The Unitron 9 inch, a visit.
Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2020 11:42 pm
In 2018 I visited the University of Delft, Netherlands, the place where the largest known Unitron in the world was restored. Six miles from where I live. Dave Komar (@Unitron48 ) of TSS already had contact with the professor / owner and brought me in contact with him. The largest Unitron of the world is well described on Dave's website: https://www.unitronhistory.com/ Search for Features---> Unitron model 900.
I made a report of my visit and posted it exclusively on Astronomyforum. Everybody knows what happened to that forum and the report was lost. I deliberately did not post it on the Dutch Forum, the owner did not like too much publicity in Holland. I respected that. SinceTSS is more or less an heir in spirit of the intellectual legacy of Astronomyforum, where the quest started, I decided to post it here again.
Hereby the text and some of the pictures I made.
" Last friday 03-23-2018 I had the opportunity to visit the one and only 9 inch Unitron Polarex telescope in the world.
Thanks to Dave Komar, who pointed me out the whereabouts of this giant telescope (several miles from my hometown!) , I was able to contact the owner. The owner tells us through Dave about the amazing rescue from the scrapyard and demolition on Dave's site: https://www.unitronhistory.com/user-sto ... model-900/ See much more pictures there too!
Quite a remarkable and readable story. The owner told me that the rescue was no sinecure, since the telescope parts were separately found in several old buildings, partly covered under blankets or a thick layer of dust. The scope had never seen assembling. Almost unrecognizable, he didn't even know if some parts belonged to it or not. The caretaker of the square half a mile terrain couldn't help him either. And all that under the blazing heat of the Japanese sun. Luckely he was there.... expecting to find a five incher, hoping for maybe even a six inch instrument, and found this...
All old buildings of the old factory have been removed by now.
Restoration and assembling of the 00-1989 marked giant took place at Technical University Delft, and being in the hands of the professor (owner) is all you want if you are a telescope that wants to be restored. Like many private owners of very big Polarex telescopes, the professor likes to keep low profile, so I didn't know if he had time for me as a simple amateur-astronomer/ tourist. Being a visual observer with a preference for refractors and living "around the corner" helped a lot.
So there I was. The professor picked me up at the university's parking lot and after passing some security doors I saw the giant in the large assembly hall.
I was amazed. "What a monster", I mumbled.
The professor told me that the straps of the lifting crane are for his own and my security.The mount is not bolted to the floor... In the base lie 881 lbs of lead in small portions, for low gravity point reasons.
The lead in the base.
It took the owner quite some time of cleaning, polishing and puzzling to refit all parts. There was no manual and the majority of the parts were not assembled. One very very big puzzle! His search through the old Unitron terrain must have been very thorough, because no noteworthy parts had to be made. The 55 lbs lens is in the UK, where he lives nowadays (good thinking), and he has planned a 20 feet dome. "First thing I am going to do when I have the telescope operational in the UK, is to take a chair, sit in the dome beside it and enjoy the beauty of it", he trusted me. I think I would do the same after many years of restoration.
The more than 160 lbs telescope operates very smoothly, nothing could be heard as I slewed it a few degrees around. The only way I could tell was by looking at the red control light and the rotating crown-axis that drives the worm. What a difference to my own GPDX mount! Worm and worm-wheel are extremely fine and have many more fine teeth than my own. I forgot to ask how many...sorry. The lens is replaced by dummy-weights to keep him balanced. Lens is waiting for its tube in the UK!
Four brass rods secure locking and fine tuningRA an Dec axles. Driving train of RA axis is seen here.
This is me actually operating the telescope. It is a very simple handheld controller really. "forward", "reverse", "stop" and an old fashioned counter with a small wheel to regulate the speed. That's all. Look at the size of it all. I am 6 feet tall.
Nice posing. Looks like I am switching there something with my left hand.There is nothing to be switched over there I am afraid:-)...little joke of the professor and me.
Put two enthusiastic amateur-astronomers together and a half an hour photo session becomes a two and half hour visit in which we talked about observing planets, Unitrons Polarex, other equipment. He even showed me several researches he and his students are working on.
