A Forest of Tripods

[WWPierre]

Hanne and I were discussing my latest purchase, a MoonLite focuser for my Burgess 127, and she told me she wanted me to take an inventory of my equipment, for insurance purposes.

I told her that I had been thinking of setting everything up and photographing it. She thought it was a good idea, and suggested that there was no time like the present.

Here is the result:

[Sneakinoutatnight]

Nice looking family, and a beautiful background too!

Cheers

[WWPierre]

The G-8N is a 200mm x1000mm newtonian reflector of the Bird-Jones design. It has a spherical mirror with a correcting lens between the secondary and the primary. I have modified this scope by replacing the stock r&p focuser with a GSO low profile Crayford, installing Wilcox rings, and adding an Astronomics 50mm RACI finder scope with an illuminated reticle. It also takes a Mystery brand green laser gun sight pointer which can be switched between it and my Burgess 127 refractor.

This scope was manufactured sometime around the turn of this century, and seems to be pretty rare. Interestingly enough, it has no springs in the primary cell, but uses some sort of rubber compound instead, perhaps bubble gum.

It is a bear to collimate, but once adjusted, remains collimated very well.

I modified the RACI bracket to fit the standard Vixen/Orion finder shoe, so I could move it to my other scopes.

[WWPierre]

This is my utility scope, and seems to get the most use. It has been modified with rings, a Meade flip-mirror diagonal, a flexible dew shield, and a green laser gunsight pointer. It can be used for prime focus photography. It is shown mounted on my manually operated EQ3-2, but it usually occupies my CG5 go-to mount. Being relatively light, it is rock solid on that mount, such that I can steady myself by grabbing the tripod.

When used in conjunction with other scopes during my Saturday Stars public outreach, it points the way, so that all scopes can be trained on the same target, if desired.

In the second photo, it is flanked by the G-8N in the background, and my Kern K1A theodolite in the foreground.

[WWPierre]

This OTA was found on Craigslist and purchased for $100. It was equipped with a R&P focuser but there was no eyepiece holder. I bought a set of rings at Telescope Warehouse and picked up a dovetail at Vancouver Telescope.
using the eyepiece holder, affixed with a dollop of JBWeld, and the 50mm finder surplus from the G-8N project, and the surplus star diagonal from the Orion Mak project, I got the scope in working condition, and it sits nice and solid on the CG5GT

The Burgess is no longer in production. It was known for good optics, but a bad focuser. Two speed kits were produced and offered at cost to owners, but the rack-and-pinion was never very successful. I have a Moonlite Crayford on order, and I will be editing this post after I get it installed.

[WWPierre]

A number of people came down the trail as I was taking these photos. One asked me which one was my favorite, and I immediately thought of the Royal Astro 76, a '70s vintage scope I found on Craigslist for $50, and brought up to snuff. Even though it takes .965 EPs, the views through this glass approach those through the 5" Mak, and equal or surpass those of the clone 90mm Mak beside it in the first photo. I love the mount, which is very solid on the re-finished wooden tripod, and behaves as nicely as a dob when pointing. I have no plans to motorize the mount, as I find it quite pleasurable to hand-guide on occasion. I was able to get a selection of EPs, a finder, and a star diagonal for it from Bill Vorce at Telescope Warehouse. My total investment in this scope is around $125, not counting many hours of labor, of course.

The 90mm Mak was another Craigslist find, and purchased for my motorized EQ2. It is sold under many trademarks, such as the Seben Comet. I replaced the inadequate 25mm finder with a red dot. This is a pretty good scope, but suffers from a bit of mirror shift when focusing. I was able to make out Hartley 2 with it, but it would have been harder if I didn't have two other scopes tracking the comet at the same time.

I got rid of the stock tripod that came with the EQ2 and adapted a surveyor's tripod I bought new ($75) especially for it. The motor drive was ordered from Lire La Nature in Montreal.

[WWPierre]

I picked up the little Meade 60x700 for $25 at the local flea market because the mount looked good to me. I found that once the slop is adjusted out, it is a nice sturdy alt/az mount that would probably take a bit more weight than the light refractor occupying it now.

Then I looked at the OTA. I had a spare diagonal I ordered a new focuser from Scopehed (Bill Vorce) for maybe $25. Then I adapted a standard Orion finder shoe, so that I could use any of my finders, and set it on a surveyors tripod I got for $60 on E-Bay.

The theodolite is a Kern K1A. I made my living doing stadia surveys with it for years. I can run a stadia survey almost within legal tolerences.

Most modern theodolites have an optical plummet, to allow setting directly over a survey point. Both my Kerns have what is known as a Bull's Prick. Which is a telescoping rod with a fish-eye bubble on it.

To the left is my first telescope, the 5" Skywatcher Heritage dob. I wrote a review.
Sky-Watcher 5" Collapsible Dobsonian Mount Telescope - Review

On the right is a spare tripod.

[DaveW]

You sure have found some great deals on scopes Pierre. Were most of them found in the greater Vancouver area?

[carnevali]

I can see you had a good time making and narrating this family portrait. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[WWPierre]

The Kern DKM1 is only about 4" high. It was dubbed a mountain transit because it is so light and easy to haul up a mountain. It gives an inverted image.

The story of the coin-op binos can be found here.

The level is a standard clone automatic level.

The two alidades rest with the Galileoscope on my plane table.

An alidade and plane table are used for drawing a map directly in the field, using the compass in the alidade to orient the map at each setup, and measuring the distance by stadia.

From Wikipedia:

An instrument equipped for stadia work has two horizontal stadia marks spaced equidistant from the center crosshair of the reticle. The interval between stadia marks in most stadia instruments gives a stadia interval factor of 100. The distance between the instrument and a stadia rod can be determined simply by multiplying the measurement between the stadia hairs (known as the stadia interval) by 100.

The one in the foreground is a rare self-indexing K&E from E-Bay. The other is a Gurley I have had for years.

My Rebel Xti is fitted with a 2" Baader Coma Corrector, and sits on a Dollypod that came from a Craigslist purchase of a bunch of tripods.