DaveL59

I use a cheshire myself, not found the need to spend on a laser tho I guess it might be handy for the frac if I ever have to mess with it. No plans to though, its set just so since it left the factory from what I can tell and as the second owner I've not had any issues with the views. The newts on the other hand I've messed with quite a bit with tweaks or mods and astrobaby's guide and the cheshire and lots of patience has served me just fine  

couldn't possibly comment on the toy scopes Andrew, all of mine are somewhat long tubes, the TAL100RS gave fabulous views of both Saturn and Jupiter last year and the SW130 wasn't at all bad either, the little TAL-M was pretty good too   Didn't have the TAL-1 to compare with at the time I think.

Well done Neil, way too early for me lol.

Just wait till you see them higher in the sky on a dark night, spectacular

no clue on that, was just a thought given they were I think intended for school use at the outset, so perhaps spares were available back then. I'd imagine the action is silky smooth though in your setup with those nice new inserts. Might almost be worth turning replacements in bronze next time around though different thermal properties might be a bind in very cold nights   

figured you were post-editing, just it appeared in recents so I took a peek and just text lol.

Nice job though, well done sir! Handy to have a good workshop to be able to turn the required bits too, I'd have been stuck on that side of things. I do wonder why they used non-metal for those parts, the TAL's all seem to be threaded metal components and kept greased they work for a long time. Guess in a school environment they figured no maintenance would be done and went the PTFE route to prevent them seizing up, perhaps.

no pics Mark? 😛 

Thought I'd give this app a try with the TAL-1 and vixen NPL's, tho only loaded the lite version for now. Seems ok but limited to only one of the rear cameras on the note-10+ I have. Still I managed to get a few shoes with the 20mm EP, ISO400, I set shutter priority mode, shutter a fast 1/1600th-1/3200th range, focus to M and infinity (tap [AF] if that's on the screen, select [M] and finger on the image display and slide up to the end of travel), no filters.

switched to the NPL 10mm to get closer in

All of course saved as jpeg given this is the lite version. A little out of focus tho pin sharp at the eyepiece. I realised tho as I sat at my desk and put my glasses on that I expect the focus was fine to my no-glasses eye which would be around 1.25 off then to the camera, DOH! Can see that being a problem when I want to do this more then, guess I'll have to wear the glasses when focusing for a pic which is a drag  

Will have a think on if this FV-5 pro version is worth the purchase on this phone given the limitation on which camera it uses, but it seems OK.

Hopefully that'll help the OP a little too.

you'd only really need to adjust those if you are tweaking the polar alignment, which presumes you are using the mount in EQ mode - from the pic it looks like you are, perhaps?

If you are have you also got the latitude angle set, if not then you'll have to be making RA and DEC adjustments to track an object. Once you have latitude adjusted for your location and the head polar aligned, you'll only need to adjust RA to track which makes things a little easier when observing an object for any length of time  

yep faster shutter, less exposure, darker image. Conversely higher ISO, brighter image. Case of finding the combination that works for your rig which I can't really help with, was just a suggestion since you mentioned it was too bright so I suggested a faster shutter  It will be a case of experimenting with focus and ISO/shutter speed till you find a setting to get better results, ISO400 would allow you a faster shutter than ISO100 for the same exposure, for example. You could try to use exposure-bracketing if your camera can do that automatically, which may give you a better idea too.

The old ones I got as a kid we were stationed in Singapore, they were ex issue with the willie dixons mark on them and a little tatty. My dad was Q so he got them refurb'd and they came back to me in a nice new case, all black and shiny, I was well chuffed. That was late 60's as I recall and I've not seen them in 20 odd years since they were "borrowed". Sadly tho I do remember that the markings were removed or covered over (might still be there under the paint) so no idea what the maker was but they were ZCF type and not IF and unlikely to have been WW2 issue. I'd never part with them even tho I have far better pairs to use, just because of that history. I just hope little sis stored them well and they're not full of fungus  

I guess I've around 30-35 pairs in all now, a small collection compared to others - I bet Mr Drew has a fair few more than me  

give a try without the moon filter as that'll be darkening the image, what shutter speed/ISO are you using?

Try at ISO100 and 1/250th shutter and work from there, perhaps as the moon is pretty bright at the moment.

not tried DSLR-scope, but what settings are you trying?

On my Fuji with 400mm lens, I've been using F8 1/320ths ISO400. Appreciate you can't set aperture but previously I'd shot the moon at ISO100 1/250th aperture wide open (f4-5.6) so perhaps you need to drop the ISO and up the shutter to 1/500th or faster?

that K42 is lovely, gives really great images so was well pleased to land it. Have been tempted to go after one of those 2-inch erfle's that you have, I will admit, tho to use it I'd have to be doing acrobatics with the 100RS as I don't have a 2-inch diagonal

2 hours ago, markse68 said:

That Plossl is pretty decent 👍

thanks Mark, and yes it definitely is, I've an older 32mm bore 25mm plossl for this and also a type-2 and 2 of the more recent ones now which are 1.25-inch, the latter have different colour to the coatings, one that nice purple and the other greenish. In fact the TAL eyepieces form the bulk of my EP collection as you can see:

The LH F15 is the original one from the TAL-M, note the chamfer on the barrel compared to the 15 and 25 to its right.

