DaveL59

I wonder if that thicker part you removed is the adapter for 1.25-inch eyepieces, seems likely. Well done for persevering and getting some first light with it tho. It's not easy to get images at the eyepiece, a phone holder helps a lot, something I must get myself one day. As to getting more magnification, you'd need further eyepieces with a shorter focal length than the 25mm one you were using. Whether you want those in 2-inch (more expensive) or 1.25-inch will depend on how much you want to spend tho.

that's right Dave, think they are uppendhal type roof prism. The Chinnon I have is very similar in design, but with the focus wheel at the EP end: But they were indeed a Dixon's house brand, being higher quality than the other brands they stocked (Miranda IIRC). Funny that the Swift models tend to go in the £45-90 range where these Chinnon ones tend to be pretty low cost by comparison. Less desired I guess, but still pretty good if a little narrow FoV

😮 that's not so good, sounds like they may have been apart in the past and perhaps assembled incorrectly. Not had the focuser side apart on the ones I have since they work fine and didn't need more than glass being cleaned. Not sure if they are the same as the Chinnon but be careful not to overdo the dioptre adjust as that can undo things. Easy fix if a little fiddly but doesn't need a full dismantle, everything accessible under the eyecup at least 🙂

wow that's a great find! Very nice condition too. Only thing with them is close focus is around 15ft but otherwise a very good bino. I've an older model 7x35 and they are nice to use, as well as a Chinon 10x40 that are made by the same manufacturer I believe, given the similarity and IIRC the same makers markings.

today a couple nitrile end-caps - one for the TAL-M to make a pair and the other for the 100RS lens cell. 120mm is a tad oversize but some felt around the rim and flock on the cap inner should see it fitting snugly. Better than boxing it away with the lens exposed I think. For anyone wanting one of these caps, the EC120x12 indicates the ID of the cap and the depth of the lip. For the TAL-M a EC110 is a very snug fit as shipped. Also a couple 1TB SSD's - one for the desktop for the data drive and the other the Envy lappy, figured it'll run better than the SSHD hybrid that it shipped with. Got these used for a good price, low reported run-time and writes so should be a safe bet, being Micron supply the OEM chain in the main and their consumer models to Crucial with a different ID.

I think the aim is to improve the aim rather than velocity, since the shell would lose some of the impulse energy in gaining spin, albeit a small fraction. I've not looked down the TAL-1 tubes but can say the TAL-M I have isn't rifled. Maybe it did happen on early ones tho, if they simply repurposed tooling or processing methods at the start. I doubt they'd have been real armoury barrels given the material, ally wouldn't take the heat very well for rapid fire nor last many rounds of occasional use I'd think. Kinda adds to the mystique of these old Russian gizzmos tho huh 😉

ahh on the TAL-M the focuser has the finder built into it, you slide it out to use the eyepiece on the main mirrors, slid inward it intercepts the path and deflects via a built-in diagonal to the finder objective. Very neat arrangement, here it is off the scope while I was doing the refurb

heh yeah, like how he warned it could be fungus too, so very honest in the description. Also says view isn't affected which I'd believe especially after my adventures with the vintage scope lens 😉 I know the TAL finders are good, I've 2 already after all and even as parts it'll be useful since the TAL-1 doesn't have the dew shield or caps, but I also won't feel quite so bad if I then decide to shorten the tube to build one as an RA finder. Did a quick search on the bay and found the one you showed, might hold off to hear your results tho just in case 😄 I'm sure it'll be ok tho, just needs care in placement and hopefully you'll return that lens to its old glory. I've often thought about making a solar jig, just never got around to doing it, lack of materials and space being part of that. Luckily most of the binos I have only needed slight tweaks, the ones that are bad aren't worth the time so are just spares really so potential experimentation fodder too when required...

nice find and a good price I'd think 🙂 The aim of collimation is to have the two sides operating parallel to each other with regard the central axis so that as you pivot through the IPD range the two sides remain aligned. You're unlikely to get it accurate without the right jig and equipment tho there are some other methods that have been used making a jig to hold the bino and using the sun and projecting the image to check/adjust. https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=184856 which references the below https://sites.google.com/site/rchamon/home/sun-images-method-for-collimation-of-binoculars Should hopefully do what you need if you care to make up that rig 🙂 Might be interested in the source for the balsam too, hit buy on a TAL 6x30 finder that looks to have objective separation so may give a go at splitting the elements and use them air spaced or try to re-fix them later. At the price I figure useful for spares or as a spare or maybe even mod to be a RA finder with a suitable diagonal. Doesn't come with the bracket so I'd have to sort something if I want to use it with the vintage scope as it's a larger barrel than the Prinz one that it came with.

