Astro Physics 6" f/8 APO refractor telescope Need room for new Astrophysics Gran Turismo 5" f/6 EDF Start Price USD 0.99 Current Price USD 3,051.00 Time Left - Bid Count 24 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Monday, August 18, 2008 End Time Monday, August 25, 2008 Location Amish Country New Holland, PA See more about 'Astro Physics 6" f/8 APO refractor telescope' Description ap   Astro-Physics 6" f/8 APO refractor telescope I need to make room for my new 5" f/6.3 Gran Turismo!!! I purchased this telescope used somewhere in the late 90s. I bought it because I had already owned a used 5" f/8 Starfire EDT also from Astro-Physics. When I saved up enough money to pay for the difference, I waited until a 6" came up for sale and bought it.  I knew I wouldn't have any trouble selling the 5".  If you know anything about these scopes, you know that it's very rare for one to come up for sale. Almost everyone in the astronomy community knows the quality of Astro-Physics' telescopes.   By far this was the best refractor I had ever owned.  The optics on these scopes are just outstanding and really unbelievable until you look through one yourself. For visual use, an APO refractor cannot be beat for wide field views, and for planetary viewing.  When your atmosphereic seeing isn't very good, a refractor will always perform much better than a reflector.   My main reason for buying this 6" f/8 was for astrophotography.  I was already using the 5" f/8 and I wanted more.  I would drive 4 hours each way to take pictures up in Potter county, PA at Cherry Springs State Park. Back in those days you were happy to run into a few people each time you went up.  Now it's very busy up there and a super popular place to go.   As you can see in this picture and the previous picture, the cosmetics aren't even close to perfect.  The paint has been scratched off in a few places and there are some stains too.  This still has the original 2.7" focuser with the teflon coated tube (blue).  Even though it's not a perfect 10 in cosmetics, its functionality is a perfect 10.  The focuser is butter smooth, the dew shield is great, and the 7" rings work perfectly. If you wanted to, you could refurbish the paint job on the tube and you could replace the focuser if you wanted to.  Of course I found no reason to because if the functionality is perfect, you can't see what it looks like in the dark anyway!   Showing the original dew shield and the original end cap (actually an insert). A case is also included although it's not the case intended for this telescope.  I bought it without a case and later found this case that works pretty well.  It's an Astro-Physics case for a 7" f/9 which is obviously bigger and longer than a 6" f/8.  It actually works really well because I always like keeping the 7" rings and the mounting plate attached.  If you use the cases intended for the scope, you cannot keep the rings or mouting plate attached.   Here's a picture of the optics without the dew shield in place.  This type of lens cell was not adjustable, so to adjust collimation you have to loosen the 3 screws that hold the cell to the tube, do your adjusting, then tighten them back up.  Once set you don't have to mess with collimation.  The reason I mention this is because I took out the cell and put it in my own tube.  I made it specifically for my needs which was a strong focal reducer, custom adapters for a 6x6 medium format camera, and a 4" helical focuser.  I have now put the cell back in its original tube so I can sell it.  I just used this scope a month or 2 ago when we had a partial lunar eclipse and I can say the collimation is close to perfect.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you don't need to worry.  This is only for the REALLY discriminating users which I was.  I don't have the cheshire eyepiece to do it myself, or I would.   In this picture I need to point out one more flaw.  When I was young and dumb I decided to clean the lens myself .  I used the proper materiels, but I was not careful enough to keep changing the pads in the first wave of cleaning. Well if you look closely at the picture you can see what happened.  I accidentally rubbed off some of the coatings on the one side (top side in this pic).  You almost can't see it.   It was a tragedy in the sense of marring an original legend, but let me be clear that it did not effect performance of the telescope.  The coatings are there to allow slightly higher light transmission.  The glass is NOT scratched, only the coatings.  This is the single coating almost all lenses used back then before the newer technology of multicoatings came out.  I think it's MgF.   I don't want to talk down my telescope.  I just want to be up front with everything.  When I purchased this scope, the gentleman I bought it from told me it was the newer 6" f/9, not the older 6" f/8.  