My 14.25 inch Star-Liner Telescope

This is my Classic 14.25 inch Star-Liner Telescope while housed in the old observatory. This is an observatory model with clock drive and slow motion controls on both R.A. and Dec. axises. Star-Liner, along with Cave, and Criterion was a premier instrument company in the 50's, 60's and 70's. The company went out of business in the 1990's. The large light grasp provides the ability to see very faint objects. You can observe the distant planet Pluto with this very instrument !

This end of the telescope shows the massive 2 inch focuser and finderscope (both visible on the left side of the tube.) The large plastic cover is on the telescope tube when this picture was taken to protect the optics.

Another image of theis "huge" telescope. Notice the cord on the electric plug for the "clock drive. The drive moves the telescope very slowly and keeps the object from drifting out of the telescopes eyepiece.

This shot shows the Polar axis of the telescope mount with gears and a motor which can be set to follow the stars while they move accross the sky. The telescope makes one complete turn every 24 hours! The Right Ascension Setting Circle ( black wheel shown with numbers.) can be used to find a "stars address" in the sky. Stars have locations of latitude and longitude in the sky. The Stars Right Ascension ( latitude) can be "dialed in" by moving the telescope and watching the numbers on the circle shown above. The telescopes other setting circle on the other axis ( not shown on this image) finds the stars "longitude".

This image shows the great telescope pointed south.

14.25 inch Equatorial Telescope mount. This image shows the rather large and heavy mount. The diameters of the axises are 2 inch solid steel. The picture also shows both setting circles that are used for finding a stars "longitude" and "latitude" in the sky. Three "heavy" counter weights on the Declination axis balences the very heavy telescope tube. The entire telescope is carefully balanced. You can easily move the entire instrument from star to star with one hand!

14.25 inch telescope mirror. This image shows the huge 14 inch primary f-5 telescope mirror. The large diagonal spider is also pictured.

14.25 inch Star-Liner Primary and secondary mirror. Notice the 3 retaining clips that hold the big mirror in its mirror cell. You can also see a "tiny black" spot on the exact center of the 14 inch primary mirror that is used to line the optics up.