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Your first scope?

Started by robrjm, 07/22/2003 07:03PM
Posted 07/22/2003 07:03PM Opening Post
My first scope was a 60mm Tasco refractor on an equatorial mount w/ wooden tripod back in 1987. It was of low cost and also came with 2 or 3 eyepieces, barlow and solar screen. The mount was pretty stable, lightweight and highly portable with a wooden tripod. The scope even came with a poster of the Halley comet path...even though it was a year after its return. Well, the lens looked like it was made of the same material as the optical tube...only transparent. The 4mm eyepiece had a lens diameter that can only be seen through a microscope. The plastic focuser was very smooth and the finderscope was a nice decoration. Enough talk about the pros... From what I can recall, Jupiter had more of a yellowish color than today and the moon's craters were sharply defined. I loved cranking the power up to 450X. The images were somewhat blurry (when the object was in the field of view!), but it was the fun that counted. There was also less light pollution in my area at the time, and to be honest, I can not remember atmosphere turbulence affecting the image...even when I got my 6" Criterion within a year later. Maybe its because my eyes were not trained w/ the experience. All in all, I was very satistfied w/ the scope at the time, had alot of fun, and enjoyed its views that brought me into this wonderful hobbie.

Rob
Posted 07/22/2003 07:14PM #1
My first one was a Criterion RV-6 purchased used for $150 in 1978 and to this day I am sorry I sold it. Seems like I could always use a good 6" F8 newt although in those days it seemed everyone had a 6" F8 before the prices came down on the SCT's Of course after a year I opted for the portability of the then pricey C8 (about $1200 bucks with wedge and tripod in 1978 dollars!!) I had to cut alot of lawns, shovel a bunch of driveways and beg most of the money from my dad to buy the C8. I really miss that old RV-6 And, dont even get me started about light pollution in 1978 vs. 2003, its sad.
Posted 07/22/2003 07:19PM #2
Here where my scopes:

1st)
30mm (yes, 30) Table-Top telescope. Don't remember the name but my mom bought it for me. It cost about $30 I think and came with a little tri-pod that was about 8 inches tall. It was more of a toy than anything else...I think I was about 9 or 10 years old. Long since lost it.

2nd)
Saved my school lunch money all year and bought myself a Tasco 60mm refractor from Sears! I loved that thing! It was advertised as a 1200x telescope!!! lol
That was the first scope that I saw Saturn in. It wouldn't even seperate the rings from the disc...appeared as a white ellipse.

3rd)
Meade Starfinder 6" Newtonian.
Finally! A real scope! Still Have it.

4th)
Orion XT 8" Dob. Love it!!

cb
Posted 07/22/2003 07:33PM #3
My first telescope was a 60mm Montgomery Wards refractor my parents gave me for Christmas in 1980.

With this I first saw Jupiter's moons and saw the planet as a disc for the first time. Also saw Saturn's rings for the first time, edge-on, as a line going through a little white circle. With some determination I also found M13 in Hercules, and the Andromeda galaxy.

Posted 07/22/2003 07:37PM #4
I had a Tasco 4.5" F10 newtonian on a somewhat rickety equatorial mount. It wasn't too bad other than the mount and I used it to observe mars during the 1988 opposition and of course Jupiter and Saturn. My memory of it is more of the fun I had using it with my father than of scope. Later I purchased a Meade 97D maksutov spotting scope which I used to observe the Shoemaker- Levy 9 comet impacts on Jupiter. I wasn't pleased with the performance of the Meade at all and spotted an ad in the local paper for a Dynascope RV-6 that was only $150.00 I bought it and learned how to collimate and adjust everything on it. That scope was really the first one I used to look at objects beyond the solar system and still use it.

Joplin
Posted 07/22/2003 08:17PM #5
My first scope was a 60mm refractor from a store called Essco (catalog company with store front, during the early 80's). Scope would not come into focus, so I returned it to the store. They did not have a replacement scope, so being the 10 year old that I was, I needed to have some thing right then and there. Video games were the rave. Atari's were impossible to get, so I opted for an Odyssey II game system. As I look back, what a mistake.

Two years ago I got interested in astronomy again. I now have 3 scopes and a pair of 15x70 binos.

Every chance I get, I share the views with both young and old. Hopefully, my efforts will help spark someone elses interest into the universe of astronomy and not let them experience the same mistake I had made.

Clear skies,

Tim Hornbeck
Black River Astronomical Society
Posted 07/22/2003 09:08PM #6
Mine was a 50mm table-top tasco that actually gave good views. It came with a 12.5mm eyepiece. I got this one in 1969, just in time for comet Taga-Sato-Kosaka. I used it as a guidescope when I purchased a 5" f/5 refractor (which I still have) in 1971. I eventually sold it during the early 80's.

Below is a photo from about 1972, showing the 5" and the 50mm, taken while on a camping trip.

Cheers,

Maurice

Attached Image:

maurice clark's attachment for post 69409

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Posted 07/23/2003 01:28AM #7
My first was a HORRIBLE dept store 4.5 inch EQ reflector! This thing was aweful LOL. Tried using it for a few nights, then gave up and took it back. Then got a Celestron G3, which also was horrible! Then I found Astromart here, got some advice and got a 6 inch reflector, then we were happy :-)

Ron
Posted 07/23/2003 05:16AM #8
40mm f/15 Skilcraft "Satellite" Newtonian with two 20mm-barrel quasi-Huygenian eyepieces yielding 40x & 80x (~15mm & ~7.5mm), a unit finder (i.e. lensless tube), and a rectangular diagonal which may or may not have been a 2nd-surface mirror (I think some were 1st-surface; some were 2nd-).

Second scope: Pentax 75 EDHF
Third: Photon 90mm Maksutov
Fourth: Intes MK67
Fifth: Stellarvue A1002 (1st generation)
Sixth: Jason (Tasco) "Explorer" 60mm f/13 achromat (with mahogany case, alt-az yoke, mahogany tripod, & accessories)
Seventh: replacement Skilcraft 40mm Newtonian (in a fit of nostalgia)

I still have #s 2 through 7.

Eighth scope: a "player to be named later"

Cheers and grins.
-Dan
Posted 07/23/2003 01:48PM #9
1962 - The venerable $29.95 Edmund 3" reflector with the .917 ramsden eyepieces in the friction focuser. The mount was actually decent.
Larry