234 replies to this topic

[sanbai]

Experts,

Regarding telescopes and eyepiexes, do you expect quality differences between west-German Zeiss and the east German Zeiss-Jena? Of course I'm talking about times that are long gone. Luckily both the country and the company reunited many years ago.

[Corcaroli78]

Experts,

Regarding telescopes and eyepiexes, do you expect quality differences between west-German Zeiss and the east German Zeiss-Jena? Of course I'm talking about times that are long gone. Luckily both the country and the company reunited many years ago.

An opinion, but not from an expert:

 

At least in binoculars, it is my impression that quality from Zeiss West and Zeiss Jena was very similar at least until the 80´s when Zeiss West introduced more technological innovations paired with a very strict quality control (e.g. by comparing the Zeiss Dyalit 10x40B vs CZJ Notarem 10x40B)). in its late years, Zeiss Jena showed a little bit more variation, probably caused by the aging machinery and manufacturing processes and the huge production volumes, but despite the limitations, Zeiss Jena produced very high workmanship e.g the APQ telescopes, which show such a level of robustness and precision that still rivals today some of the top tier brands. (i still keep in my memory the massive helical focuser of an APQ loaded with a turret and EPs and still feels very very solid).

 

I think that the astro eyepieces sold after re-unification under the Zeiss West brand, were in fact still produced in the former East Germany facilities (like the Telementor scopes). I am not sure about the ZAO ep´s, but they most probably were developed with the Zeiss West standards.

 

Now, let´s read the experts opinions :-)

 

Carlos

[vahe]

Zeiss Coude telescope refurbish

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Here is very interesting thread on refurbishing a Zeiss Coude refractor, it was started by Peter Ceravolo in Classic Telescopes, very interesting with lots of pictures, as of today this thread contains a total of 389 posts, if you are interested in all things Zeiss check it out:

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https://www.cloudyni...ope-rebfurbish/

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Vahe

[Paul G]

Marty Cohen, benevolent dictator of Company 7, wrote a detailed history of Zeiss (they have some neat Zeiss stuff on display at C7):

 

http://www.company7....ss/history.html

[Paul G]

15x60 B/GA T* sitting atop my Mexican Fireleg's enclosure for perspective. The end of the enclosure is 8"x8". Shows how really small it is compared to something like a Fujinon 16x70.

 

 

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[Jim Curry]

Oh, I predict 4 - 6 pics (different OTA's) but the thread will most likely come to a halt at that point.

No. 

 

You've seen my AS80 builds.  On the workbench is my AS100 OTA in progress and still in its original lens box is my AS63.  These will emerge in the coming months to breath renewed life periodically into this thread.  Although, the 63 may have a delay with a 4.5" f/15 Cooke build, we'll see.

 

What we do need is some of the closet E's and APQ's to be displayed by the shy or modest folk here. I suspect I will be satisfied with the semi-apo AS's.  And of course suite's of the various eyepieces, filters, turrets and perhaps other more exotic and rare accessories.

 

Long may this long overdue thread exist.

 

Jim

Edited by Jim Curry, 24 July 2020 - 06:35 AM.

[Corcaroli78]

Another proof of mostly Zeissitis Jenitis... 

 

to join the T-2: 

 

 

Clear skies!

 

Carlos

[Nippon]

My Telemator :

So the focus knob seen a little ways up the tube moves the objective cell?

[Astrojensen]

So the focus knob seen a little ways up the tube moves the objective cell?

Yes. It's a bit like having a crayford focuser inside the main tube, with a very long focuser tube that has the objective attached to it. It works extremely well.

 

 

Clear skies!

Thomas, Denmark

[Astrojensen]

No. 

 

You've seen my AS80 builds.  On the workbench is my AS100 OTA in progress and still in its original lens box is my AS63.  These will emerge in the coming months to breath renewed life periodically into this thread.  Although, the 63 may have a delay with a 4.5" f/15 Cooke build, we'll see.

 

What we do need is some of the closet E's and APQ's to be displayed by the shy or modest folk here. I suspect I will be satisfied with the semi-apo AS's.  And of course suite's of the various eyepieces, filters, turrets and perhaps other more exotic and rare accessories.

 

Long may this long overdue thread exist.

 

Jim

How about an A? 

 

 

Zeiss A 85/1572mm from 1904 on Zeiss 1b mount and 3VS tripod. Not often used on this mount, due to (obvious) stability and ergonomic issues. It fits better on a Vixen Saturn mount:

 

 

My latest aquisition: A T mount with the über rare 2VS tripod. 

 

 

The scope is my old Zeiss Telemator OTA, here seen on the original mount. On the morning this photo was taken, I had used it to independently discover an ancient Lunar Basin. https://www.cloudyni...-the-near-side/

 

 

 

 

Clear skies!

Thomas, Denmark

[Jim Curry]

How about an A? 

 

 

Zeiss A 85/1572mm from 1904 on Zeiss 1b mount and 3VS tripod. Not often used on this mount, due to (obvious) stability and ergonomic issues. It fits better on a Vixen Saturn mount:

 

 

My latest aquisition: A T mount with the über rare 2VS tripod. 

 

 

The scope is my old Zeiss Telemator OTA, here seen on the original mount. On the morning this photo was taken, I had used it to independently discover an ancient Lunar Basin. https://www.cloudyni...-the-near-side/

 

 

 

 

Clear skies!

