Space Forum / Astronomy / August 2008

Hiya all,

I have in my possession a very old scope - its an M.S.S. 4.5 inch reflector
a glorious 900mm long. It's very rough overall - really should have gone in
the bin but I've cleaned the optics and realigned them - despite a bit of
desilvering to the primary mirror (spot about 5mmx2mm long) it is delivering
what appear to be very sharp images of terrestrial objects.

I would like to source a new secondary mirror (it just doesn't look right) -
will have to keep an active eye on the rubbish tip I guess!

More importantly - all viewing today has been via the finders eyepiece
simply plopped into place over the focussing tube - it works well enough but
I want some real eyepieces!!!!!

So - any suggestion on where to source the 'old fashioned' .9 or whatever
inch eyepieces? I have found some ex Tasco ones on ebay but I did own a
Tasco scope at one time and figure the supplied eyepieces are not the
best....

Finally, what are the chances of finding a focusser on the cheap? The one
that is fitted is a bit weird - you rotate the body to focus - I'm more used
to knobs!

I've not been an active observer since 1995ish - bear with me!

Cheers for any suggestions

Scott - Midlands