was just out with the rebuilt TAL-M too Stu, Jupiter and Saturn looking ok but thin cloud drifting by wasn't helping the view. Couple aircraft whizzed thru the FoV too. Was able to make out 4 moons with Jupiter but Saturn none in this scope. Pushed the mag with stacked x3 barlow on Jupiter just to see if it's usable, made it very soft and narrow FoV and eye placement was critical. Still the rebuild works fine for us both which is the main thing 🙂

today received these in the post The brass pan-heads do improve the look against the leather I think 🙂 The Eyepiece gives a very nice image, kinda completes the range for this one being I now have MA40, Original 25/20 brass plossl and H20 HM12.5, HM6 and Or4, no need for a barlow I'd say 🙂 Shame it didn't have a case but I'll sort something later on. Looks like the finder was threaded for M5 but PO had used some non-metric size nylon screws that were hard to move. Direct swap and now easy to adjust and also release the finder shoe for removal. Yesterday I'd tried paint stripper on the bracket but hardly made any impression. Guess I'll need to sand it and then give it another go so I can get back to white metal and try the brass buffer treatment...

A few screws - mainly for the vintage scope, a stackable filter cap for the camera and a 0.965 eyepiece that should fill the range nicely

ah ok, well with the objective cells out you'll likely have to reset the alignment unless you can screw them back in exactly the same as before. Adjusting is fiddly but can be done but you won't have true collimation afterwards. On a couple pairs here (Chinon roof was one IIRC) I marked the relative positions with a marker pen so I knew where the eccentric rings sat relative to each other and the body so I could replace them in close to the correct position on reassembly. Then it was just minor tweaks to true things up for my IPD, a bit of a cheat but it worked fairly well 😉 Here's a pic of the Chinon 10x40 roof, objective end. It's an oddity tho with only the one eccentric ring. Fun bit is keeping it in the desired place while tightening the lens ring... I expect yours may have 2 rings below the locking ring which I think is the more usual arrangement.

I've some that have a black metal cap over the prism which I guess is to improve light shielding/leakage. None I've opened so far have blacked prisms but have read of others doing the sides as mods which may reduce stray light in the chambers. Same for blacking the lens edges. I expect the intent is to improve overall contrast tho I've generally not bothered on most of mine as they work fine as-is. Be careful of painting the reflecting surfaces however as that may not go as expected and cause image issues, but no harm doing the ground edges - which is what it looked like in the pic but maybe that was just reflecting the blacked interior and tricked my eye 🙂 A black sharpie pen would do rather than paint if you went that route. You'll likely disturb the collimation tho if you remove the prisms, not sure if these had eccentric rings for adjustment or used shims/prism-tilt screws. I noted that the 0.965 diagonal I opened recently was a prism rather than a mirror and it had a black card insert on the long edge, perhaps with the same goal, to cull stray light and improve internal reflection. Mind you, as much I expect too to protect the prism from the shiny metal spring clip that sits between the prism and the cover plate so as not to marr the reflecting surface.

FLO would confirm if asked, but quite likely it should fit. I've the older EQ5's (black) and transferred the Synscan kit from one EQ5 to the other not that long ago. Not difficult, the hardest part is getting the gears correctly set and aligned on the SloMo shafts so that they mesh well and run smooth. Not a quiet rig but does work pretty well. You want to make sure the mount runs smooth on both axes before fitting though, else that'll affect its accuracy and if there's a lot of resistance at points in the axle can result in gears jumping which sounds dreadful and won't be good for the drive gears. That's the reason I transferred mine as the GoTo mound was bought used and wasn't running well because of non-smooth RA axle.

