I like the looks of Telementors. They have a cool, heavy-handed industrial look, and the tripod is made out of the same wood that our old school desks used to be made of. They are unique! I liked my T2 but I like my T1 better. I can see parallels with them and Tinsley scopes in that industrial, minimalist, no nonsense look.
Do you have any Tinsley refractors? I was always looking for one of their 5" Maks but Dave Trott has me thinking about one of their refractors.
To me, the Telementor looks like a pipe. A telescope deserves a proper dew shield to provide a balance to the scope, offsetting the focuser. 
Of course it doesn't really have a focuser as it's all internal but the knob on the T2 IIRC, so maybe there's balance after all. I very much like the generous setting circles. Does the T1 have a helical focuser?
The T1 indeed has an excellent helical focuser. One of the smoothest if not the smoothest focuser I have ever used. The tube is quite thick and heavy and is thus quite durable; the objective is nestled back fairly deeply within the tube so the forward portion acts as a dew shield. The objective cell itself is a heavy bronze, and all of this lends itself to added protection to the precious objective (remember, this instrument was intended for school use). Not only is the glass protected from breakage but it is much less likely to be knocked out of collimation than with the more traditional (Japanese) design where the exterior of the cell/countercell is exposed and serves to mate dew shield and tube. The Telementor's design is very well thought out given that it was intended for school use. It's utilitarian/no frills appearance harkens back to its Marxist origins in the former DDR. The tripod is heavy and well built, in the design of a mini-surveyors tripod. It contains a built-in bullseye bubble-level, and is made of fine hardwood that appears to be birch or maple, not pine. The mount can be set up in either equatorial or alt-azimuth mode and has large, useful, very readable and accurate setting circles- again showing it's scholastic purpose. It's motions are smooth and stable as are the locks and slow motions. Later models have all locks color-keyd in e peep-sights are servicable and also work well as a sun finder- (one only needs to place their hand behind the rear peep-sight and let the sun cast an alligned shadow. Again, the peep-sights belay the intended for school use- a small finderscope would need continuous re-aligning, and would soon go missing. There is nothing in the Telementor's construction that isn't well thought out, practical, useful, well intended, and well made. It is anything but cheap! While a Unitron 128 may be much more aesthetically pleasing in a traditional sense, having been a teacher, I can be most certain that it would have a far shorter 'shelf-life' than a Zeiss Telementor. These were placed in primary and secondary schools throughout the DDR and the fact that so many have survived is a testiment to how well made they are.
Edited by terraclarke, 12 June 2017 - 02:01 PM.
