For me, it's a Celestron 40mm refractor, made in Japan that I saw 17 years ago.
For such a small scope, the optics were unbelievably good. That was also the first time I saw Sombrero hat galaxy....something you thought will be hard on a 40mm scope!
Till today, which scope is your most memorable scope?
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My most memorable scope would be my first scope, an Edu-Science refractor I bought from Toys R Us way back in 1983. Wanted to catch Halley's Comet but I never managed to find it. The scope showed Jupiter as a sotong ball, but I was impressed nonetheless. Never did much astro viewing as the mount was way too flimsy and unstable; it was mostly used to peep at my neighbours... heheh. Packed into the store-room a couple of years after I bought it and only threw it away recently :|
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- chris shaw
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Most memorable scope was a K-Mart Tasco 2.5 inch refractor which my friends and I used in Washington during my uni days in 1987. We used to set it up in the bone chilling cold of a neighbourhood vineyard during crisp autumn nights and thrill ourselves with the planets. The skies were jet black out in the vineyard (some naked eye DSOs visible) and our 2.5 inch refractor performed pretty well.
Another scope we had the privilege of using was the uni's 3.5 inch Questar but that was on a weekly basis as there was a long waitlist.
Chris
Another scope we had the privilege of using was the uni's 3.5 inch Questar but that was on a weekly basis as there was a long waitlist.
Chris
- chris shaw
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Well, the Questar did have amazing resolution and contrast and the build....well, the build is like a finely machined swiss watch. It had built-in barlow and a switch that can transform the entire scope into one big finder scope. Collimation was very good. Planets were tack sharp even with such a small aperture but lost out in brightness to the bigger scopes. Now I have a 105mm ETX but it doesn't really compare in terms of build nor optical quality. The ETX has lots of plastic, is noisy when slewing and the optics, although very good, is far from perfect. The Questar was not perfect but came pretty close....As rich said : 'ETX is what Toyota is to Cars' but I say 'Questar is what Mercedes is to Cars'.
Chris
Chris
Last edited by chris shaw on Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- chris shaw
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