Well I had no idea how to identify which was which or even how to check it out before I had it in my hands.  I got misled and I don't want anyone to feel that way after buying it from me.   Now back to some more exciting stuff - the optics and images.  Here's a picture of my back yard with a "normal" focal length.  Do you see that red flowered bush (crepe myrtle) in the center of the pic?   Here's what you get when you take the same picture through a 6" f/8 refractor!!!  That's somewhere around 1220mm focal length!  That's enough focal length to have the moon almost entirely fill up the frame of a newer style SLR digital camera (22.2 x 14.8mm sized chip).   Here's the exact same picture with a 100% crop.  Yes, I'm still standing about 60' away from this bush!   The detail is perfect down to the pixel level.  And actually, the detail is sub-pixel if you have the atmosphere to handle it.  That's from Astro-Physics' specs. Sometimes you will hear things about how the older APO telescopes had some false color in them.  I can tell you from experience that yes, you will see some color on only the brightest of stars, but that's it.  Even modern so called APO telescopes have more of this false color than this vintage Astro-Physics telescope.  In daylight photography shots like this, you will NEVER see false color.  This isn't the most convienent camera lens to take birding, but it sure gets the job done!   To at least get in the right mood, here's the moon from last week.  Obviously, this telescope is capable of much greater resolution, but the atmosphere wouldn't support it last night.  I have lots of deep sky pics taken with this scope and my medium format camera, but that was back in the days of film.  I don't have many digitized or scanned, so I can't show them here. Please read a review about this exact telescope here. Don't even try to purchase one of the newer Astro-Physics telescopes today.  Their waiting list is over 10 years long.  How do I know?  I just received my 130mm f/6.3 EDF Gran Turismo telescope and WOW am I having a good time with that!  I had been on the waiting list for 9.5 years!!! Now I need some cash to help pay for that.  As I get older I prefer to use a smaller and shorter telescope because it's easier to handle.  Lucky you!  You get to own this owesome piece of equipment. Make sure you have a mount beefy enough to handle it. Now for some details about this auction: What this includes: Astro-Physics 6" f/8 optical tube assembly including dew shield, dew cap, and 2.7" focuser with 2" adapter in the end 7" rings to mount to your mounting plate case from 7" f/9 Astro-Physics telescope as described above What this does NOT include: Any eyepiece, diagonals, etc. AP finder scope, although I think I may have it somewhere.  If I find it you can have it. mounting plate for your mount - you must provide the plate pictured Losmandy G-11 mount (or any mount for that matter) I am located about half-way between Harrisburg and Philadelphia near the PA turnpike.  If you would like to come see it before the auction is over, please contact me.  For obvious reasons I would really prefer not to ship this.  If you do need it shipped, there will be a SIGNIFICANT packing and shipping fee yet to be determined.  If this must travel, I'd prefer (and so would you) to have it professionally packed.  The case itself is a great protector, but even the case needs to be protected. If interested, I also have a shorter 7" custom made tube assembly and 4" helical focuser (made by me), and a custom focal reducer made professionally by an optical engineer.  Like I said earlier, my original setup was to use this scope with a strong reducer (about .6x) and use it with my Pentacon Six TL medium format camera (6cm x 6cm).  My reducer is too large to fit in the 2.7" focuser.  That's why I had the 4" focuser and custom tubes and adapters to make it all work.  It seems the days of days of medium format are over, but who knows?  Maybe somebody is looking for the strong reducer for faster f-ratio work.  Please contact me regarding this custom stuff if you're interested.  We'll work something out. VERY IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ: I prefer personal checks (for which you will wait up to 10 business days or 2 weeks for clearing), money orders, and other instant payment methods.  And to repeat, shipping is not included and I prefer not to ship.  We will have to work something out that's agreeable to both parties if this telescope needs to be shipped.  The shipping/packing/handling fees would probably be over $100. On Aug-19-08 at 18:45:40 PDT, seller added the following information:As pointed out by the reviewer, my use of the English language leaves something to be desired.  My statement, "please read a review about this exact telescope here" should be replace by "please read a review about this exact MODEL telescope here."  You are purchasing mine, not the reviewers. Place a Bid!