I've a couple Vixen NPL (20 & 10mm) and then there's these

an old Meade MA40 0.956mm with an adapter to 1.25
and a couple noname kellners

All give pretty nice views and I do still have the SW ones that came with the SW130, and a plossl pair I bought for the NatGeo 76/350, again noname but were a big upgrade from the junk that came with that scope  

One day I may aspire to join the upper tier club but I'm quite happy with these really so not felt the need... so far...

can't recall the name of it, but doesn't one of the apps allow you to lay the phone on the OTA and it'll tell you what your pointing at? Might help to make aiming a bit easier till you can get the slo-mo controls functional again.

Measuring the helical focuser outer thread before packing it away for safe keeping, seems its 31.8mm fine pitch. Wonder if the SVBONY or similar would fit directly in its place...

Its a thought but unlikely I'll pursue it, any swap would need enough in-focus to make regular 1.25-inch EP's work so would need to be pretty low profile I think.

Will say I'm quite happy with the TAL unit as it works, is smooth and of course its OEM, but you are limited to the older TAL 32mm eyepieces unless you use the barlow as regular 1.25-inch EPs don't reach focus - not enough in-focus being the issue. This of course renders both the finder and main scope useless sans-barlow. Luckily I now have the older 25mm plossl, two F15mm (Kelner I think) and the 3x barlow of the correct or original equipment for this scope so it ain't the end of the world  

Yep, aware of that David, tho the LiFePo ones you pretty much can do a straight swap if you buy the right batteries and tweak the charging settings or mod the charging side to suit (non trivial), since the BMS should "manage" the way the individual cells get charged. Not saying you should tho, not without understanding the implications and fire risks. The other benefit in the APC UPS range is that a 24v 10AH LiFePo to replace a pair of 12v 17AH lead batteries will achieve the same run-time performance because of the way the output varies under load. Add to that far less duress compared to the lead battery meaning a much longer service life.

As said tho, not advocating this, anyone wanting to try it needs to do their research and due diligence and understand how their UPS works before taking the decision. As they say on the TV shows, "don't try this at home!"  

checking in on the hand-painted bits, so far looking ok. A couple corners where paint got a little thick and sagged plus brush strokes on the sides. Downside of hand painting I guess. So sanded that and added a second light coat, hopefully will improve the look a little. The rings came out nice tho as did the bed where the OTA sits, just faintly showing the machining under the hammerite hammered finish which I quite like.

Now then, on to the last part that needs working on, the focuser. Never found a guide tho I didn't look too hard, so lets just crack on and step into the unknown a little, can't be that hard can it?  

Now this little beauty uses a single helical focuser and regular eyepiece (well the older TAL 32mm type ones in fact) to double duty as finder and target viewing through the main OTA by interrupting the light path and placing a mirror diagonal to divert the view through the finder. Hope I can get the diagonal aligned ok after I reassemble it all!

Underneath you can see how the drawtube is handled to limit its motion and keep its orientation.

Indicated are the locating pin (screw) that slides in the channel, the ball bearing under a spring that acts as a detent at the extremes of the drawtube's movement, and a little set screw under the front lens cell. The lens cell is retained by a regular ring that screws in at the front (seen in first pic) and once the set screw is slackened/removed the cell can be teased out. I'm sure that black collar should be possible to unscrew but it didn't seem to want to play and I can paint it in situ anyways so I elected not to force things.

My one thought on this surface is that (if you recall the pic of it) the OTA is open along a big chunk of the focuser body and it ain't exactly flat black. I'll likely give that a coat of something to improve the light-killing properties after the main top coat of paint has cured. Flat matt black enamel or blackboard paint perhaps.

Back to dismantling, removing the locating screw and the spring and ball bearing, being careful not to lose it bouncing off the desk and disappearing... yeah I forgot to put a towel under it all before starting this time lol. Withdrawing the drawtube we now see the aperture and the diagonal that gets the finder to work under the eyepiece and the detents for that ball bearing to catch into, clever bit of design, no?

With the drawtube removed, lets now get the helical focuser out too. Here we back off a small set screw in the side of the barrel and simply unscrew the helical and its off. 

But I also want to remove the section it screws into, since it has a different finish to the main body. In fact this part is the other half of the helical so in fact might have been removed in one with a strap wrench, now I've seen how its put together. Anyways, inside the tube you can see 2 holes in the rim, so pin wrench set to the right opening and unscrew it from the main body.

Will have a measure later of that thread into the main body, wonder if a regular 1.25-inch low profile helical would screw right in in its place? Could make for a handy update down the road, perhaps. Oh I should mention here, that little set screw retaining the helical inner tube - do not tighten it right up when reassembling as it'll drag on the inner tube and feel horrible in use. It only needs screwing in enough to stop the focuser being unscrewed too far to prevent accidental removal in use  I'll probably melt a drop of black wax in to secure it when I've finished assembly, just so it doesn't try to escape one day.

