37 replies to this topic

[paul]

Hello,
I just bought the edmund space conquerer for sale on @@%&-
mart. I can't wait to get it home and start fixing her up.
This is the scope I drooled over as a kid.
I will post more after I get it checked out
Paul

[ngc6475]

No kidding? I remember those! Be sure to post some pics!

[astroborg]

Yes, Paul bought my old 4 1/4" classic. I'm not very mechanically inclined, and I wanted it to be used and appreciated. Otherwise, I would have loved to have kept it. Looks like it'll be in good company, alongside a Coulter. I'll enjoy seeing what Paul does to it; it needs a bit of TLC, after a long period of not being used at my father's old house.

This was my second scope, after I had a 3" Newtonian on an Alt-Az mount, also from Edmund. Nice views of the moon, Pleiades and Jupiter.

[paul]

Hello,
Well I picked up the scope over the weekend. I was very happy to see it is pretty much origional and in good shape.
The seller included several pages of the clock drive manual and several accessorys, A hershal wedge, several filters ,
and an origional 20mm and a 6.5mm eyepiece!The camera mounting hardware is also included.
The only problem is, He included a 5 1/2 in setting circle but it is broken Hopefully someone can point me to a new one(hint..hint)!
I took the scope out on sat night and I showed a suprising amount of detail on jupiter.Better than my lxd sn-6.With a 30 something coated mirror, amazing!!!
I am hoping someone can give me a hint as to the year it was made, Also I am in need of the manual If anyone has it.

All and All I think this will be a great project
Here are a couple of pics I will upload more as I proceed
Thank you
Paul

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[paul]

Here's another!!

[paul]

Here's another!! try

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[paul]

One more

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[trainsktg]

A very nice find indeed...gotta love the single-stalk prism diagonal ...looks to be a fine candidate for a cosmetic restore.

Keith

[Patrik Iver]

...gotta love the single-stalk prism diagonal

Is it a prism? I expect that the diagonal surface is mirror coated. If it was a prism it would have to be located so that the two faces 90 degrees apart would be in the direction of the focuser and the primary mirror and the "hypotenuse" was angled like a normal secondary would be?

Looks to me like it would have to be a mirror, only not flat.

[trainsktg]

AH..... you're right!

Basic physics eludes me before my first cup of coffee.

Keith

[rtomw77]

The 1965 version I had-called Palomar Jr.(!)with a f/10 spherical mirror-used a right angle prism that was aluminunized on the surface of the long side as the diagonal. No light went into the prism. Two wing nuts (no bands) held the OTA on the mount. I could not afford the extra $25 for the motor drive. I have a lot of fond memories of mine. It was a good starter scope for a teenager.

Tom

[paul]

Thats right!!
I also have the origional mounting hardware. The tube was bolted to the mount The straps are an add on. I have the intallation paper.

[trainsktg]

Technically, it is a prism, but it is used as a flat in this case with the aluminization. I didn't look close enough the first time and thought it was being used as a regular prism would be.

Seems like a waste of a good prism to be used as a flat until you consider how much surplus stuff Edmund had floating around back then. In the mid 1950's when Edmund was expanding its plant, for some reason it had to dig up the dirt underneath where the new building was going and replace it with clean fill. Well, to hold their stock during construction, they had rented all of the available warehouse space within 40 miles of Camden/Philadelphia and still had seven or eight tractor trailers full of barrels of surplus military lenses, lens assemblies, and prisms that had no place to go. They had bought all of these from the government at $1 per barrel. Well...guess where all those barrels went?

And they are still there today...milions of dollars of optics used as landfill under Edmund Optical Company.

Keith

[paul]

WOW Thats a great story!!!
Ya gotta love Edmund!@!@ I always have.
Does anyone have an ad with this scope for sale in it?
Thanks
Paul

[macpurity]

Does anyone have an ad with this scope for sale in it?

Here you go... click on the image to see it larger - MacP

[astroborg]

Oh yeah, that's the old ad alright! I was going to try to see if I still had any of my old Edmund catalogs floating around, but I'm glad you had one handy, MacP. All I managed to turn up was an old Estes catalog from 1970/1.

[gripweed44]

The secondary single post diaganol looks like the one in my homemade 1970 Uncle Fred scope. He ground the 4.25 mirror himself. Might have been a Edmund kit

John

[macpurity]

Oh yeah, that's the old ad alright! I was going to try to see if I still had any of my old Edmund catalogs floating around, but I'm glad you had one handy, MacP. All I managed to turn up was an old Estes catalog from 1970/1.

Sometimes I wonder why I keep all these old publications, but every now and then, they come in handy! MacP

[paul]

Thank you Very much for posting the ad,
That brought back some great memories
Paul

[refractory]

If all those goodies are still in the ground, what are the chances they're still in any shape after all this time? And what kind of equipment does one need to go on a little mining expedition?

Jess Tauber

[paul]

Hello,
Well I started refinishing the scope.
I figured I would send out a couple of pics of the diagonal in question. As you can see it is not really a prisim

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[paul]

One more
by the way does anyone have an expolded veiw of the mount parts?
THANKS !!

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[paul]

Hello,
Well I finally got some work done on the scope. It is amazing what alittle paint and cleaning will do.
Hope you guys like them
Paul

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[paul]

Here is the clock drive torn apart

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[paul]

And mount parts exploded view

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