TMB/LZOS 152 F7.9 followed me home.....

[Rainmaker]

and my dear wife said I could keep it as long as I cleaned after it.....

After lots of negotiations recently, a friend finally agreed to my pestering and sold me his "One owner, Pride and Joy"

TMB-LZOS 152mm F7.9 @ 1200mm CNC Lightweight II Super Apochromatic beast with 3.5" Feathertouch Focuser, Baader ClickLock back plate and Baader BBHS 2" Sitall Mirror Diagonal....
Though there are some little signs of wear, it is in excellent condition needing just a bit of TLC.

Today I got brave enough and removed the objective cell so I could clean some dust and haze from the back of the 3rd lens as well as dew spots off the front element.

Unfortunately I had to sacrifice much of my prior inventory of astro stuff but C'est La Vie !!!

[yobbo89]

looks like a very nice scope! i assume this scope cost a pretty penny!

[bladekeeper]

Congrats on a fine instrument, Matt!

[Lady Fraktor]

TMB, some of my favorite refractors!
Congratulations on the new acquisition Matt

[Rainmaker]

Thanks everyone, this has been a scope I have thought about for years but it has been too expensive to buy new and too elusive to find pre-loved until now.

I'm looking forward to getting this under the stars, first order of business was cleaning the objective yesterday .... today I made a sturdy handle to carry the beast, now I just need some clear skies.
Chris, the original owner had set this up for AP for many years but recently switched to visual and added all those nice Baader accessories as well as a custom ScopeGuard case and Telegizmos cover.
The OTA with rings and dovetail plate comes in at 14.3 Kg which is very reasonable given the size of it. The OTA is the later lightweight Kruppax50 material....

[John Baars]

Very nice instrument. Congratulations!

[Rainmaker]

Finally I have had a chance to get this beautiful scope under the stars and it is as expected a very fine refractor. The Russian opticians at LZOS certainly are masters of the craft.
Star testing at 200x showed how fine it is, with the intrafocal and extrafocal fresnel rings near identical and in focus images on par with my TSA and TOA refractors.

She is a big scope and I think I would not want to put anything bigger on the AZ-EQ6GT, even with my modification to the mount....
I also installed a new Robin Casady NJP saddle onto the mount with an extra set of 3 set screws to hold the puck in the mount... (feel more confident now about hanging this rather expensive bit of kit on there)

I took a few pics of the scope on its mount at the Mount Stromlo Observatory:

[Lady Fraktor]

Beautiful refractor, I am sure the views are spectacular with it
Is Robin Casady still machining parts? The last time I looked at his site he was selling everything off.

[Rainmaker]

Beautiful refractor, I am sure the views are spectacular with it
Is Robin Casady still machining parts? The last time I looked at his site he was selling everything off.

Thanks Gabby,
Robin retired a couple years ago, his brother did have some stocks but they were sold pretty quickly after people realised that no more would be made.

[Lady Fraktor]

Thank you Matt, that is what I thought.
Unfortunate, he made some really nice accessories.