Parks telescope status

[edwincjones]

This is a carry over from Cloudy Nights-the recent ads in Astronomy/S&T about the 6-8" Parks scopes raised the question of the current status of Parks telescopes. Most have not heard much of them in years.

My experience is one night at StarWatcher Inn in Benson, AZ using a Parks 14" scope on Leo galaxies-it was big, heavy, but very good optics. The new Parks scopes on Alt/Az mounts look interesting.

edj

[edwincjones]

Looks like Sky and Telescope likes them as a Hot Product for 2007

[richwood]

Not sure of their status though they do own the Lumicon line of filters and accessories now. Lumicon stuff is available through many dealers but Scope City is the only U.S. Parks dealer, not the largest player around by far so far as I know.

When I checked with Scope City last year on the availability of a Parks mirror I was possibly interested in they did not have it available and indicated difficulty and/or a long lead time for ordering it from Parks. It sounded like Parks froze production plans at the start of each fiscal year or some such. Scope City did not seem to be particularly interested in making a sale either.

Considering the regular scopes size, weight and price I suspect that the majority are sold to educational institutions. I have an old Cave 10" Newtonian with a Parks tube that I have converted to a dob mount.

The new fork mounts look interesting but unless handled through the multiple Lumicon dealers rather than through just Scope City I would expect minimal sales and availability.

Richwood

[John R. Duchek]

S&T reviewed these in August 2007 issue (I think, could be 1 month off). Anyway, the OTAs were praised; the mounts not so much. Seems there are a few bugs to work out.

John