25.08.2025 Reality beckons. Optics for sale.

 ~*~

  Monday 25th.

  My lifetime passion for telescope making is finally at an end. 

 I have demolished my entirely self-built, 2 storey observatory. The loss of a permanent mounting means lifting heavy OTAs is equally at an end. My sturdy, DIY dome supported several pulley systems. To aid lifting my telescopes into place above head height. 

 I am 78 and don't seem to be getting any younger. At least not according to the bathroom mirror. Which I believe is perfectly normal. The mirror, not the old man reflected there. 

 I have some interesting optics. Which might well interest others. The problem is where to advertise them. 

 Stargazer's Lounge has a European small ads forum. With only a small number of ads. Compared to the huge number of ads in the UK section. Does anybody read the European list? Who knows?

 I am banned from Cloudy Nights due to the mention of modified and self-built, solar telescopes. 

 Denmark has a tiny population and therefore far fewer amateur astronomers than the UK. A small ad in one of the general, online, small ads websites under "telescopes" is unlikely to be seen by many potential buyers. 

 Facebook has online ads but who knows the geographical coverage? The largest market is the US. With some parcel services currently suspended due to Chump tariffs. There is also the problem of import taxes. Which can make purchase limited to those seeking a particular item which exactly matches their needs. Currency exchange, heavy postal charges and ensuring payment is also an issue.

 Listing my items here is unlikely to reach many amateur telescope makers. International postage of large telescope tubes is impossible or hideously expensive. So only the objectives [an focusers] can be sent. Which further limits interest in buying for some amateur astronomers. 

 Few have access to the tools or the necessary skill to build a complete OTA from scratch. Though it is remarkably easy if you have access to the straight seamed, thin steel ducting I use. Not the ugly spiral seamed tube. The straight seamed ducting is intended for dust extraction in furniture factories. Where fire is a serious, potential risk. Being galvanized and intended to be exposed for decades. It is attractive and an ideal material IMO. At 0.3mm thickness it is certainly no heavier than aluminium tube. Which must be thick enough not to bend under its own weight. I never saw any rust on the tubes I selected from the vast heap outside the local furniture factory. Usually for the small price of a contribution to Friday cake day.   

 Some of the items I want to part with include:

 A signed 10" f8 [250mm] Lockwood parabolic [planetary] mirror 1/30th wave in original packaging. Lockwood's optics are very well known and respected in US astronomy circles. Though he is usually too busy to make smaller mirrors these days. I was able to effortlessly view several small craterlets in Plato on the Moon. Sadly I was never able to build an OTA of low enough weight to match my decreasing strength.  

 Such an OTA could be mounted as a Dobsonian Alt-azimuth on rollers for concrete. Or a stable trolley with wheelbarrow wheels? My sky is far too blocked by trees now. To use one in my own garden. I'd have to travel at least 120m just to escape the absent neighbour's hedge.    

 An iStar 7" F12 R35 [180mm] refractor objective in its collimatable cell. I mounted this in an 8" diameter steel [ducting] tube with a 3.5" Starlight Feather Touch focuser with slow motion.   

 I also built a folded version. Using two, superb quality optical flats of 3"&4" imported from the USA. All of this can be read about and is heavily illustrated in the earlier posts here on my blog. From around 2015. Where did the time go?

  An iStar 6" f/10 [150mm] H-alpha corrected refractor objective in its collimatable cell. I also have a matching Baader 160mm D-ERF full aperture Solar blocking filter. Mounted in a Telescope Express aluminium cell. It has [had?] a 2.5" Feather Touch focuser with slow motion of course. The Starlight Instruments focusers are superb and well worth the price over mere pretenders. 

 This makes a large aperture, solar refractor for high resolution imaging. But only with the necessary etalon and blocking filter. Or a Quark? You'd have to buy your own filters. Or dismantle a smaller H-alpha telescope. To obtain these vital parts. I posted lots of successful H-alpha images on various Astro Forums and here on my blog. Both objectives can be used for white light, lunar and planetary imaging of course.

 Do not fool yourself that any of these optics can be mounted on a flimsy equatorial on a lightweight tripod. The resulting telescopes need very adequate support. I doubt my home made, massive equatorial mounting holds any interest. Except for those with the skill and tools to complete it to their own standards. Even my heavily reinforced [Beacon Hill] worm housings simply flexed too much for accurate GoTos. Though it tracked very nicely for many hours once it was centered on the sun or Moon. And often did! 

 

    ~*~