This is a translation of my blog about this telescope, from Dutch to English. The specs from this telescope are in metric.
First, a small introduction, so that the story behind this model telescope is clear. It is a Newtonian reflector telescope, design is probably from the 70's, and the specs are: D = 114mm / F = 900mm (metric).
* Update 02-10-2020: after some research, this telescope model appears to be from 1960. *
* Update 18-01-2021: I have found the original user manual of the 60's telescope. Click here *
I am born in 1971 and have been fascinated by the stars and planets from an early age. As a teenager, I liked to grab binoculars to look at the starry sky with them. From (Friday, November 11) 1988, I went by bicycle almost every week (Friday evening) to an observatory in Oostzaan, a trip of about 9 kilometers (5.6 miles).
That my passion was not understood in the family at the time is another story. After all, why make the effort of cycling, but not try hard at school. Those kind of things. Anyway, observing was beautiful with the observatory's large telescope. I can still remember so well how wonderful I found it to see Saturn with its rings. And then Jupiter, that gas giant with its everlasting storm in the shape of that red spot, and its moons around it. And then view the Andromeda Nebula, which is located 2.5 million light years away. Simply beautiful.
But also the peace it gave, looking at the sky, that was wonderful. Rest, which I could use so well then, let the thoughts go. Not experiencing the daily stress for a while, not thinking about getting better school performance, just a moment of rest.
Ultimately, I also wanted to have a telescope, just to be able to observe at home, from the spacious front garden. I wanted to use it to observe deep sky objects, and also to be able to view the planets and the own moon. I was recommended a mirror telescope (reflector) at the observatory, to be able to meet my wishes that I had. It became (sometime in 1990/1991) the Pollux Newton / reflector telescope with a tube aperture of 114mm, and a focal length of 900mm (metric).
The viewer is on the left and at the top in the blue delimited part of this petal. The importer still exists according to Google, so I'll leave that one listed. Only the phone number is no longer correct, so it is blurred. In addition to the viewer itself, I also bought an extra eyepiece, a 2x Barlow lens, and a sun and moon filter. WARNING!! NEVER, NEVER look directly at the sun with a telescope, unless you want to be blind in your eye immediately and permanently.
All together I paid something like 1100 guilders for it, converted to € 500. It was well worth the money, let me put that first. I have looked at the Andromeda Nebula (M31) several times with it, Saturn, Jupiter, Orion Nebula (M42), galaxies, you name it. The advantage was that I had the Commodore 64 in my possession, on which I ran the program "Sky Travel". With that I could determine in advance what I wanted to see that evening. I could also see where the objects were, how high, for example.
By the way, the last photo is the Commodore 128D, running in the C64 mode. Yes, the original diskette with the Sky Travel program is still in my possession. Here it is booted from the floppy. Well, nowadays Stellarium is used .....
Then it became 1994, and I went to live on my own. Unfortunately that became a flat at 3 high from a flat of 14 stories high. So that was the end of telescope use. Unfortunately, the telescope could not stay behind at the parental home, so that I could still go there for observation. I really blame them for that. A telescope of 1100 guilders in total, useless on the flat. Because the personal circumstances were not exactly nice, to put it mildly, I unfortunately sold this telescope in 1995. I could use the money, and the telescope was no use anymore.
I pushed the satisfaction of observing completely into the background. I didn't want to be reminded anymore of what to miss. I also suddenly did not come to the observatory anymore, which I do regret afterwards. But yes, I was just very bad in my own skin (depressed), and I was close to end my own life.
I will not mention details, because this blog would be about the telescope.
Let me put it this way: I've been through more than enough misery in my life, resulting in a stroke in July 2014. It was caused by years of stress and the systematically too high blood pressure.
Then I will now go forward to the beginning of 2019. I spoke to a valued friend about my hobbies, and mentioned the telescope I had then, which I bought it for 1100 guilders. That person asked me what a telescope would cost 'today', if they would still be that pricey, so I quickly went Googling. After all, because I had repressed the satisfaction and interest all these years, I was no longer really familiar with prices and stuff.
To my surprise, I came across a Byomic reflector telescope with the specs D = 114 / F = 500 for less than € 200, which I showed to the person. My friend promptly asked me if I wouldn't want to buy it, because I had so much fun watching the stars at the time. In the end I thought to myself: why not, because I now have a house with a garden.
A few days later I bought it:
I just began to relive the satisfaction after all these years of repressing it. If it was clear, the circumstances favorable, then he would go outside. After all these years I was able to see Saturn and Jupiter again, the Andromeda Nebula (M31) also came back within range, and then the Orion Nebula (M42), just enjoy again, as it should be.
But yes, in the meantime it started to itch more, and I wanted a slightly nicer telescope with tracking system. I also wanted to focus on astrophotography in the future, hence my wish. At the beginning of this year (2020), I noticed a telescope with GoTo and tracking system. This was the Meade StarNavigator 130, with the specs: D = 130mm / F = 1000mm (metric).
This is a really nice telescope, which I bought from "Frank, the telescope expert". I still paid € 485 for it, but the price currently varies a bit. Yes, quite a price, but well worth the money. You place this telescope outside, point it exactly to the north (hint: use the North Star for that instead of a compass), level it and switch it on. Then it turns itself to a star, where it must be confirmed that it is in the center of the telescope. If not, precisely aim manually via the controller. After confirmation it turns to a 2nd star, and this ritual is repeated. After confirming this, the telescope knows exactly what it is looking at. You can then specify what you want to view via the controller, after which it turns itself to the chosen object and continues to follow it. By the way, it runs on 12 volts, so I put it outside with a 12 volt motorcycle battery. No messing around with batteries,
But, in the meantime, I sometimes looked at Marktplaats (Dutch site to sell and buy used stuff), just out of curiosity, and to my surprise I sometimes came across my old telescope. By my telescope I mean the exact model I had in the 90's. Only those telescopes had a different brand, but the rest was exactly the same, including the wooden tripod on which it stood. Then it started to itch for me, because it would be nice if ........ If what? Well, that I could reverse the STUPID mistake I made in 1995 with a re-purchase of my reflector telescope. Just my telescope, which I had so much satisfaction from back then, could buy back.
