Jaegers 6-inch f/15 doublet achromat in cell circa 1973
- Auction No.:
- 15908
- Current Bid:
- $310.00
- High Bidder:
- Richard Davis
- Bid History:
- 19 Bids
- Location:
- Spokane Vly, WA - US
- Seller:
- Andy Sedlacek
- Started:
- 03/14/2023 03:18AM
- Ends:
- 03/28/2023 03:18AM
- Shipping:
- Buyer pays shipping
- Payment:
- PayPal, Personal or Cashier's Check, Money Orders
- Hits:
- 724
** The reserve is kindly set, and not in "dream of big $$ mode". Merely set as such that I recuperate what I bought it for. **
I received this on part of a trade a few years back and had starting plans to definitely place this into an aluminum optical tube. But ever since I got hold of my Takahashi 6, this took a back seat to my projects. And so now it is here...
This is a late 1972-to-early 1973 Jaegers 6-inch f/15 doublet achromat. As far as I remember the cell is all-original to it. Originally mounted to a 7-inch steel tube, it served most its time from '75 until early the late 1990s. Some of this is evident as one of the elements has what looks like "9/11/82" penciled on the side. I used it a few times before doing away with the older, beaten optical tube, which was heavy, and it's been takin' it easy since.
The optics are fully coated. The elements are crudely spaced with clear tape on the side. It has been like this for decades and a far more sophisticated (and cleaner) method is in order, BUT it works great as it sits right now. It can be safely and fully removed; just be careful when reinstalling in that you make sure you use some sort of spacers by means of keeping the elements from actually contacting each other.
The cell is beautifully made of thick gauge milled, anodized aluminum. Combined with its removable outer collar (same materials), this cell has 6-point collimation capability.
Optical performance is right up there with the long-forgotten (with better optical coatings) D&G 6-inch f/15 and I would state this Jaegers unit is sharper on edge with high end oculars than a Celestron CR150 of comparable magnification and with like oculars on steady-seeing nights. With Celestron Ultimas, Pentax XLs, and Tele Vue Radians, images are routinely crisp. It is around 295x-300x that the achromats shortcomings become evident....and by this I mean secondary spectrum. Jupiter, Venus, Sirius, Mars, the Moon, and Saturn are definitely going to show some purple at this power. If you are using more primitive oculars like 4-element plossls, 3-element kellners, or 4-element konigs, the false color will be magnified...again at the higher magnifications.
Just remember, these are BIG chunks of non-fluorite, non-SDF glass. It is going to beat your Chinese and Taiwanese achromats quite nicely for sharpness. It will not be acting like a top shelf triplet EDT or doublet CaF2....and you won't be paying thousands for it either. So all-in-all, this can be an oustanding deal and a definite piece of American optics that existed long before mass produced Aisan plastic dinky cells overwhelmed the market.
Cosmetics on the cell are excellent for its age. No signs of heavy wear whatsoever. All the holes are stock and it is not modified. You'll see a few micro dings, but really, for its age and to not be faded or stained, or to sport lots of modification cuts/drilling, it looks mighty nice! The optics have lived many decades in an observatory prior to my acquisition and I feel it has been well cared for its whole life to the writing of this auction. It has no internal fungus, heavy dust, or haze issues, and no out of control coating pitting problems. The opaque blotches you see on the inside of the glass is part of the worn spacer tape. It can be removed, I just found no reason to do it yet. Whether it remains there when you mount the tube or you fully remove it before remounting will not change image clarity or increase magnification sharpness....those temoporary smudges are so far off to the perimeter edge that, like I said, it isn't affecting incoming light to your eyepiece.
What cleaning it will do is make the lens look all the more beautiful.
Aside from this, there are your expected, very minor spotty dust particles, micro individual coating pits here and there, and light coating sleeks and hairlines. I don't see any scratches to the figure and upon looking at them and knowing how this lens assembly performed in the recent past, I have zero cause for concern.
Weight of outer cel collar: 13.5 ounces
Weight of doublet-in-cell assembly: 6 pounds 12 ounces
It will be packed with utmost imortance and safety in mind.
All nations welcome to bid.
I received this on part of a trade a few years back and had starting plans to definitely place this into an aluminum optical tube. But ever since I got hold of my Takahashi 6, this took a back seat to my projects. And so now it is here...
This is a late 1972-to-early 1973 Jaegers 6-inch f/15 doublet achromat. As far as I remember the cell is all-original to it. Originally mounted to a 7-inch steel tube, it served most its time from '75 until early the late 1990s. Some of this is evident as one of the elements has what looks like "9/11/82" penciled on the side. I used it a few times before doing away with the older, beaten optical tube, which was heavy, and it's been takin' it easy since.
The optics are fully coated. The elements are crudely spaced with clear tape on the side. It has been like this for decades and a far more sophisticated (and cleaner) method is in order, BUT it works great as it sits right now. It can be safely and fully removed; just be careful when reinstalling in that you make sure you use some sort of spacers by means of keeping the elements from actually contacting each other.
The cell is beautifully made of thick gauge milled, anodized aluminum. Combined with its removable outer collar (same materials), this cell has 6-point collimation capability.
Optical performance is right up there with the long-forgotten (with better optical coatings) D&G 6-inch f/15 and I would state this Jaegers unit is sharper on edge with high end oculars than a Celestron CR150 of comparable magnification and with like oculars on steady-seeing nights. With Celestron Ultimas, Pentax XLs, and Tele Vue Radians, images are routinely crisp. It is around 295x-300x that the achromats shortcomings become evident....and by this I mean secondary spectrum. Jupiter, Venus, Sirius, Mars, the Moon, and Saturn are definitely going to show some purple at this power. If you are using more primitive oculars like 4-element plossls, 3-element kellners, or 4-element konigs, the false color will be magnified...again at the higher magnifications.
Just remember, these are BIG chunks of non-fluorite, non-SDF glass. It is going to beat your Chinese and Taiwanese achromats quite nicely for sharpness. It will not be acting like a top shelf triplet EDT or doublet CaF2....and you won't be paying thousands for it either. So all-in-all, this can be an oustanding deal and a definite piece of American optics that existed long before mass produced Aisan plastic dinky cells overwhelmed the market.
Cosmetics on the cell are excellent for its age. No signs of heavy wear whatsoever. All the holes are stock and it is not modified. You'll see a few micro dings, but really, for its age and to not be faded or stained, or to sport lots of modification cuts/drilling, it looks mighty nice! The optics have lived many decades in an observatory prior to my acquisition and I feel it has been well cared for its whole life to the writing of this auction. It has no internal fungus, heavy dust, or haze issues, and no out of control coating pitting problems. The opaque blotches you see on the inside of the glass is part of the worn spacer tape. It can be removed, I just found no reason to do it yet. Whether it remains there when you mount the tube or you fully remove it before remounting will not change image clarity or increase magnification sharpness....those temoporary smudges are so far off to the perimeter edge that, like I said, it isn't affecting incoming light to your eyepiece.
What cleaning it will do is make the lens look all the more beautiful.
Aside from this, there are your expected, very minor spotty dust particles, micro individual coating pits here and there, and light coating sleeks and hairlines. I don't see any scratches to the figure and upon looking at them and knowing how this lens assembly performed in the recent past, I have zero cause for concern.
Weight of outer cel collar: 13.5 ounces
Weight of doublet-in-cell assembly: 6 pounds 12 ounces
It will be packed with utmost imortance and safety in mind.
All nations welcome to bid.
