Hello to all our friends and anyone who enters our astronomy site! After a few years of raising kids and working allot we have more time for astronomy with my wife Debbie.

My first scope was the Tasco 60mm Alt az mount Around 1967 -68 This scope went everywhere with me and was completely worn out by the time I was 16 years old.

At 18 found a broken and smashed 4" reflector another Tasco and restored it. During this time I stared to work on old telescopes and optics and retored a few old refractors during my 20s. Mostly studying the planets and the moon with my boys, then I gave the 4" Tasco to a missionary friend who was going to Nigeria Africa. I assume the scope is still there.

During my 30s and early 40s I have had a chance to view with friends larger scopes in Oceanside where I lived for 15 years but did not have the money for the type of scopes I wanted and could not bring myself to spend this much.

Well I moved to LA and have jumped back in with both feet! Our youngest son out on his own and doing well and Debbie and I love astronomy and telescopes.

2004 we purchased the somewhat wayward Meade LX200GPS

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We decided that a more stable larger light bucket was going to make a big difference. So for a Great price for the supplied equipment Carlos, Daniel & Ferha At Woodland hills Telescope Hooked us up with the LX200 gps. I brought it home and proceeded to go thru the I cant get the AUTOSTAR to upgrade syndrome, And the darn it the DEC gears are Plastic and the Telescope hangs on AUTOSTAR INITILIZING now what do i do! So Ferha Got meade to send the New set of 4 bright shiny brass gears. And I read about how to install them forever and put them in. Smooth as silk and the tracing was great but the RA PEC kept up the error messages. So Woodland Hills Telescope a Great Store had it Sent to meade for a attitude adjustment.Wow what an attitude adjustment, Meade really set the scope up perfect it is tracking great and the go to hasn't missed yet. What a wonder of engineering this scope is, just set it up, turn it on and off it goes!! I sold the Meade GPS to a friend who lives out near the grand canyon.

An update We have been going at this for the past year and am getting things worked out!!

Tak 130-f with all the trims. Losmandy G-11 with a Gemini system. I dont need to say any thing about this equipment. This setup I put together in order to get away from the GPS and fork mounted telescopes. These are visual telescopes and are not acurate enough for astrophotography. The Losmandy is perfect.

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WO zenith star 80 top mounted. Also serves as our, were going to the big island travel scope and is a great scope with wonderfull optics.

My sweety Debbie who loves mount Pinos and freezing!!

And the Taks first light August 06, Mount Pinos, we were the only ones up there (full moon) so we spent all night letting the boy scouts look at jupiter and the moon. There were like 20 Cub Scouts and two scout masters. We had a great time!

The marked improvement in our pictures is due mostly to the scope, mount and software, At this time the rebel is modified by me I took out the IR filter and use this camera only for astrophotograghy....Clint

CLASSIC TELESCOPES

Well with the STAR-OAK Ranch Renovations, work and running around the web page has suffered a huge laps in time and Telescopes.

I have had the good fortune of being bitten by the Classic Telescope bug when I was a kid. I have repaired and restored more telescopes than I can remeber. Over the past few years I have had a chance to work on many of my friends telescopes and collected many fine examples of Tinsleys, Nippon Kogakus, Cave Astrolas, Unitrons, And my Find of a Lifetime, on December of 2009 I found a one of a kind 1985 9" F10 Astro-Phyisics oil space triplet known as the "Pearle" so dubbed by Jonny Hardwick. Roland Chirsten Called it the "Onsey" he only made one. The Tube, Lens & Lens cells were build by Roland I have designed a new tail piece and install a 4" AP Feather touch focuser on the original OTA.

1984 9" F10.6 Whitman/Christen Astro-Phyisics Refractror

1950s Unitron 4" F15 Guide Scope, 1970s Christen Designed 80mm Triplet Finder

Whitman/Pons/Byers 812 Customized mount, Whitman Constructed Steel fix pier.

Here Are Some Older Scope Stories & Restorations

1975 10" F5 Cave Astrola

Debbie and I purchased this 2005 from a great guy and his wife. Bill & Kathy Llano in Brea, CA. Bill picked this up from Tom Cave in 1980 after grinding his own mirror and giving it to Tom to put in this scope, Well after having the scope for a while and loving the optics he was really happy with his work, grinding his own mirror. After a while the mirror got dusty he went to clean it and realized this was a cave mirror he Called Tom and asked where his mirror was Tom Messed up and put Bills mirror in a scope going to Australia. Ouch! But Bill loved the optics and is like I said a great guy! So if your in Australia and have a 10" Cave you may have a Llano one of a kind mirror!!!

As far as this scope We just got back from Bills and I thru it together, Clear cold night. Wow now i know why Bill didnt complain to much. M42 is incredible in this fast Cave, I could see reds and blues and I am in Van Nuys, it rivals the Tak 130 in contrast, and i didn't collimate it yet. This is the kind you wish you had! After some cleanup and restoration of the 79 two more Caves have decided to live in my garage so the 1979 10" Was sent to Rich in Seakonk Mass. He purchased this scope after some work was put into it. He has completly restored it and it is now a prize feature is his obsevatory!!

THE LEGENED OF THE VIEWING CAVE

1965 F8 10" Tom Cave, Astrola Telescope. I think these scopes are twice as good as the new ones as far as Bad to the bone USA design and Americana. This photo was Taken in 1965 in Long Island New York by the Original 16 year old owner Jim who I purchased the scope from.

(Click on the photo for the restoration page.)

This scope is now completely restored and is a wonderful telescope. John Pons and Ed Zucardi two of LAs best known telescope men have viewed the stars and Jupiter with this scope and told me that it is a Freak mirror! One in a million with a perfect figure. John who was friends with Tom Cave and Alika Herring said It is one of the best figured 10" Mirrors he has ever seen! After the many hours of work restoring this telescope this review by two of the most experienced astronomers in the US made your humble author a very happy Telescope man!!!

The Antelope Valley Astronomy Club, Inc
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