CLINTSTARS

We have come a long way from the Tasco 4" in 1986

As a child I had a Tasco 60mm alt az, As alot of kids did and it did a great job on the moon and terestrial objects. Finding things in the night sky as a ten year old was another story. I used this telescope for a number of years until it fell apart if I remember corectly. Some years later I was hicking in the seireas and came up on a road. There was a group of people with telescopes. A gentleman asked if we wanted to see the horsehead nebula. WOW I was hooked again but didn't have the money or the patience for astronomy being 18 you know what I was into!! Well at 27 years old in 1987 I was re-building a guys house and there was a dented 4" reflector in a pile of junk he sold it to me for $20 and I worked on it for hours to get it working. I did and have been watching learning and building / restoring since.

My Latest project a 1960s Unitron 152 4" refractor

This scope was somehow in the netherlands which is strange due to Polarex being the european name which was Unitron was distributed there. Debbie asked me what I wanted for my birthday and of course I said a UNITRON. Well after some searching we found one! THE LOST UNITRON, Harald Haverkorn had the scope in the Netherlands. Harald, I call him Hal, Is a great and honest person that lives in the netherlands. He is a Teacher and musician and one of the best people you could ever meet and a true astronomer and lover of old telescopes. The lost unitron was purchased by Harald from an astronomy student and was very cheap for what it was. This was due to the fact that it was completely ruined aesthetically. All manors of corrosion and lost of all of it nickel plating! Due to the value I saw and the potential of the scope Debbie purchased it for me!!!! Well it took a long time to get here and came in various boxes, one at a time. On the first assignments I said to my self OOOO no, But with months of hard work and living in a place full of craftsmen and machinists. The scope has come out to be one of the best looking Unitron's you will ever see. After weeks of working with the original 4" F15 Objective. I came to realize that the one that was sent with the scope has hugh scratch in it, A turned edge, and it is under corrected. Bad news! Plan B Debbie and I were at RTMC in Big Bear. Walking thru the swap meet I found a 1960s 4" guide scope with a nice looking objective in it!! Price marked on the OTA was $650 Gary Hand from HANDS ON OPTICS had it for sale. Not having allot of money I offered $450 after he assured me that it had great star tests. He accepted the offer. brought the tube home and over to John Pons. he spent an hour removing and installing the lens in my OTA. Then the star test. The lens is also under corrected and has a bad star test. I called Gary about the lens his answer was list it on E-Bay and double your money!! Sure thing Gary great Idea. Well I don't think I will do that to you guys I am honest and would have to say its under corrected. Well after talking with several old timers about UNITRON OBJECTIVES I started to realize that finding a unitron objective that will meet my needs would be close to impossible. Harald has promised that he will find me a great unitron objective so in the mean time a Jaegers 4" F15 objective showed up on E-bay I bid on it and won. This is an odd ball objective, but it has perfect star tests and splits every double I point at with very little color. It fit right into the Unitron lens cell. John Pons says it is a Jaegers lens that was made for Unitron. So I will stick with that story. At this time the Jaegers objective is perfect and is staying in until Harald find the magic objective he said he will find. The photo, Unitron 152 completely restored. Super 2" focuser, My 1955 114 as the Guider. Unitron Electric shelf clock drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN PONS 6" 1956 Goto refractor and his custom built Zeiss 10" monster F15

Here's the business-end of the amazing 6-inch Goto refractor owned by John Pons. Originally built in 1954, acquired by Joe Choate of Los Angeles, CA in 1956, it was destined for the landfill when John acquired it some years ago. It was a basket case until John's magic brought it back to its former glory. Today, it appears exactly as it looked in mid-1950s Sky & Telescope advertisements. I'll let you in on a little secret. The objective lens presently installed in the Goto is actually a prototype 6-1/4 inch clear aperture Unitron lens. The Goto objective is carefully wrapped and stored elsewhere, but can be reinstalled at any time. Both objectives are superb examples of the opticians art.

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A new window into space, The UNI-PON 6" F15 custom machined beauty!!

John has become a very good friend of mine. He is a great optics and telescope designer. As a complete favor to me we are in the process of building a scope for myself mostly to use at the school observatory (more later) The scope is built around and old mint condition Jaegers F15 6" Objective that john had sold to Philo and Philo sold back to me. Now the scope is being built with a Custom machined, Pons designed objective holder with a milled screw on dew shield and screw on cap. The Jaegers cell has been threaded to screw into the holder, The tail piece is an original 6" Unitron and Super 2" focuser that has had custom machined parts made to accept standard eyepieces. But is completely original. We had a ring machined to adapted the tailpiece to a 7" extruded tube. We have made the 5 spun stops, Cut the tube down on the 26th of July 07. All is ready for the powder coaters and anodizers. I need to make a new big box!