Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro

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Brand and Model:Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
Price ($USD):discontinued
Type:Schmidt-Cassegrain
Attributes: un-checked Go-To un-checked PEC
Aperture:203mm (8")
f Ratio:f/10.4
Focal Length:2110mm
Finder:50mm
Electric Power:120v Dual Motor
Mount:Fork
Tripod:
Weight (lbs):lbs.
Dimensions (w/h/d):
Description:Multicoated enhanced aluminum primary mirror, multicoated silvered secondary mirror,multicoated corrector plate. Machined seamless alloy optical tube. Dual motor RA drive with continuous feed gear train. Do not confuse this scope with the Bausch and Lomb 8000 which was a Criterion Dynamax clone. The 8001 was a genuine Bausch and Lomb design built for only a year or two (1985-87),and was meant to correct all of the optical and mechanical failings of the Criterian design.


B&L/Criterion SCTs

Vote Highlights Vote
Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
Excellent Optics. Do a web search on "Bausch and Lomb Mars". You will see what this telescope is capable of with a Neximage

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:9 Mount:7 Ease of Use:9 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=610067

Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
Of the panoply of wbestie I've pored over this has the most veracity.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Mount:6 Ease of Use:1 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=598563

Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
Excellent optics. Very little image shift when focusing...only about 30 arc sec. Very sturdy construction. I have pushed this scope to over 400x in good seeing with no image breakdown. Excellent results with planetary webcam imaging working at F32 with klee barlow projection. 8 arc second Mars shows useful detail. Dawes bay of Sinus Meridiani detected with only 12 arc second disk.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:10 Mount:8 Ease of Use:8 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=593160

Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
Have had my 8001 for over 20 years. Excellent optics for a commercial SCT with very similar intra-extra focal patterns. No problem pushing to 400x. Decent planetary contrast despite 33% central obstruction. Have obtained excellent webcam images of Mars using the instrument posted to ALPO image database. Overall a good scope with much improved optics from most of the earlier Dynamax design. This was B&L's best effort

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:10 Mount:8 Ease of Use:8 Value:9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=590134

Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
I got mine on a trade , for my old Canon Rebel DSLR last Year
it came with a 2" star diagnol and a "2" 28mm Eyepiece

I am Please with the Views i from it .

I did have a 6 " Dob Before this , which had Better contrast
But of course it,s a trade off for extra power ,

The Corrector Plate is only a piece of glass , with Doesn,t do much , except to keep out dust .

I am in the process of removing it and replacing it with a
3 leg Metal spider, to hold the 2nd mirror , allowing better viewing ,
Casing point : would you look at stars thru your living room window and expect 100% perfect viewing ..?

Overall Rating: 7
Optics:6 Mount:7 Ease of Use:5 Value:6
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=580604

Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
Very useful scope.

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:8 Ease of Use:9 Value:10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=580602

Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
I purchased my 8001 new in 1986. It has given good service.
It has the following virtues.
1. It's easy to setup/take-down.
2. The tripod and mount are solid.
It has the following problems.
1. The optics are only fair for an SCT.
2. The RA clutch design is poor (end-of-bolt on plastic ring gear).
This is a visual instrument which can take hard (public star party) use. It is not suitable for prime focus photography or CCD imaging. The clock drive uses two synchronous motors and variable frequency drive controllers are not readily available anymore (you can always make one though). The DEC adjustment is a manual sector-arm which is difficult to convert to motor drive.

Overall Rating: 7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40101

Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
Bought mine on the surplus market for $750 in 1989. Today I would not sell it even if I was offered $2500. The optics are first rate. I estimate a 1/6 wavefront based on Suiter's diagrams. Closest double split thus far is O. Struve 359 (in Hercules),mag 6.3-6.5 , .7arc sec. Planetary views are of excellent contrast also. Does anyone out there have one of these scopes? They seem to be rare. One thing I discovered is that this scope deserves a first class star diagnol , as the one supplied with the scope is beneath the quality of the main optics.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40099 

>Bought mine for $350.  The metal case of lenses was really nice.  The scope is outstanding.  I have not tried the motor yet.  The tri-pod is very heavy duty (or appears that way).  The plate says "Schmidt-Cassegrain" on it.  Can you help me with particulars?  It came with a sun shield.  Thanks, Charlie.
Bausch & Lomb 8001 Pro
The previous post states that the declination , being a manual " sector " arrangement, is difficult to motorise. Not so. First of all nearly every fork mounted SCT ever manufactured uses the very same tangent arm arrangement that is used on the 8001. Secondly, this arrangement is very simple to motorise using a JMI MOTO-DEC. (I have one installed on my scope) I don't know if JMI still carries a moto-dec for the 8001, but they had them 10 years ago. In any case it shouldn't be difficult to modify a Moto-dec made for a Meade or Celestron since they all use a similar setup.

Overall Rating: No Vote
Weight: <none>
Date:
By:
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=40102

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