DaveL59

I think shipping varied over time, early ones having formed wood inserts and later polystyrene which of course falls apart over time with use, then a shift to card perhaps. Same with the vintage japanese scopes too I believe. Of course the vast bulk and therefore storage meant many probably got rid which is a pity. I was lucky with the TAL-M as that case is a nice easy fit into the car boot but the long OTA's on the TAL1/2 and 100's would never fit into mine. Without seeing your 100R its hard to say as the focuser on mine is also rack&pinion but the 2-inch version. The issue probably isn't the range of travel so much as getting the diagonal/eyepiece combo far/near enough to the objective to attain focus. If you find it needs to be further out than the focuser can adjust to then an extension tube would shift the focal point outward and then the focuser travel would allow you to adjust around that new point. A focuser with a larger travel makes life easier for sure, but there's ways around it if needs must. I can't say whether this would work but here's a 35mm 1.25-inch extender which is what I was thinking if you needed to achieve more outward distance. Other lengths are also around on the market, or make your own even by removing the lenses from a barlow. StellaLyra 35mm 1.25" Extension Tube | First Light Optics As Paul says tho, swapping out the focuser may be more involved than a direct drop-in but may still be possible. I've seen a post that used an adaptor to fill the gap and that might be possible if you have a 3D printer or a machine shop that can make a collar to match things up. Depends how far you want to go/spend 😉

Ahh my Tal100RS came in a card box with a wood insert to hold the OTA - the tube rings fasten down onto it in transit. Sadly no original wooden box with mine, nor the TAL-1 which I picked up fairly locally. The only one I have in the original baltic ply case is the TAL-M which I renovated in another thread in the DIY section. Needed all the foam on the wood inserts removing and replacing with felt as they'd crumbled/decayed. I've thought about making a wood case for the RS and maybe the 1 but never have so far. It'd weigh a ton tho is the only problem lol. Once my daughter has moved and when her OH has less workload I may see if I can get him to knock one up for the RS OTS tho (he's a builder) or maybe get hold of an old military surplus long case/box. For the focuser then, best to check it over when it arrives and see if you can easily drop an extension in ahead of the diagonal, depends which model focuser it has I guess. Read one post where they commented about it being non-standard where the prism/focuser mate which might limit your options. Need to determine if its 1.25 inch or 2 inch etc.

Hi Trevor well done on getting it despite minor issues 🙂 For the end cap, Mine was fine but I didn't have one for the objective, only the dew shield and when transporting it the box needs the dew shield removed. So I bought a nitrile covered bearing end cap to suit as I'd rather not be transporting it with the objective exposed to potential damage. Did the same for the small TAL-M newt too. Can't say much on the difference with the R and RS objectives as I've not compared but I find mine is good to my eye so am quite happy with it. The missing screw on the finder I take it are on the holder rings? Those are regular metric thread IIRC, 3mm possibly so should be easy to get replacements for in either metal or nylon. From wookie's post it may be that in-travel is more the issue with the focuser so his post may be more useful. Extension tubes you can get from most scope suppliers like FLO I believe should you need them. Only way to know is when you have it and can test it out with the eyepieces you want to use with it. Agree re the TAL-1, it has a slightly smaller mirror than my SW130 but I prefer it over the SW130 and don't find any real difference in the view I get with it. Sometimes wish the pillar mount had a dovetail fitting so I could pop the 100RS onto it but so far haven't wanted to hack the integral rings off to make that possible. I plan on stripping the TAL-1 down one day to repaint etc as its a bit tatty, but have been distracted onto camera lenses this past year or so.

a search on here found this re the focuser/diagonal so in-focus could be the issue but a prism diagonal may solve that rather than using a mirror version as it'd have a shorter light path. @Ags did a review recently of the Celestron prism diagonoal which reported it to be very good if you were wanting to go that route:

wow so you got it then, well done lol So as far as the tripod is concerned I think it likely is pretty good for stability as it'll damp out the vibrations better than an ally one. In fact I was wanting to get hold of the TAL tripod at one point myself. The head you'll find has the same limitations as your TAL-1 in that it can only slo-mo for approx 5 degrees then you need to reset the slo-mo control and shift the scope manually and start over. If you check out astrobaby's site (Astro-Baby Telescope Reviews) she has a review of the TAL100RS and also a rebuild of the TAL-1 including the mount which should help guide you if you need to fettle any bits. I think the RS came after the R so if anything it'll have been improved in some areas. Mine has a focuser with significant travel for example and different to the one on astrobaby's 100RS so it seems they fitted a couple different types. Here's mine on the EQ5 mount tho it now has the bigger TAL 8x50 finderscope riding on it. If your R has short travel and you need more outward then I guess an extension tube would help. You could determine the length by holding the diagonal and drawing it away from the drawtube till you reach focus and measure that distance. As for light baffles, try it and see if it affects the view would be my suggestion. If you do feel you need to modify it then you're looking at removing the focuser and likely the objective cell too so you can reach in and apply something to fill the gaps (flocking or epoxy then black paint etc. ). I have seem posts somewhere on that but can't recall where and never did this on mine. How are you finding the TAL-1,? You'd get about the same light capture with the 100R but with less CA being a newt. Both very solidly over-engineered bits of kit which along with the little TAL-M are the ones I'd look to keep in my collection for some time. I find the SW130 feels so flimsy by comparison 🙂 edit: for the tripod, its usually best to not extend it to maximum height as they're all more wobbly when used that way 😉

ugh I can sympathise @Ags as slugs are a real problem where I am too even finding their way into the conservatory somehow. The wee hedgehog largely derelicting its duties of late as well, tho when it visits it makes me feel guilty being out there as its very timid and runs off when I move. Can't win lol

On most of my gear I've replaced the steel/metal thumbscrews with nylon ones, that way no risk of stripping the threads on the major components and no marking the barrels being locked down. Sure you'd wear them out faster but they're cheap and easy to replace esp when compared to needing to dismantle and re-tap components on the scope/focuser etc. Partly why I went this route was on my TAL100RS the tapped hole for the thumbscrew to lock the finder into its shoe was largely stripped so it couldn't be relied on to hold the finder in place properly. I ended up drilling that out and tapping it to a larger thread but didn't want to have to be doing that again, not enough space/metal to work with.

