I purchased an antares 6" f6.5 refractor from the AM awhile ago. It was sold with a twin at the same time from the same seller. I paid a 100.00 more for the scope than it's twin because it was advertised as having "excellent star tests and incredible images." It was also adverised as being compatible with a GC-5 mount which I had also purchased from through the AM.
When the scope arrived, I placed it upon the mount and it appeared to be stable but as soon as I moved the scope, the tube dislodged and it hit the floor like a B-24. I immediately emailed the seller who told me "sorry" but he may have mismounted the dovetail plate upside down on the tube! Fortunately, the lens was unscathed but a lens spacer was dislodged so I had a friend check out the scope. It turns out that other spacers were missing and a lens element was also flipped in the objective. This was the way I received the scope and the fall onto a carpeted surface couldn't possibly have flipped the lens in its cell. I emailed the seller because there was no way the scope could have produced excellent star tests and incredible images with a flipped element. The seller denied any responsibility for the problem and threatened to give me a bad rating if I did the same to him. Additionally, the thirty day period expired during the time I tried to correct the problem with the scope and the seller also deleted his ad. I contacted the buyer of the second scope and his arrived with no lens spacers!
My scope had a terrible diffraction pattern with third order coma evident in the image. My friend Jake worked very hard on the scope and the image was fairly sharp but the third order coma persisted. After contacting a lot of people, I was recommended to see John Pons whom Daniel Mounsey has described as an "optical guru."
John worked on the scope today and replaced lens spacers, shimmed the cell, replaced screws and collimated it with a beam splitter of his own making and the result is a beautiful diffraction pattern without any comatic flare.
Visiting with John Pons is like visiting with history, He's got the second 6" (actually 6.25") unitron refractor lens made back in the '50s. He's got a huge 9" achromatic zeiss refractor in his garage along with massive mounts, a 12.5" planetary optimized newt with a huge mount and so much stuff that it's truly incredible to see.
I spent most of today (Sunday) working on my scope with John, looking at sunspots through a wedge filter of his own making and drooling over his beautiful refractors.
What a day!
When the scope arrived, I placed it upon the mount and it appeared to be stable but as soon as I moved the scope, the tube dislodged and it hit the floor like a B-24. I immediately emailed the seller who told me "sorry" but he may have mismounted the dovetail plate upside down on the tube! Fortunately, the lens was unscathed but a lens spacer was dislodged so I had a friend check out the scope. It turns out that other spacers were missing and a lens element was also flipped in the objective. This was the way I received the scope and the fall onto a carpeted surface couldn't possibly have flipped the lens in its cell. I emailed the seller because there was no way the scope could have produced excellent star tests and incredible images with a flipped element. The seller denied any responsibility for the problem and threatened to give me a bad rating if I did the same to him. Additionally, the thirty day period expired during the time I tried to correct the problem with the scope and the seller also deleted his ad. I contacted the buyer of the second scope and his arrived with no lens spacers!
My scope had a terrible diffraction pattern with third order coma evident in the image. My friend Jake worked very hard on the scope and the image was fairly sharp but the third order coma persisted. After contacting a lot of people, I was recommended to see John Pons whom Daniel Mounsey has described as an "optical guru."
John worked on the scope today and replaced lens spacers, shimmed the cell, replaced screws and collimated it with a beam splitter of his own making and the result is a beautiful diffraction pattern without any comatic flare.
Visiting with John Pons is like visiting with history, He's got the second 6" (actually 6.25") unitron refractor lens made back in the '50s. He's got a huge 9" achromatic zeiss refractor in his garage along with massive mounts, a 12.5" planetary optimized newt with a huge mount and so much stuff that it's truly incredible to see.
I spent most of today (Sunday) working on my scope with John, looking at sunspots through a wedge filter of his own making and drooling over his beautiful refractors.
What a day!
