Childhood Memories

Back in the early to mid 80's, I remember going upstairs in my dads house and finding some sort of contraption in the bedroom, pointing out the window.  I was really young at the time and didn't have a clue what it was until it was explained to me, and what it was used for.  It was my fathers first, and only, telescope.  A small refractor on a wooden tripod and some sort of equatorial mount.  These are my first and earliest memories of any sort of involvement or interest in astronomy.

Fast forward 40 plus years.  My father sadly is no longer around.  Cancer took him all too soon which has been painful and heart breaking.  Recently, my brother has been back home visiting and retrieved the old telescope from the loft of the house and brought it downstairs.  After a short amount of time looking at it and trying to establish if it was still in working order, he decided to pack it back up in a box until I was able to visit and collect it.

When I set eyes on it, so many memories came flooding back and I knew I just had to get it back up and running again, and finally, be able to look through the same eyepiece that my father looked through last all those years ago.  The telescope itself would have been quite cutting edge at the time.  Scientific instruments of this type weren't as common as they are today.  This was one of the earlier of the mass produced, mass market telescopes which were affordable (just) for the general public.  Produced by Prinz Optics (Model No. 550) exclusively for Dixons (a very popular shop at the time) it provided the user with everything they needed for observing some of the more popular objects in the universe.

When I got it home, first job was too figure out how it all fitted together.  To be fair, the design of more modern day instruments and mounts hasn't really changed much, so it didn't take too long.  But one thing was evident from this initial foray into getting it up and running again.  One of the bolts had seized on the mount.  Over the years, the grease used in the moving parts of the mount had dried and solidified.  It was time to put the scope back in it's box and get the mount on the workbench to see what could be done.

Over several nights and numerous applications of good old WD40, slowly but surely, the seized bolts slowly loosed off and I was able to strip parts of the mount back, clean and regrease.

There's still a bit to do with the mount.  Some of it still needs stripping back and regreasing, but for now at least it is in full working order once again.

During the recent run of clear weather, I've had the roof of the observatory open every night for nearly a whole week (unheard of in these parts!) but it has also allowed me to finally set up the telescope out on the patio.  The planets really are putting on a splendid display at the moment.  Particularly Venus at around sunset, but also Jupiter is sitting quite high in the sky.  This was to be my first, and as it turned out, my only target for the night.  It's fair to say that the mount and tripod are not the most sturdy of structures, and there's still a fair bit of stiffness in the mount controls which make fine adjustments tricky.  Nevertheless, I was able to get Jupiter in the eyepiece although it was tricky to keep it in the field of view.  I was also able to make out 3 of the moons of the planet.  To be honest though, it was hard going.  The eyepieces are old 0.9" and held lightly by the stock diagonal.  But, it was mission accomplished and I finally got to look through the same instrument that my late father last looked through decades ago.  Having had the chance to use it, I now have an idea of what other work needs to go on with it.  I will continue to work on the mount to improve the controls on it.  I'll also spend some time cleaning the optics with some wonder fluid.  I also think it will be a good idea to see if I can improve the locking mechanism which locks the diagonal into place and receive the eyepiece.  I was all too aware that it was loose and could pop back out at any time.  I'm looking forward to fully restoring this instrument and using it once again!