Never found an option to adjust the alignment but you could always exit and restart the app and tell it alignment needed at that stage. Of course with a dob the object will have moved by then so you'd have to re-centre, as with a manual alt-az. On an EQ mount with RA motor it may work ok tho as it'd be tracking anyway while the app restarts. (yes it does work on EQ or at least I find it does with mine so far).

OK so we've agreed for a return & refund on this one, their customer service seems as excellent as others have said 🙂 Gutted tho as it was pristine, worked nice and quietly and the always available manual focus override seemed excellent with a sensible amount of travel compared to many AF lenses. Just that awful mold/mildew smell, my lungs didn't feel good last night after playing with the lens for a short time. Even my cat wasn't impressed, as soon as he came in he noticed, went to the box to investigate, one sniff and recoiled and ran off! Oh well, another will turn up and I'll manage on the Minolta and M42 glass meantime and just live without much of a wide-angle end.

darn, so no GoTo or auto plate solving then. Will have to fettle a starsense explorer bracket for the old bonce in that case 😉

ahh that's when the built in lasers fire and you incinerate anything you were looking at 😉 I'd be concerned as to how they'd manage to maintain collimation too, didn't see any set screws in there to tweak the settings...

eek I can't imagine wanting to put something on my eyeball, not even regular contacts, so not for me thanks! Kinda neat idea tho, do let us know how you get on with them 😉

guess its better than collecting bigger things like cars tho 😉

ooh you had me worried there! Hmmm, at present in this tiny house I have 7 but one will be going to my daughter and another couple I may ease out the door someday as they never get used (SW130-EQ2 and the little NatGeo 76/300 tabletop). Luckily living alone I can only argue with myself if I can really justify another one, and the bank balance I s'pose tho that usually loses the argument real quick lol.

hmm after the initial excitement of receiving this and a quick test to verify it works well, I'm noticing a very musty (mold) smell and it is very strong in the Tamron box and of course the lens having been stored in this it also smells, not so pleasant to have near your face. Have given it a wipedown with 303 but little improvement which wasn't unexpected, the rubber grips especially seem to be hanging onto the smell. Oh dear, looks like I'll be getting in touch to see what can be done as this was listed as excellent condition, which physically it is other than the smell 😞 edit: I've dropped the company a message on their contact us page, hopefully they'll get back to me soon to see what's best to do. Reading online maybe a laundry tumble dryer sheet would help, or just air it out in sunlight for a few days. Thing is I've a vintage bino that arrived with this exact problem a long time back and it still smells to this day after a full strip-down and cleaning with bleach, vinegar etc. Hope there's a simple fix other than sending it back... The fact that I'm a smoker and can clearly smell it I guess says it is indeed a strong smell too.

I have PolarAligner Pro which seems ok when I've used it. You can do a daytime alignment with it too which is handy esp if you can't see Polaris from your location.

They are nice, I've the same a 100RS but mine's on an EQ5 goto rather than a TAL GEM mount.

might be worth contacting the author and see if they have and records/details, they may even be interested in some pics for their website. I noticed there's no apparent progression of sequence numbers vs dates in that some earlier launches used higher sequence numbers, a bit odd maybe?

wow, surprised it never made it into a museum then really, or did the ones that flew but not your one? Either way a piece of history which makes it even more interesting that the first pics you shared 🙂

Now if you could get that officially verified might even add some value with some interesting provenance. Who knows there was a recent launch from Oz, would they be interested in using yours on the next ride? I'd imagine you'd get a nice lease/rental wedge out of it 😉

The nice man from DPD just dropped this off to me Won't be for astro, just decided to upgrade from the walkabout/go-anywhere 18-270 that I had to the later 16-300 for a tad extra range (24-450 vs 27-405 eqv). Likely the last that model Tamron will make for the Sony mounts at least for a while from what's been reported so I figured grab a good one while it's available 🙂

if you get the pass-thru type just use the socket the router is on and plug thu router into it. Like this type, just get the versions to suit your region TP-Link TL-PA7027P KIT AV1000 2-Port Gigabit Passthrough Powerline Starter Kit (Renewed): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Sure, if it currently connects on WiFi no reason not to, unless you want to get a 3rd LAN cable and go directly wired 🙂

@gilesco So long as all units are of the same standard (AV1200 in your case) that works and a drop when crossing to the sub-net I guess you can't do much about other than use a LAN cable to bridge across, tho that kinda negates using them in the first place. The issue is more when folks mix say AV1200 with the older AV200/600 as then the entire EoP network slows to the lower standard. The other thing I noticed that can/does affect performance is noisy electrical items on the mains wiring. I found that some LED bulbs would cause a 50% drop in data rate when they were turned on, for example but even then the link stayed operational. I do also have a wireless CCTV that operates in the 2.5GHz band but isn't wifi (discrete Rx box for the AV end) and that can be real neat if you wanna mess with a neighbours WiFi. Turn it on and they go dark 😉

if its a frac you really really want then this is on the bay at the moment Tal-100R Refractor Telescope 100 mm aperture f10 Equatorial Mount Wooden Tripod | eBay Not sure how up for astro imaging it'd be since the mount isn't motorised but its a good solid scope and mount/tripod. Looks like a "proper scope" too 😉