213 replies to this topic

[CHASLX200]

More like 900 miles! You're off by a little bit more than three orders of magnitude.

 

I stated local pickup or delivery within a hundred miles or so because that is my preference, I never stated that I wouldn’t ship. I’ll ship contingent on agreed upon terms.

Driving 900 miles in a car to me would be like a million miles.  Doing a round tripper to GA last Oct for that Starliner mount was enough for me at 500 miles.

[CHASLX200]

Astroscan in Fl.

https://www.facebook...909/?ref=search

Had one in 1980 and it was Coma city kitty.

[cavedweller]

I could use it for my C11.

 

I was thinking I might buy it to get the Byers gears. It would probably fit a Cave 1.5" mount.

[cavedweller]

Driving 900 miles in a car to me would be like a million miles.  Doing a round tripper to GA last Oct for that Starliner mount was enough for me at 500 miles.

My longest round trip to pick up astro gear: 3800 miles.

[CHASLX200]

My longest round trip to pick up astro gear: 3800 miles.

Ouch, Maybe for a 5" Unitron for a insane price i may do it.

[jgraham]

If I recall right the original 2080 was referred to as the 2080 LX, where the LX stood for Long eXposure. The LX brough three significant changes to the SCT market. First, Meade developed their own way of making correctors that did not infringe on Celestron's patent(s). I don't know if it has anything to do with anything, but if you compare a 2080 LX corrector with a C8 of the same period the C8 corrector is very thin, about the same thickness as window glass, presumably this worked well with the vacuum forming process. In contrast, the corrector of the 2080 LX (and later) is much thicker and more substantial. I was always a bit concerned when removing a stuck C5/8 corrector, no worries at all with the Meade. Second, Meade achieved the LX part by using a worm/wheel drive whereas Celestron was using their two motor spur gear drives on the C5/8 and a single motor spur gear drive on the C90 astro. Thirdly, for the first time, Celestron had a real competitor in the SCT market. Their response was the Super C8 with the Byers drive, and the rest is history.  

[Garyth64]

Tasco 60mm 152x , auction in North Syracuse, NY, focuser label says " TASCO coated, No. 21301", is this a really early one?

 

https://hibid.com/lo...ox?ref=lot-list

 

Meade LX200GPS telescope with EPs, auction in Winchester, VA

 

https://hibid.com/lo...es?ref=lot-list

Yes, that is an early one.  Maybe very late 50's.  It looks very similar to the Space Scope 151 I had, and IIRC it was dated to about 1958.

[Kasmos]

Tasco 152 =origami

[flywing1]

Tasco 60mm 152x , auction in North Syracuse, NY, focuser label says " TASCO coated, No. 21301", is this a really early one?

 

https://hibid.com/lo...ox?ref=lot-list

 

Meade LX200GPS telescope with EPs, auction in Winchester, VA

 

https://hibid.com/lo...es?ref=lot-list

I just went back and checked this Tasco 152 thread by Stargoat and realized that SN.21301 is lower than his listed examples, but there is another owner posted a scope with SN 10791.

 

https://www.cloudyni...model-versions/

Edited by flywing1, 05 September 2024 - 04:37 PM.

[SandyHouTex]

My longest round trip to pick up astro gear: 3800 miles.

I hope it was a complete photo equatorial Unitron.  Which reminds me of how I used to salivate when one of those was on the back of Sky and Telescope.  Has ANYONE ever seen one of these for sale?

 

As I recall, it had the Unitron camera, weight driven clock drive, 3 optical tubes, etc., etc..

Edited by SandyHouTex, 05 September 2024 - 04:51 PM.

[jragsdale]

My longest round trip to pick up astro gear: 3800 miles.

Dang, you got me beat. 3750 miles to pickup Leslie Peltier's 12" Alvan Clark.

[andylsun]

Thanks glittledale!

 

followed me home from Vermont.

 

will tinker with this over the next while. Mount first then scope.

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[jragsdale]

I hope it was a complete photo equatorial Unitron.  Which reminds me of how I used to salivate when one of those was on the back of Sky and Telescope.  Has ANYONE ever seen one of these for sale?

 

As I recall, it had the Unitron camera, weight driven clock drive, 3 optical tubes, etc., etc..

There's one for sale in the CN classifieds.

[abe]

If I recall right the original 2080 was referred to as the 2080 LX, where the LX stood for Long eXposure. 

I remember the old Meade catalogues prominently touting (1) the worm gear drive and (2) the "oversized primary".  This was a lesson in marketing because I had no use for a worm gear drive and I had no idea how that compared with a "regular sized" primary, but I remember thinking "I want that!"

I think the LX came after the original 2080 model, but you're right that they promoted it for astrophotography and they did surely spur innovation. I think the LX models had a plate on the mount base designating them as LX:

"The original 2080 drive base (and the 2120 which was introduced in mid-1982) was upgraded with Long eXposure accuracy of improved drive gears in the LX Drive Base in the fall of 1983"
Source:  https://www.cloudyni...x-drive-system/

I have an old base model 2080 without any LX markings.  It's not worth much and nobody really wants these old scopes any longer but I think it's lovely.  I was sad when the glossy blue tubes disappeared.  You could say that the end of the enamel blue tube marked the end of Meade's golden era.  I read somewhere that they couldn't consistently replicate the finish when they moved production south so they ended up just changing the finish.

