29 replies to this topic

[eric_zeiner]

  

[apfever]

The later copies of the 6344 and the 6345 had a tray light with a magnetic base that nested into an odd corner of the tripod tray. That is a sort of grail item for me. These tray lights did not use wingnuts to fasten to the tray.

 

A modern upgrade I consider OK is to replace the bulb by a red 3v LED and a 100 ohm resistor in series. This works beautifully and provides exactly the right amount of light.

 

-drl

The early lights were stored in the top layer of foam along with the manual and book. The magnetic version was stored further inside but I don't recall exactly where. The styrofoam was changed accordingly.

 

 

Some of the lamps also had a curved arm without a center ball joint. I've seen that type in chrome or black

 

The black curved arms are found on the earlier Sears 60mm and 76.2mm scopes. Examples would be the 6335 and the 6336 scopes with the silver focuser/box name tags as opposed to the black tags. The lower serial numbers bear this out and so do the ads in the Sears sales catalogs pictures...which of course were always slow to be updated in the catalogs.

Pictures of the straight and curved lights. The switch base is the same on both models. I have no idea what scope my curved arm came with, or if it came with a scope set at all. The curved arm light has a much smaller tray than the Towa 339's shown.  The picture with the pen light holder and the curve arm is a Tasco 17T 80mm. These are the same small style tray. My curved arm tray has no top hole for a pen light holder, my 17T tray has no side holes for a battery box.

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[oldmanastro]

Here is a variation of the black curved arm tray lights. The one with the non-flared lamp shade is from an early model 60mm Sears f/11 altazimuth telescope. In fact, my first telescope. The other curved arm tray light is from a later model 2620 60mm f/11. Both telescopes are nearly identical and "Scope" branded but there are subtle differences. The earlier model has an achromatic finderscope while the later model has a non achromatic finder with an aperture mask behind the objective. The tray light shade is another difference. Also, the material and chrome in the later model altitude slow motion control bar is definitely of lower quality. It feels flimsy compared to that of the earlier model. At some point after 1965 Towa downgraded the quality of some components in this common and classic telescope.

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[deSitter]

This later device does not have the plastic screws required to bolt the battery holder to the frame without causing a short. It's a curious design.

 

This silly little light has a lot of emotional appeal for me, because it was the first thing to emerge from the newly opened box, along with the manual, the book, and the tripod tray. Just a sneak peak at the wonders within! And I was fascinated by lighting anyway, something that led to a life of study of the electromagnetic field.

 

-drl

[apfever]

This later device does not have the wingnuts and screws required to bolt the battery holder to the side of the tray. It's a curious design.

 

This silly little light has a magnet or glue or self levitating ability to go along with the tray without coercion. 

 

I should get back to the scope at hand. A quick look to confirm the optics are correct. Our jet stream rarely offers critical viewing, and it will be cloudy for a week of Spring showers. Spring clouds, showers are wishful.