Till today, which scope is your most memorable scope?

Post by **VinSnr** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 11:29 am

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!

Post by **acc** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 1:02 pm

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 :|

Grievous · Post by **Grievous** » Mon Oct 13, 2003 1:38 pm

Still my lovely FLT. Never failed to wow me in everyway. Everytime i use it, i understand it better. AHhhhH *im in heaven~ Heaven~*

Charlie

Post by **Airconvent** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:03 am

ETX for me, what else?

This is one scope that you will feel shiok buying. There are mechanical problems of course but optics reputation to telescopes is like what Toyota is to cars....

kcy · Post by **kcy** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 7:36 am

It has to be PortBall!!!!!! The optics where excellent when i saw it during marswatchII. If only I could see some Gobulars in it and try to resolve..

MOst memorable scope coming = wira's 210 melon or combined effort 16.1" monster.. :o

JY · Post by JY » Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:34 am

Talking about memory, my best ever observations were made with ... a pair of 10x50 binos in the Australian outback on a moonless night. Outstanding !

Cheers

Jean-Yves

chris shaw · Post by **chris shaw** » Wed Oct 15, 2003 12:25 pm

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

kcy · Post by **kcy** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 9:34 pm

Wah

!!!!!Questar eh? Ya can queue?? Woot share with us some experience leh in the small scope section~

chris shaw · Post by **chris shaw** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:25 pm

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 shaw · Post by **chris shaw** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:33 pm

JY wrote:Talking about memory, my best ever observations were made with ... a pair of 10x50 binos in the Australian outback on a moonless night. Outstanding !

Cheers

Jean-Yves

Did you use a tripod?? Binocs must have been heavy!
Chris