Edited by abe, 05 September 2024 - 07:52 PM.

[RichA]

Spherical aberration isn't inherent with a fast achromat, although it does become more difficult to correct the whole spectrum for spherical aberration the faster a lens becomes. What you're thinking of is field curvature or angular distortion that gets more prominent with a faster optical system.

I've never seen a fast achromat (likely because the scopes are cheap) that didn't have some SA.  Apart from material's cost, it's just about as expensive to make a top-flight achromat as an apo.  I did have a 2 inch achromat that measured 1/8th wave, but it was f20.

[deSitter]

Spherical aberration isn't inherent with a fast achromat, although it does become more difficult to correct the whole spectrum for spherical aberration the faster a lens becomes. What you're thinking of is field curvature or angular distortion that gets more prominent with a faster optical system.

Spherochromaticism - dependence of spherical correction on frequency. Even APOs suffer this as they get medium fast. Roland C posted an article once where he had to explain why the star test did not produce identical results inside/outside with one of his triplets. He pointed out that you had to balance it out so that it was as good as possible in focus.

 

-drl

[jragsdale]

Spherochromaticism - dependence of spherical correction on frequency. Even APOs suffer this as they get medium fast. Roland C posted an article once where he had to explain why the star test did not produce identical results inside/outside with one of his triplets. He pointed out that you had to balance it out so that it was as good as possible in focus.

 

-drl

Yes, exactly. Generally corrected in green so red and blue are a little less so, but the eye is less sensitive in those colors. Here's a DPAC from my Celestron OMNI XLT 6" f/5 refractor showing that this specific lens is actually best corrected in red, so it's a monster for NV in H-alpha and solar H-alpha viewing with a Quark.

 

 

Oh, and look, here's a Tasco 60mm RAO scope, $100 in Gresham, OR

https://www.facebook...427968953073566

 

Astroscan - $100 in Ontario, OR

https://www.facebook...557709338286934

[tim53]

I remember the old Meade catalogues prominently touting (1) the worm gear drive and (2) the "oversized primary".  This was a lesson in marketing because I had no use for a worm gear drive and I had no idea how that compared with a "regular sized" primary, but I remember thinking "I want that!"
 

As I recall, about the same time I was loaned the 826 to try planetary photography with (film!), Leo Henzl was loaned a 2080 to try taking dome Deep Sky pics with.  His were used in advertisements.  I was told that he said "Sure, you can take astrophotos with a 2080, but it was a pain in the a$$."  To be fair, guiding long film exposures in those days WAS a pain.

 

-Tim.

[jgraham]

Yes indeed. I have done a fair amount of imaging using a modern DSLR on my stock 2080 LX and it works fine. Lots of short exposures using high gain. The image drift is an excellent source of natural dithering.

Edited by jgraham, 05 September 2024 - 11:03 PM.

[deSitter]

Thanks glittledale!

 

followed me home from Vermont.

 

will tinker with this over the next while. Mount first then scope.

deSitter blue - such good taste

 

Good job rescuing this beast! You are going to have a ball with it!

 

-drl

[andylsun]

deSitter blue - such good taste

 

Good job rescuing this beast! You are going to have a ball with it!

 

-drl

I can’t find a picture online of another blue one. I believe the serial number and date of manufacture may be under the motor cover. Will have a look.

 

theres no turnbuckle for the altitude adjust which surprises me but also matches the 1985 catalogue PDF I have. I might see if I can add one at some point. I don’t like the locking set screws (4 of them) it currently uses for alt lock.

 

i also got a box of accessories that I’ll go through today.

Edited by andylsun, 06 September 2024 - 06:35 AM.

[andylsun]

Couldn’t wait.

 

Astro bits with breakfast

 

the eyepieces and accessories look as expected based on the 1985 catalogue.(GS = gold series)

 

the power supply looks like death.

 

but does that mean that the motor drive is 12V? Or is that used for the DEC tangent only? And why that weird dial.

I’ve not checked the connectors on the motor box yet.

 

 

 

 

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Edited by andylsun, 06 September 2024 - 07:04 AM.

[andylsun]

Whoops. I’ll move the rest of the posts to ‘what did you do to your classsic today’. Forgot I was in the advert thread. If a mod wants to move the existing ones over then go for it.

[SandyHouTex]

There's one for sale in the CN classifieds.

I searched for "unitron" and got thousands of results, "unitron photo" 5 results, and "unitron photo equatorial" 3 results, and none were it.  Do you have a link or the search parameters you used?

[SandyHouTex]

Yes, exactly. Generally corrected in green so red and blue are a little less so, but the eye is less sensitive in those colors. Here's a DPAC from my Celestron OMNI XLT 6" f/5 refractor showing that this specific lens is actually best corrected in red, so it's a monster for NV in H-alpha and solar H-alpha viewing with a Quark.

 

20221229_213110-COLLAGE.jpg

 

Oh, and look, here's a Tasco 60mm RAO scope, $100 in Gresham, OR

https://www.facebook...427968953073566

 

Astroscan - $100 in Ontario, OR

https://www.facebook...557709338286934

I have two of those and plan to make a bino-scope.