That would be great, but I missed a few times. Either a telescope was already sold, or the price was a bit high. However, recently a great opportunity presented itself: my telescope came by, and the good friend bought it for me right away. The price was well under € 50, so that wasn't bad. There was a suspicion that it couldn't be good, but I didn't really care. I primarily wanted my telescope back, and the rest comes later. So i have to get the telescope by public transport. The telescope was even packed in its original box, so that was a small bonus. However, that box weighed 13.5 kilos and was almost 1 meter long. I decided to put the counterweight of the telescope in my backpack. then that box was at least slightly lighter.
But yes, that box had to go home anyway, so I brought straps and duct tape. 1 lashing strap went around the box on the suitcase length, the 2nd lashing strap on the shoulder bag length. This way I could carry it in 2 ways: as a suitcase and as a shoulder bag. The duct tape held the box closed and the straps in place. And yes, it went perfectly, I just came home with it by public transport.
Damn nice, that lounge sofa in the first class. Nice space for that box, and to hang on the couch as if I were at home (except for the muzzle due the Covid-19 restrictions).
Okay, then I came home with the telescope, and decided to just put it together completely. After all, this way you know whether everything is complete, and whether there is damage or not. The good news was that it was complete. There were 3 eyepieces, and a sun and moon filter.
Again a WARNING: NEVER, NEVER look directly at the sun through a telescope or binoculars, unless you want to be permanently blind to your eye(s). Also a 2x Barlow was present, so I was delighted with it. The bad news was he had damage. The telescope tube had several deep scratches and some dents.
One of the dents was in a very unfortunate place: 1 of the 3 mounting points of the secondary mirror was dented, bending a leg of that mirror. As a result, the mirror was also completely disrupted, and it could not be used at that time.
I was able to bend that leg straight again, without anything damaging or breaking.
I managed to get rid of the dent in the telescope tube, where the secondary mirror is attached. Then I decided to just disassemble the entire telescope, sand the telescope tube bare and repaint it.
While the telescope tube was hanging on the clothesline to dry, I started working on the parts. Cleaning mirrors, cleaning viewfinder and eyepieces, that sort of things.
First I took care of the viewfinder.
As if it is new, beautifully shiny and clean.
Then it was time for the secondary mirror, which I also wanted to clean completely. While cleaning I noticed it seemed to be loose in it's mounting, so I untied the mirror.
It turned out that the padding that was in the mirror holder, over many years, had lost some of its resilience. This problem was solved by filling it up a little extra, just with a piece of toilet paper. Then it could be put back together, and the mirror was well mounted again. Yes, the fingerprint was polished away later.
Then it was time for the main mirror.
It also turned out that this mirror sat be a bit loose in his mounting, so I took it off completely. The foam had also lost a bit of resilience over the years, so that had to be filled up too. Now it was actually quite convenient that I like a beer from time to time. Because, I did the filling with a beer mat, which was just perfect for the job.
Then the piece of foam rubber went back again, and the primary mirror (after being cleaned) was firmly stuck in its holder.
Then I temporarily packed it in a bag to protect it from dust. I also put it on the scale for a moment.
When later that day the paint of the telescope tube had dried, I reassembled the telescope. Then I adjusted the primary and secondary mirror again as well as possible via the adjusting screws. Then I went outside with the telescope, aimed it at a treetop further on, and then adjusted the viewfinder again with the adjusting screws.
A day later I took care of his wooden tripod. The wood had split on one of the legs, which was noticed when tightening the locking screw at the bottom of the leg. I solved that by drilling 2 holes through it, then screwing 2 long screws through it. These ensure that the metal bracket cannot be pushed further apart by splitting wood.
But, I thought to myself, those wooden legs ..... You know what? I'm just going to do it: disassemble the wooden legs, put them in the lacquer, let them dry, and put them back together. Seems beautiful to me, and so it happened. Here is the end result:
But, there was one small detail on this telescope, which I also wanted to solve:
The drive of the hour axis, it was a bit open and exposed. But yes, if I do not have the original cap, it must be solved differently. And here it was again an advantage that I like to open a can of beer.
I took a can from the trash can, cut out a piece of can, bent it to fit, and sprayed it with black paint. With the nail I punched a hole in it so that it could be attached.
This was the result:
And what do you do when you have restored a telescope? Right, use it, so get outside with that thing!
And it works fine, nice sharp images from the stars too, just as I had it in my memories. I got it adjusted really good, and I am so very grateful and happy to have brought my model telescope home again. That big and STUPID mistake I made in 1995 has been reversed. He's back home, and the satisfaction came back when I used him to try him out.
This reflector telescope is from the brand Tasco, but is exactly the same model as the Pollux I bought in the 90's. I think this particular model has just been sold under different brands / labels. I must say that his wooden tripod is nice and stable. More stable than the 2 more modern telescopes on their light aluminum tripods. The reason I think it's a 70's model? Because I came across a blog from someone about exactly this model, who stated that he had bought it in the late 1970s.
* Update 02-10-2020: after some research, this telescope model appears to be from 1960. *
In any case, I now have a nice collection of reflector telescopes, The Three Amigos!