Within months this Unitron will find its new home in the United Kingdom. As a planetary-fan the owner will use this mastodon frequently. I'm glad he will. I wish him many happy observing years in the future. And many thanks for allowing this visit.
Special thanks to Dave Komar who put me on the right track, thanks Dave! "
John Baars,
March 2018
I made a report of my visit and posted it exclusively on Astronomyforum. Everybody knows what happened to that forum and the report was lost. I deliberately did not post it on the Dutch Forum, the owner did not like too much publicity in Holland. I respected that. Since
Hereby the text and some of the pictures I made.
" Last friday 03-23-2018 I had the opportunity to visit the one and only 9 inch Unitron Polarex telescope in the world.
Thanks to Dave Komar, who pointed me out the whereabouts of this giant telescope (several miles from my hometown!) , I was able to contact the owner. The owner tells us through Dave about the amazing rescue from the scrapyard and demolition on Dave's site: https://www.unitronhistory.com/user-sto ... model-900/ See much more pictures there too!
Quite a remarkable and readable story. The owner told me that the rescue was no sinecure, since the telescope parts were separately found in several old buildings, partly covered under blankets or a thick layer of dust. The scope had never seen assembling. Almost unrecognizable, he didn't even know if some parts belonged to it or not. The caretaker of the square half a mile terrain couldn't help him either. And all that under the blazing heat of the Japanese sun. Luckely he was there.... expecting to find a five incher, hoping for maybe even a six inch instrument, and found this...
All old buildings of the old factory have been removed by now.
Restoration and assembling of the 00-1989 marked giant took place at Technical University Delft, and being in the hands of the professor (owner) is all you want if you are a telescope that wants to be restored. Like many private owners of very big Polarex telescopes, the professor likes to keep low profile, so I didn't know if he had time for me as a simple amateur-astronomer/ tourist. Being a visual observer with a preference for refractors and living "around the corner" helped a lot.
So there I was. The professor picked me up at the university's parking lot and after passing some security doors I saw the giant in the large assembly hall.
I was amazed. "What a monster", I mumbled.
The professor told me that the straps of the lifting crane are for his own and my security.The mount is not bolted to the floor... In the base lie 881 lbs of lead in small portions, for low gravity point reasons.
It took the owner quite some time of cleaning, polishing and puzzling to refit all parts. There was no manual and the majority of the parts were not assembled. One very very big puzzle! His search through the old Unitron terrain must have been very thorough, because no noteworthy parts had to be made. The 55 lbs lens is in the UK, where he lives nowadays (good thinking), and he has planned a 20 feet dome. "First thing I am going to do when I have the telescope operational in the UK, is to take a chair, sit in the dome beside it and enjoy the beauty of it", he trusted me. I think I would do the same after many years of restoration.
The more than 160 lbs telescope operates very smoothly, nothing could be heard as I slewed it a few degrees around. The only way I could tell was by looking at the red control light and the rotating crown-axis that drives the worm. What a difference to my own GPDX mount! Worm and worm-wheel are extremely fine and have many more fine teeth than my own. I forgot to ask how many...sorry. The lens is replaced by dummy-weights to keep him balanced. Lens is waiting for its tube in the UK!
Four brass rods secure locking and fine tuning
This is me actually operating the telescope. It is a very simple handheld controller really. "forward", "reverse", "stop" and an old fashioned counter with a small wheel to regulate the speed. That's all. Look at the size of it all. I am 6 feet tall.
Put two enthusiastic amateur-astronomers together and a half an hour photo session becomes a two and half hour visit in which we talked about observing planets, Unitrons Polarex, other equipment. He even showed me several researches he and his students are working on.
Within months this Unitron will find its new home in the United Kingdom. As a planetary-fan the owner will use this mastodon frequently. I'm glad he will. I wish him many happy observing years in the future. And many thanks for allowing this visit.
Special thanks to Dave Komar who put me on the right track, thanks Dave! "
John Baars,
March 2018
