Image of the day

Captured by
Bruce Karbal

WR 134

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Whats the worst scope you had?

Started by chasp, 11/29/2007 12:57AM
Posted 11/29/2007 12:57AM Opening Post
Ok guys and gals,

We just did a thread on the most perfect scope.
So what is the worst scope you have owned?
Bad optics, mount, or other is fine.

Chas
Posted 11/29/2007 01:18AM #1
Intes MN-74 Great optics, almost impossible (for me) to collimate.

[COLOR="Blue"]Wayne[/COLOR] 8O
_________________________________________________________
Never stop looking up!!

---
Takahashi TAO-130on a Losmandy G-11 Gemini 4
Williams Optics Zenithstar 105 APO on a G-8 Gemini 4 (Field setup)
ST2000XM with CFW10/L-R-G-B-Ha-SII-OIII filters
Home Built backyard Observatory
Understanding Wife.. 8)
---
Posted 11/29/2007 01:39AM #2
A Meade ETX 70, the lens had at least 10 waves of zonal error, and no the lens was not in backwards. Doesn't someone look thru these things even once before shipping?

"--Granted, that's a worse case scenario. The destruction might in fact be ... limited to our own galaxy."
Posted 11/29/2007 02:17AM | Edited 11/29/2007 02:18AM #3
Hands down it was a 50mm scope with a plate glass singlet lense about f30. The eyepieces were also singlets, so chromatic aberration was an abomination. The tube was a mess of glued together cardboard, and the mount was so undersized, it was originally designed to hold a small surveyors leveling telescope. The whole thing shook like a leaf in the slightest breeze.

But hey, I made it myself when I was in grade school, and it showed me the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, and the true face of the moon for the very first time.

Yep, truly the worst scope I have ever had, and I absolutely loved every minute using it.

smile

[SIZE="Small"]
[[COLOR="Blue"]QUOTE]Charles Peterson said:

Ok guys and gals,

We just did a thread on the most perfect scope.
So what is the worst scope you have owned?
Bad optics, mount, or other is fine.

Chas[/QUOTE][/COLOR][/SIZE]

David Simons
Posted 11/29/2007 02:47AM #4
Meade 97D spotting scope. I once checked to see why the primary mirror seemed to be out of alignment. I discovered that it was held in place by a big disk of goey double stick tape ! I was able to see the results of the Shoemaker - Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter with it though. Of course my Dynascope RV-6 showed way more detail when I used it later that Summer. I think I actually paid less for the RV-6 !

Joplin
Posted 11/29/2007 10:48AM #5
Charles Peterson said:

Ok guys and gals,

We just did a thread on the most perfect scope.
So what is the worst scope you have owned?
Bad optics, mount, or other is fine.

Chas

I bought this Baytronix so I could write a "honest" review. If they were as bad as people said, I wanted it documented. It was bad...

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1105

It seems to be the first hit when googling Baytronix and I regular Emails about it...

JOn

Attached Image:

jonisaacs's attachment for post 118693
Posted 11/29/2007 03:26PM #6
Charles Peterson said:

Ok guys and gals,

We just did a thread on the most perfect scope.
So what is the worst scope you have owned?
Bad optics, mount, or other is fine.

Chas

Tasco 3-inch alt-az Newt (1965). OK on the Moon and deep sky, but Jupe looked like a custard pie.

8)

Uncle Rod

Time on your hands?
Waste it with Uncle Rod's Astro Blog!

http://uncle-rods.blogspot.com/
Posted 11/29/2007 06:41PM #7
My first scope, purchased in the 1950s from Criterion for the princely (to me) sum of $18.95. The objective was about 1-1/8" diameter. It didn't have eyepieces but had some loose glass lenses that you could arrange in the cardboard drawtube for various magnifications up to 400x (!) Needless to say, I saw nothing but dim blobs of light at 400x, but at 35x I could see craters on the Moon and was thrilled. It had a tall shaky tripod (basically three broom handles) with a ball-and-socket camera mount at the top. It also had a little finder but the dog ate it.
Posted 11/30/2007 05:21AM | Edited 11/30/2007 05:22AM #8
Well...I think the worst thing I can remember...
was when I had no scope at all. sad
Now that was really bad!
Linton


but it's alright now... wink
Posted 11/30/2007 01:46PM #9
I have owned 3 different C11's, all were pure lemons. I think I am cursed with C11's. I have owned C8, C925 and C14 all were excellent, just not the C11's.

Paul Maxson
Moderator - CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System
Celestron C14, Mewlon 250, Orion EON120, ASI120MM, Flea3.
http://www.sunspot51.com