Free! telescopes, tripods & other equipment in Columbia, MD

[Jennifer E. Manning]

Hello, thank you letting me join this group. I have a friend, a MD park ranger, who died unexpectedly recently & I am helping his widow give away his astronomy equipment. I live in Owen Brown, Columbia. We have 2 telescopes— a TeleVue & a Celestron, two tripods, books, & assorted other equipment. I am attaching a few pics & can provide many more.  Please feel free to text me at 4436764796 for more details & pictures. Thank you very much. 

Jennifer Manning 

Swan Point, Columbia 

[John Nagy]

That is some very expensive stuff. I think that model of Televue maybe very sought after. If the widow really wants to donate it, maybe HAL could accept it. It could then be loaned out to interested parties when they're ready for such a fine piece of equipment. 

Just a thought.

John

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[j...@tomney.com]

Hi John,

 

Totally agree that it is some excellent equipment, but the logistics of storing\selling it (much less orchestrating a loan program) is more than we are prepared to do. From our website:

 

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[David Glasser]

Hi Jennifer,

Sorry to hear of your loss.

That gear does indeed have some value. Not that it would necessarily change your friend’s mind about a donation or giving it away. Selling gear can be easy or difficult, depending whether a local buyer is interested. Packing delicate astronomy equipment for shipping can be a challenge to the uninitiated. That said, it is excellent equipment if in good repair. It would be a shame to see it end up in a landfill. Hopefully someone reading this will be interested.

Just for reference, Tele Vue 102s have sold on astromart.com for $1300-1600 in the past year or two. Coronado 40 mm PSTs for $400-500, sometimes more with eyepieces or other accessories. I don’t see any data for recent sales of the Celestron scope or mount, they are older but still considered high quality.

David Glasser

(former Swan Pointer)

[Hymowitz, Michelle L]

Dear all,

I know the director of the UMBC observatory and he has been spearheading more 'pop-scope' events and might be able to use this equipment at the college. Would it be OK for me to ask him if he is interested in acquiring the equipment?

Michelle Hymowitz

IB Mathematics Teacher

Meade High School

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Subject: Re: [howardastro] Free! telescopes, tripods & other equipment in Columbia, MD

 

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[j...@tomney.com]

Hi everyone,

 

If you are interested in being a good steward of the equipment or books, please reach out to Jennifer directly. Likewise if you have what you feel is a good suggestion for how the equipment can be used to support astronomy outreach, get in touch with her. But this is not a group decision, so not need to float the idea here for any approval.

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

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[Jennifer E. Manning]

Hello all, thank you for the outpouring of responses. I’ve heard from many HAL members, and I’m sure that everything will be going to a good home. I’ll be working on pickups and deliveries later this week, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to respond to any more inquiries. Thanks. 

Jennifer Manning

More about the previous owner of the equipment: 

https://www.stateparks.org/news-events/community-mourns-sudden-loss-of-beloved-maryland-park-ranger-erik-ledbette/

[James Kaiser]

Hello, folks. I have been taking photos by hand, and sometimes with a
little rig, through my telescopes for decades. I have some photos that
I am proud of. But I recently became interested in prime-focus
photography and in getting a solid, reliable eyepiece projection setup
going. This latter seems quite elusive.

I have a homemade Dobsonian 8" f/7.25 Newtonian.

I am in search of someone I could call and chat about my options.

Clear skies, everyone!

- Jim

[j...@tomney.com]

Hi Jim,

I guess a first question would be what sort of objects are you trying to photograph, and a few more details on the equipment (DSLR camera? Tracking on the DOB or is it just classic no-motors Dobsonian?)

Jim Tomney

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[jkharvie]

Hi, Jim, a great question, I have for many years taken pictures on my shoe string budget pictures thru my scopes.  These pictures are in the bin of a no tracking, configuration as for 98 percent of the years, I have not not had a motor drive on my scope so I used the point and drift method with prime focus. What this means is if you live in a non dark night sky your taking pictures of a reduced number of objects such as Sun, Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and her many moons, and my favorite the moon we landed some folks on about 55 years ago. Or using stacked image outcomes.  My scopes include 6 inch reflecting f8, refractors with objectives of 130mm, 90 mm, 80 mm. All my scopes are DIY, except for the actual optics, And I have used my EOS camera pointing to sky with 50mm to 400mm. F1.8 to f8 lens.   I have used 5 types of consumer digital cameras, considered using my film, but stuck with digital,  technology evolving as consumer electronics has evolved.  This includes second hand canon cameras from shop goodwill.com.  Cameras have been EOS, pocket, and recently my Google 7 pro mobile.  Key issues in a sense of priority, beyond finding the object, achieving crisp focus, achieving uniformity of crisp focus over full x,y of picture, mechanical stability, methods for pointing and seeing to stage the picture and manually reset for next nudge and shoot,  vibration free shutter release,  technical performance of the imaging system, camera mounting systems and methods, exposure release methods, shutter management, understand how pixels are managed the the camera being used.  Some key lessons learned, tough to undertake but rewarding when accomplished.  You can today take a picture with a good digital mobile phone that is really quite good.  

I use the end of my 2 inch focuser mechanical tube to connect to my mobile camera, I use a camera APPlication to harvest best possible camera outcome, I use countdown timer , or an external shutter release, I use the 570ppi mobile phone screen as a digital focus screen.  If post processing in numerous tools to improve signal to noise by stacking, and make it look "good".  I have also moved into film shorts, to acquire many frames, that can be stacked, this at 60fps, with the mobile has opened up potentials not previously available.  Enjoy and I would be delighted to share any specifics.

John

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