Clamps
Tag: telescope
Rusted Hardware
The 1999 Losmandy Catalog
I have a pile of material that was donated to the observatory. While some of the gear will be used for outreach, a fair amount of the pile is not usable for this. With JoAnne reminding me about the stack in her warehouse it is time for me to sort it out and dispose of it. Among the pile was an entire crate of books… Astronomy textbooks, star charts, observing guides, and more.
This pile of books included a full set of the classic Burnham’s Celestial Handbook, both volumes of Uranometria, and other treasures. After determining the observatory had no need for these I brought them to the last astronomy club meeting and gave them away. It was nice to see these books go to those who would appreciate them.
At the bottom of the pile was something that caught my eye, several old catalogs and manuals. These were just fun to read through. There are both Losmandy and Takahashi catalogs from 1998 and 1999, as well as a manual for a Takahashi FS Series refractor.
The 1999 Losmandy catalog was particularly interesting. My old Losmandy G11 is a workhorse mount, one that has seen many adventures with me. The manual includes a price list, showing that it once sold for $3400, quite a bit more than the $1400 I paid for mine used in about the same era. Interestingly Losmandy still sells this mount and most of same accessories found in this catalog.
As I read I realized that this catalog may also be good to scan and post so that others may find this catalog a useful resource. I hope to scan and post some of the other items in the stack that might be good to save.
Mauna Kea Telescope Gallery
Viewing the ISS
Occasionally we get phone calls. People have an astronomy question and decide to call an observatory to get an answer. I would caution that this is generally not the best way to get an answer, Googling the question or looking it up on Wikipedia is much more likely to result in a usable answer. Usually our front desk will politely defer the caller to some other source, Shelly is very good at doing this.
Shelly is also a very nice lady who occasionally takes pity on some caller. Or the caller is very polite and asks very nicely. Often she forwards the call to me, knowing that I can usually answer these sort of questions.
What sort of telescope can be used to view the ISS?
At least the question did not involve aliens or NASA cover-ups, those question would have gotten the polite brush off from Shelly.
For someone who is inexperienced in using telescopes this not the easy place to start. Most of us who have been using telescopes for decades usually do not even try to do this. The space station is quite small and would require higher magnification to see well. It is also moving quite quickly across the sky. The combination of these two factors makes viewing the ISS a real challenge, to put it politely!
SMA
Keck in the Dawn
Refurbishing a TeleVue Renaissance Mount
I have already posted about the restoration of an orange tube C8. That was only part of the story, the telescope is paired with a TeleVue Renaissance mount that was in the same poor condition as the optical tube. The mount required the same treatment, a complete tear down and restoration to reverse the ravages that tropical humidity had wrought upon the metal parts.
Corrosion was the issue. While the mount was mostly functional, it was looking horrible. The aluminum under the paint was corroding into a fine white powder. Most of the screws were quite rusted along with the counterweight shaft where the chrome was flaking away and the rust spreading. If allowed to continue the mount would soon be the piece of junk it looked like. There was something wrong with the clutches as well, they do not lock firmly and needed to be inspected.
The mount was sold by TeleVue in the 1980’s paired with their APO refractors. The mount is actually a re-labled unit manufactured by the Japanese firm Carton Optics as the model Super Nova or RSM2000. Well regarded by amateur astronomers you can find postings of well used and beloved mounts still in use thirty years later. Examining the mount I find I agree with those who like it. There is much to love in the solid smooth motion, this looks to be worth the effort of restoration.
Thus I set about the task of stripping down the mount into component pieces… Of the rusted hardware only one screw required drilling out, the hex drive head stripping when I tried to remove it. Fortunately I again had the proper tools, a set of easy outs to remove the remains of the screw after I had drilled the head off. I was able to remove the screw without any damage to the aluminum castings.
Almost finished…
Assembled and operational, a punch list of little items required before it can be called finished…
Restoring an Orange Tube Celestron C8
It looked horrible! The paint was coming off everywhere with heavily corroded aluminum underneath. Most of the screw heads were small balls of rust, with hopefully enough remaining to fit a screwdriver to and remove. For a precision optical instrument this small telescope was not very encouraging.
The telescope in question is an old orange tube Celestron C8. Thousands of these little telescopes were manufactured in the 70’s and 80’s. It was the C8 that set the standard for amateur telescopes at the time. The C8 is still in production forty years later, but the tubes are no longer painted orange as they were originally. Compact, yet offering decent performance, these telescopes were well regarded and hold a special place in the memories of many amateur astronomers. I have seen these little orange telescopes at dozens of star parties, even bolted to the side of huge professional telescopes for use as finders.