Telescope identification help

[PSdesign]

Greetings. I recently came into possession of a Broadhurst Clarkson telescope and I’m unable to find any information about it. It belonged to my deceased father and was given to him by a friend. It is brass, has what I guess would be called five drawers (I got this info from searching), the bottom (widest part) is covered in leather, it screws on to a metal tripod stand (heavy!), and has additional eye piece accessories. Aside from the name stamped on the topmost part of Broadhurst Clarkson & Co, 63 Farringdon Road EC, I can’t find any other markings. I was hoping to find a model name or number and some instructions to set it up. Can anyone help with this? I’ve gathered that it’s pretty old. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[PSdesign]

I realize that my post is rude and I do sincerely apologize. My name is Patty and I am obviously a newbie. I don’t have any other telescopes, but my son has one that he received as a gift from his girlfriend. It is a Gskyer small telescope, which I’ve used a few times. I know it’s not a serious scope like you guys all have, but fun just the same. I am really interested in astrophotography and have experimented with long exposures. This was especially beautiful in Sedona Arizona where they have “dark skies”. I’m in Cleveland and unfortunately, we don’t have those, which is truly criminal. I have a Nikon D7500 and I purchased an equatorial mount and I’m looking forward to hooking it up to a decent telescope someday. I don’t know if that would even be possible with this antique telescope from my father, but I’d love to find out. I’ve enjoyed looking thru all your posts, you guys really know your stuff. That’s why I posted my inquiry here. Anyway, thanks much to you all and keep looking up! I know I do.

[Trebuchet]

Welcome aboard! I Googled "Broadhurst Clarkson Telescope" and they do look very pretty. I assume "5 drawers" refers to the telescoping sections.
I don't know if you are allowed to post pictures early in your membership. If you can, please try to do so. Or maybe put a picture on some other social media and give us directions to find it. You won't be able to post a link yet but you can try to spell it out.

ETA: When you look through it, is the image upright, or inverted?

[geonuc]

You might also ask the question on the r/telescopes sub on reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/telescopes/

I searched for 'broadhurst' and 'clarkson' and got no hits but perhaps one of the Redditors might know something.

[Swift]

I realize that my post is rude and I do sincerely apologize. My name is Patty and I am obviously a newbie. I don’t have any other telescopes, but my son has one that he received as a gift from his girlfriend. It is a Gskyer small telescope, which I’ve used a few times. I know it’s not a serious scope like you guys all have, but fun just the same. I am really interested in astrophotography and have experimented with long exposures. This was especially beautiful in Sedona Arizona where they have “dark skies”. I’m in Cleveland and unfortunately, we don’t have those, which is truly criminal. I have a Nikon D7500 and I purchased an equatorial mount and I’m looking forward to hooking it up to a decent telescope someday. I don’t know if that would even be possible with this antique telescope from my father, but I’d love to find out. I’ve enjoyed looking thru all your posts, you guys really know your stuff. That’s why I posted my inquiry here. Anyway, thanks much to you all and keep looking up! I know I do.

Hi PSdesign. Your post wasn't the least bit rude. It just sometimes takes some time for people to respond.

I live in the Cleveland area also (I'm actually closer to Akron), but I'm no expert about telescopes. I've met a number of people from the Chagrin Valley Astronomical Society over the years and they seem like a really nice group that is interested in helping newbies. I don't how they are doing things during the pandemic, but you might try contacting them.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History does astronomy programs; I don't know if they could be helpful with your questions.

If you get away from central Cleveland, there are actually some pretty decent dark skies in the area. Geauga Metroparks has an Observatory Park in a dark sky area of rural Geauga County that does astronomy programs. Looks like they are doing some programs during the pandemic.

If you get into Western PA, there are some really good dark sky areas.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

[Van Rijn]

PSDesign, this seems to be an antique telescope, and I found a few things in a google search using the text “Broadhurst Clarkson Telescope antique”. This appears to be the website of the current company:

https://www.bcftelescopes.co.uk/

And

http://sctelescopes.com/

They no longer make telescopes but they repair them and might have information on yours if you contact them. No doubt you’d need pictures for identification.

Here is a page on a now sold telescope from an antique site, if you read down the page they have some background on the company:

https://www.antiques-atlas.com/antiq...ing/as272a2734

Incidentally, just looking at these sites, it looks like some five draw telescopes in good shape with accessories from this company could be sold for a fair amount from an antique dealer. You might want to try contacting antique companies dealing in telescopes (like ones in the google search results from the text I gave above) and see what they think of yours.