Now before I sand and paint that collar around the front lens, lets remove the diagonal and risk the faff or getting it all realigned later. Better safe and remove than risk ruining the diagonal during this process I think. After all, how hard can it be to realign, right...?

The back end of the drawtube looks like this

and there's 3 set screws in the sides holding the inner assembly in place (forgot to grab a pic, sorry). Looking vaguely familiar, much? You'll see why in a sec.

So back off the 3 set screws in the side and that inner can rotate and since its an assembly, so does the diagonal mirror of course. Now I did score a mark across the tube end first so I can replace it in the same orientation, hopefully that'll pay dividends later but I've a feeling it'll be an easy fix either way. Seems you need to back these little set screws a fair way and then, gently upending the tube onto your hand, out pops a little mirror assembly  Store this and the lens away safely while you work on the paint refresh, but here it is, TAL-M focuser dismantled and ready to refurb.

Love how neatly engineered this little scope is, a wee secondary mirror arrangement for the focuser/finder diagonal is genius. As is the simple way it can be adjusted - see the holes (indicated) in the rear screw thread on the body where the end cap goes? They align exactly for access to those set screws that retain the finder diagonal, so getting this back together and aligned should be pretty straightforward  

So I've now sanded the main body and lens ring and laid a light coat of black hammered by brush. Hopefully it'll look ok and not too brushy. Once dried, that's pretty much all the painting done! Tho I do need to redo the L-shaped ALT-AZ body, but that's stuck waiting for paint stock to arrive at the local DIY shop. The optical elements will get a clean as I come to the reassembly, the main mirror cell and secondary spider I'll review in due course but they looked fine when removed so may not need any attention at all.

So having managed to get the laptop updated and the HT software installed, all hooked up to test. Camera - av cable - HT vidbox NW6 - PC

and we get a live view of what the camera is seeing

sadly its fuzzy, even tho all are set to PAL. Oh well, this won't really add much for trying to get better focus I expect.

And a couple test shots seem not so good tonight, started off much the same ISO400 f8 250th

Thought I'd try a faster shutter, so 320th

And then, hmmm close the aperture a little to improve the DoF? So F11 1/250th

yeah, NO, actually very blotchy if zoomed any further. Would need to be an even smaller aperture anyways and unlikely to succeed. Probably trying to push this camera and sensor beyond its ability, given this is a 2008 vintage bridge camera, still was a fun play about with it and actually better results than I'd expected really in many ways.

Took a shot at Venus again too, tho hazy cloud that way which gave a different pic than yesterday

looks very nice against the battleship grey Stu  

1 hour ago, wimvb said:

That should be quite enough for an heq5 and a camera. I wonder what makes a rigrunner so special that you can't use a 240/12 V adapter with it.

I'd guess its because it's all anderson pole connectors even for the power input side. I suppose they don't trust a buyer to correctly wire up an adaptor for a mains supply to AP connectors and not get it reversed and then of course blame the product.

I'd certainly be tempted to try it out, use the time before collection to get a little familiar and then box it up ready to go. After all if it gets re-sold it'll be as a customer return and maybe mention the chipped secondary so nothing to lose really. Just don't scratch it or add other damage, but I'm sure you'd likely mounted it on the EQ5 and then discovered the chip, so it'll already have a mark in the dovetail 😉 

odd that they'd say that, 12V DC is 12V DC after all, perhaps because its a switch-mode supply? I'd try someone else and say you're going direct off a 12V marine battery with appropriate AWG cabling 😉

To save cutting the end off the PSU you mention, why not make a power-pole to 2.1mm socket flylead, that way when the PSU fails it's a simple case to buy a new one and plug it in, no need to re-cut cables and crimp/solder a new powerpole plug.

so I've been thinking around how to improve the focus to see if I can get a better/sharper image via this S100FS bridge camera. It doesn't have live access via USB but it does have an AV socket. Managed to locate the original AV cable (was with my old Minolta 9000 film camera for some reason) and I do have a couple USB connected AV capture boxes, a Hauppage WinTv one and also a Honestech VHS-DVD, this latter being USB only, no power connection required.

Did a test hookup camera AV --> Honestech AV in and into the MCE PC displaying to the TV. Bingo! you get live viewfinder view on the big screen  

Play with manual focus and yep its so much easier to see on the big screen. So a possible solution then. Currently updating my laptop as its sat in the safe for months now, then I can install the software for this AV capture box and depending on how things go I might have another play if the white/grey fluffy things stay away. Hope the app doesn't need the serial key tho as I can't find the box with the details now, its up in the loft somewhere.

While finding this cable, was a bit dismayed on pulling out my old Minolta, the handgrip rubber was a crusty white, as were the grips on the minolta lenses, yet the vivitar and sigma ones were just fine. Wiped them clean before storing away but I just know it'll be the same again next time it sees daylight  

Should be able to desolder with wick and a sucker and a little care, then you can get to the chassis pins to free them off and hopefully ease the old plug away. Fiddly with the number of pins but possible I'd think. 

Shame you can't just snip those 2 lugs from the other side and then tear the innards out to make extracting the pins easier