0.965" focuser issue

Dismantled the the edu-sci scope and attempt to shim
the focuser tube because of the slop/play when using 1.25"
accessories.

I added 3 pieces of black strip paper to the internal
focuser housing, friction is not a problem as one side
of the black paper in contact with the drawtube is
smoothen with cold laminate.

Finally the slop are almost eliminated! And now with
1.25" accessories there is negligible movement of the
drawtube. Picture above shows the hybrid diagonal from Scopestuff.

Tasco 10VR (Article)

Spotted this Tasco on ebay! Complete with case and tripod!
Its a 80mm f/5 refractor. This is a Vixen-made scope for
Tasco. Astromart has one listed on Apr 2007 and selling for
$130 without case & accs. Hmm.. wonder how much this ebay
scope will fetch since its complete with all accessories.

Added: Auction ended with a winning bid at $263.88!!

Packed and ready to go

My edu-science 50mm refractor all packed up in my
Lowepro mini-trekker all ready to go for a quick ob.
Items inside is a red dot finder, a 8x42 bino, vibration
suppression pads, eyepiece box. Not in photo, my benro/
manfrotto tripod and geared head combination.

Tonight's full moon, and skies pretty much clouded up.
Manage only a glimpse of Saturn.

Below pic shows my ST80 refractor all packed in a compact
airline portable aluminium case.

Clear skies & a quick peek..

Clear skies tonight.

A quick peek at the moon
-Scope: Edu-science 50mm refractor
-Waxing Gibbous 87% full

Gassendi with its adjoining crater "Gassendi A"
looks spectacular at 90x with its odd central peak.
These two craters together looks like a diamond ring.
Gassendi was one of the landing sites considered
for Apollo 17 mission. 


Gassendi with its odd peak near Mare Humorum

Able to detect about 4 very very small craters at the
surface of Mare Humorum. Check if your 50/60mm
scopes are able to detect these small craters!

====================================
Vintage telescopes on ebay..
Carton Optical Co. Vintage Telescope
D=60MM F=910MM

  

Vintage ATCO No.1253 Astronomical Telescope
D60mm F910mm

Hybrid Diagonal 0.96" to 1.25"

The hybrid diagonal I ordered from ScopeStuff is here,
now I can use my 1.25" eyepieces on the edu-science's
0.96" barrel!



Here's a closer look at the well machined metal 0.96"
to 1.25" adapter which can be unscrewed to 3 separate
parts, and can be adapted to any diagonals. I have
to flock the internal barrel to remove some glare.

The edu-science cannot come into focus with this
hybrid mirror diagonal as the scope does not have
enough in focus travel because of the added '1.25" step'
in the adapter.

I removed the metal adapter and use an old celestron
prism diagonal and the scope comes into focus this
time. However, the collimation seems a bit out as I can't
get the image to come into clean focus with the various
eyepieces (including UO orthos).

I switch between the stock/cheap edu-science's diagonal
and the 4mm, 20mm huygen eyepieces and it is sharper
than the hybrid celestron prism/UO ortho eyepieces combination!



I dismantled the old celestron prism diagonal and try
to clean it up and attempt to realign the prism into the
plastic diagonal case. Will see if it works later
tonight. If it doesn't then i may have to try and
get another diagonal to try out or just stick to the
old 0.96" format..ha.

I'm still trying to improve this cheap little 50mm toy scope
from Toy r us! See below photo which i took through the eyepiece
with this little 50mm scope and a 26mm plossl.

Added: The plastic focuser of the edu-science scope is unable to
take the total weight of the 1.25" diagonal & eyepiece causing the
focuser tube to bend causing some collimation problems in the
upper half of the FOV. No wonder the image could not come
into a clean focus.

Have to stick to using the 0.96 accesories for now until i find
a way to shim the focuser tube.

A quick peek..

(pic taken through the edu science 50mm refractor)

A quick peek at the moon
-Scope: Edu-science 50mm refractor
-Waxing Crescent 33% full

The above pic was taken through the eyepiece, the
chromatic aberration (CA) is not as prominent as shown
in the pic when viewed visually through a 4mm huygen
eyepiece.

The three main craters, near Mare Nectaris, Theophilus,
Cyrillus & Catharina can easily be seen.
The peak inside Theophilus is visible, the small crater Madleris is also visible at about 90x through the 50mm.

Tasco 999VR (Article)

I'm looking for more info on this interesting classic Tasco telescope, model 999VR. Was made probably in the 80's by Vixen for Tasco. Uses 0.96" eyepeices and the views are supposely very crisp for a Tasco! This is a 60mm refractor with a focal length of 300mm, f/5. 
This will make a great grab and go setup and can be packed up in a briefcase!




Moon with Tasco 999VR at 300mm


Added: There seems to be two more variants of this scope, there's
also the 9vr and a 99vr. The 9vr/99vr was supposed to be the best
of the bunch with better glass and a effective 60mm objective. The
999vr still has a 60mm lens but is stop down midway making it
effectively a 40-45mm scope.

In fact daytimes views are sharper in the 999vr with a more pleasing
image, but it is comparatively dimmer during astro use due to the
stop down baffle midway in the tube. It is not advisable to remove
the baffle to counter the stop down problem as it will greatly degrade
the image as reported by Jae from cloudynights forum.

Jae has also mentioned a Meade Cometseeker Model 227(?) which
may be better than the Tascos.

Astronomy With Small Telescopes (An Introduction)

(click to see a larger pic)

This site is dedicated to anyone who enjoys using small telescopes.
I currently have a Celestron Short Tube 80 (ST80) refractor
and a recently bought tiny 50mm refractor by Edu-Science from
Toys r Us!

This toy r us scope has surprisingly (!) decent optics for its
price. It has a cemented doublet achromatic objectives, and
looks to me like a single layer coating on the objectives, not
sure if its on both air to glass surface, and has an aluminium
tube, albeit very thin, but nicely metallic painted.

The pic shows my ST80 (top) and my edu-science 50mm
(below), both are hideously stickered over by some fake
'carbon fibre' look-alike decal sheet bought for about S$12.

My interest in astronomy started many years back. These are
some of the scopes I've owned, and eventually sold over the years.

-Celestron C5 (vintage orange tube!) (Sold)
-Celestron C80 f/11 refractor (current scope)
-Celestron C5 (white & black tubes, i got at least 3 of these over the years)
-Celestron C8 (Sold)
-Meade ETX RA (Sold)
-Takahashi FS78 (Sold)
-Pentax 75SDHF (Sold)
-Skywatcher 150 mm f/5 refractor (Sold)
-Celestron SLT 102 refractor (Sold)
-Celestron ShortTube80 (current scope)
-Vixen A80SS (Sold)
-Edu-Science 50mm (this is a fun little toy scope..) (current scope)
-Celestron Nexstar 5SE (current scope)


Price: S$36.90!! Land & Sky Telescope by Edu-Science
At least the box didn't show some silly high 545x magnification!

Welcome aboard!
Jeffrey
SINGAPORE
1 22 N, 103 48 E