those pictures. I have listed this place in my bucket list.

 

Clear Skies

 

Guido Santacana

[Chopin]

All those Pentax fracs on the ground. I'm speechless....!

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. The images are amazing. 

[jaliteuk]

Amazing!!! ,so many old scopes being restored hopefully for future use by the next generation. Wish I could afford to visit.

[Tore E]

Wow, ............. triple wow. Fantastic museum and fantastic article. I have to go to Japan one day!!

[neb1]

I'm  jealous, awesome story..

[Tom McDonald]

David, thank you for the visual trip to Japan that I will never make. I always wanted to visit, but the opportunity never came my way. What a beautiful collection of scopes! It's incredible what they are doing over there. I'm thinking it would be next to impossible for something like that to occur here in the U.S. of A. And what friendly people! Thanks again!