Loan Telescopes

The CAA has several telescopes for rental for home use ranging in size from 6" to 10", they are all reflecting telescopes and so these sizes refer to the diameter of their primary mirrors and not how long they are. However, they are all roughly four feet long and are all fairly easy to transport and very easy to use. The hire period is two months and you can book on line or contact Stanley Trafford or Andrew Page.

For all the telescopes the loan fee for the two month period is £10 from October to March and £5 from April to September. Please note. These telescopes may only be hired by fully paid up members of the association.

Please note that you must 18 or over to book a telescope, and monies due must be recieved before a booking can be confirmed.

1. The 10" reflector.

A telescope with no name was the first - an early Vetscopes instrument which has always proved popular. The mirror was donated by Jim Hysom and being only f/5 it fits across the back seat of most cars. Apart from the odd bit of maintenance and realuminising of the mirrors, this instrument has been in continuous use for nearly a decade and hopefully will carry on for another decade or two.

2. The Robert Anderson reflector.

With the number of members of CYA increasing during the early nineties, many a parent was persuaded to borrow a telescope by their enthusiastic offspring. Following some comments by a few parents such as, "It's a bit bigger than I thought it was going to be," we obtained this 6" f/6 reflector at the beginning of 1994, and it was very much more manageable than the bigger 'scopes.

3. The Mike Delanoy reflector.

Originally built in the 1960s as a 9" equatorial, it was given the Vetscopes treatment and turned into a Dobsonian to help ease the demand on the 10". At the same focal length, it is a bit lighter. The instrument had its original optics replaced in 1995 just before entering service.

4. The Alan Walker reflector.

The Alan Walker reflector has an 8.5" mirror. Like all our reflectors it has two modern eyepieces giving a choice of magnifications.

5. The CYA Telescope.

The CYA home built telescope

This was meant to be a project for the senior section of the Cambridge Young Astronomers. However, that is not quite how it worked, although one member did paint the base. The telescope has an aperture of 9 inches. There is also a smaller telescope aligned with the main tube for pointing. The object lens (the one at the front) for this small telescope was taken from a pair of binoculars. Like all the other telescopes it is supplied with three eyepieces which provide good quality images at two different magnifications. The mounting is simple but adequate and the whole telescope is very easy to use.

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