Thomas, Denmark

Wow, the A and the others I'm sure are warmly welcomed.  Very nice collection.

[Spica24]

How about an A?






Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

Hello Astrojensen,

I see that you have installed a binoviewer on your Telemator.
What is this model of binoviewer?
Do you manage to focus without barlow?

Thank you.

Edited by Spica24, 26 July 2020 - 02:22 AM.

[Astrojensen]

Hello Astrojensen,

I see that you have installed a binoviewer on your Telemator.
What is this model of binoviewer?
Do you manage to focus without barlow?

Thank you.

It's a very old binoviewer from the late 1980'ies and it's unnamed, so I don't know who made it, but it seems to be a (professionally) converted microscope binoviewer. The exact same model was sold by University Optics, but I think this one comes from Astro Optik in Aalborg, Denmark. It has a built-in 2x barlow that also works as a glass path corrector. It has exquisite optics and superb stray light control, but the brightness suffers a bit, compared to a modern binoviewer. It's very convenient for low altitude objects, such as the Moon on that particular morning, but I otherwise don't use it much any more. 

 

I can *barely* reach focus with my Baader Maxbright bino without barlow, if I attach the T2 quick coupler directly to the OTA, but only with a few, select eyepieces. Not everything comes to focus. With a Baader 1.25x GPC, I can reach focus with all normal eyepieces. My Zeiss bino is slightly longer than the Maxbright, so I always need at least a 1.25x GPC. If I want to keep the finderscope attached, I need at least the 1.7x GPC (which actually works at 1.5x, when used closest to the binoviewer). I often use a 1.3x Zeiss barlow instead, which works at roughly 1.5x, when used in front of the diagonal and binoviewer. 

 

This is if I use a diagonal, of course. Both the Maxbright and the Zeiss bino come to focus easily, if I use them straight through, but this is NOT ergonomic and user friendly! It's much more difficult than using a single eyepiece straight through, because now you need to align both eyes perfectly with the optical axes of the eyepieces, not just one. 

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

Edited by Astrojensen, 26 July 2020 - 02:51 AM.

[Spica24]

Thanks Thomas.

 

I don't need barlow on my binoviewer model.
But, this Zeiss microscope model that I converted for the Telemator is very heavy and I don't have much headroom left to do the balancing.
It has a very short optical path.

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[denis0007dl]

Since all my scopes are long focus I only need longer ZAO's.

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Vahe

...and they are much more comfortable than shorter focal lenghts, and they are very freindly with barlows and Powermates if needed shorter focal lenghts 

[Benach]

I will toss in this Zeiss baby.

 

 

Oh in case someone doesn't recognise it from another post: it is a 150mm f/15 Zeiss Coudé semiapochromat that we are going to upgrade hopefully soon.

[Astrojensen]

I will toss in this Zeiss baby.

 

image_51896.jpg

 

Oh in case someone doesn't recognise it from another post: it is a 150mm f/15 Zeiss Coudé semiapochromat that we are going to upgrade hopefully soon.

Those coudés are unbelievably massive. Just the RA axis alone is bigger than my APM 152ED...

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

[Benach]

Thomas: total weight of the telescope: about 700kg or 1500lbs.

[Paul G]

Binoviewing goodness:

 

 

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[Astrojensen]

  

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

[25585]

  

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

+1

[Paul G]

  

 

 

Clear skies!
Thomas, Denmark

 

I had been using an older Zeiss binoviewer loaned to me by Marty at Company 7, fell in love with binoviewing in part because it helped with my floaters. When the Zeiss binoviewer was resurrected by Baader with Zeiss made optics I bought one from the first production run from Astro-Physics through Company 7. During the daytime when I was doing some solar observing the Zeiss Abbe orthos would get stuck in the eyepiece holders of the binoviewer, had to dramatically change the temperature to get them out. Turns out it was a case of German precision, the eyepiece barrels were exactly 1.25" and the binoviewer holders were exactly 1.25" and differential expansion of the two dissimilar metals resulted in stuck eyepieces. I sent the binoviewer back to Astro-Physics and Roland bored out the eyepiece holders a couple of thousandths of an inch and they worked beautifully after that. The subsequent runs of this binoviewer had larger diameter eyepiece holders to solve the problem.

 

This first run of this binoviewer also had a problem on one side only in which a long eyepiece barrel would contact the prism, seriously bad juju. Radians were the best planetary binofriendly eyepieces available at the time and a couple of them had long enough barrels to ding the prism. A kit was offered for users to install that put a little plastic stop on that side to prevent prism contact. Subsequent runs had an eyepiece barrel stop already in place. However, these runs no longer had the Optics by Zeiss Jena on the center of the binoviewer.

 

This binoviewer did not have a diopter adjustment like the Mk V's that replaced this model, so I installed the Rich Lapides eyepiece holders to give it that capability.

[Benach]

Paul: any chance that you can change your testament?

[Corcaroli78]

Binoviewing goodness:

Hi Paul,

 

That is an impressive Zeiss lineup   !! May I ask which scope(s) is(are) honored with that binoviewer setup?

 

Carlos

[HCR32]

My old Zeiss 40mm Ortho

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