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Stolen Telescopes!!

These two telescopes were stolen by person or persons unknown sometime in April (we are not sure of the exact date) from The St. Petersburg Astronomy Club's Hickory Hill Observing Complex near Brooksville, FL. Both telescopes are the personal property of Andrew Hradesky. The scopes were both custom built for Mr. Hradesky, and are quite distinctive and easy to spot. The scopes were stolen shortly after the annual Orange Blossom Special Star Party held by The St. Petersburg Astronomy Club. Our working theory is that a visitor at the star party saw the scopes, decided to steal them, then returned to the site sometime in April and took them.

The scopes are quite distinctive in design, and well known in the Central Florida area. Because of this, we suspect the scopes were taken out of Central Florida. Please keep an eye out for them at your local star parties.

We are quite sure that an astronomy enthusiast took the scopes because of the selectivity shown in the telescopes and accessories that were taken. A great deal of vandalism and wanton destruction was also committed at the same time, perhaps in an attempt to hide the fact that the thief was really after telescopes and accessories.

The photos are large, and will take a few moments to load.

This telescope is an 8in. f/4.5 Newtonian on a ball mounting. It has the following identifying features. It is painted red and flat black. The ball is fiberglass. The truss rods are aluminium and covered with black heat-shrink tubing. The secondary cage is made of thin-wall steel tubing with wooden stiffening rings at the ends. The secondary spider has three curved vanes. It has an orion 1.25in helical focuser. At the time it was stolen, it was fitted with an Orion EZ Finder Reflex Sight. The scope sits on a circular wooden base with three legs and brass fittings.

This scope is unique enough that it should be easy to spot. The only other ones like it are still in the workshop incomplete.

Here Mr. Hradesky is seen next to one of his now missing telescopes. This telescope is an 8in. f/6 Dobsonian. Only the tube and cradle were taken. For some reason the wooden base was left behind. The tube is of thin wall galvanized steel, and is painted blue. It has three wooden stiffening rings. One at each end, and one in the middle. The primary mirror cell has an unusual two point collimation design. The secondary spider has three curved vanes. At the time it was stolen, The tube was fitted with a Tectron 2in. rack and pinion focuser, and a Telrad Reflex sight. The cradle is of joined plywood rings with bass and bronze fittings, and PVC altitude bearings. The cradle also has 4 white rubber feet on it's underside and brown felt lining around the tube.

This scope is not as distinctive as the one above, and has probably been remounted. However the unusual features of the tube assembly should be easy to spot.

More photos and information about these telescopes can be found on the Scopeworks web page, and in the telescopes section of Michael Davis' web page.

The following telescopes and accessories were also stolen during the break-in, but they are probably too generic to be positively identified unless found with the above telescopes.

If you think you have seen any of these telescopes or accessories, please notify the police and send an email to mdavis19@ix.netcom.com

Thank you.

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