Handy find Mark, not too bad a price given it should do what you want and be removable in the future should that be necessary. We do seem to like these little projects and challenges huh 😄 Fingers crossed that they've not wrecked the lenses in the past and you are able to get it sorted, will watch with interest for sure. Luckily I've not had lenses separating in the ones I've bought but never say never... and I did after all have a big heart-sinking moment when I messed up one large lens not so long ago on the vintage scope. Am lucky that still performs well and wasn't a total loss. Internally those do look in good order, blacked prisms too? Wonder if that was OEM or someone did that later on to improve contrast?

am wondering if they repaired the doublet or if it's just separated and left as-was? If there's balsam residue and they are apart, then hot water will soften it and you'd be able to gently scrape it away with a soft-edged tool. Will be a fun exercise being they are small lenses and in hot water so be careful 😮 You could get some new modern cement (balsam isn't available any more) which would need UV to cure, but you'd need to be very precise with placement of the lenses since once cured you won't be able to part them if you find things out of true. Alternatively you might find that not adhering the 2 lenses will give reasonable results while leaving you the option to glue them later on if you really felt the need.

doing a bit of reading around the web: Stacking Barlows doesn’t add the factors, it multiples them – thus stacking a 2x with a 3x gets you 6x. Now, on your 1000 mm focal length scope, with a 25 mm eyepiece (40x) paired with that 6x stack, you’re getting a 240x magnification view! Interesting, that'd mean the combo I have in 32mm fit would give a x9 effect. So I was using the TAL-M at x189 with the 25mm Plossl, wow I'm not surprised the image dimmed and got soft and hard to pin the focus, especially being a tree branch with the sun hitting the leaves. Impressive though that it was useful at all given the 80mm aperture, will be interesting to see how that combo works aimed at Jupiter and Saturn. Might be worth getting a couple acrylic tubes and making up an extender too for a more in-spec x139 as the stacked barlow could be pushing the scope a bit far, will decide once I've tried it out tho 🙂 PS - source of the above info: https://orionbearastronomy.com/2019/02/11/pros-and-cons-of-barlow-lenses/

same here and spits of rain every now and again too

my bad Stu, the old grey cells don't always play nice, of course I shoulda realised huh, thimble - a kinda teeny tiny bucket... 😄 Just tried out the barlow combo on a distant (ish) tree canopy that was nice and bright while the sun peeked out. So focuser -> TAL-M x3 barlow -> TAL-1 x3 barlow -> 25mm Plossl. Worked pretty well. OK dim but that's expected with that amount of mag, adjusting focus I was able to see very close into the leaves on the tree as the branch wafted in and out of focus in the breeze. Focus seems soft though, again no surprise. No idea what mag that actually gave me, the 25mm plossl should give x21 I believe (80/526mm FL) so with x3 barlow that'd make x63. What effect does a barlow in a barlow give I wonder? Would that add another x3 to the first barlow's x63 or be x6 to the EP's x21? So effective result is x189 or x126? Either way it seems usable as a combo of the 2 barlows and kinda saves me messing about trying to fettle an extension tube. The acrylic tubes would cost around £8 each for the 2 diameters at 100mm length. Not too bad if I do decide to try that one day, easier than trying to work metal with hand tools too 🙂

was thinking last night about the one missing component (well apart from the spanner) for the optical train on this scope - the "mount" or focuser extension tube (top left) which allows you to reach a higher magnification. Browsing another thread here I found some information as per pic below Now being 32mm non-standard it's not quite as simple as buying a standard extension tube and possibly modifying it as while it may fit in the focuser the other components won't fit into the 1.25-inch tube without boring it out a little, not simple without a lathe. The spec arrangement is the extension sits before the barlow as below. Then I remembered, when I bought the TAL-1 for the 32mm eyepiece set it also has a barlow, but I can't use it in the M as it is wider at the nose. Now since I've modded the TAL-1 for 1.25-inch eyepieces and focuser this 32mm x3 barlow is redundant and I wonder if I can modify that to become the missing extension piece. It'd be a touch longer than the original "mount" tube but if I can remove the nose end carrying the lens it might just work. Problem seems to be that it seems to be machined as a single piece rather than the nose end screwed into the barrel. Even the lenses look to be cemented in place, no regular rings to be able to remove them: TAL-M barlow internal TAL-1 barlow internal Looking like the only way to fettle this from what I have would be to hack the nose end off the TAL-1 32mm barlow and sacrifice a part that is now rare to find, which would be a real shame I think. I was hoping that nose end and taper back to the main body would have just unscrewed but seems not. Anyone have any ideas on how this might dismantle, if at all? An alternative would be to try make something up. I can find Acrylic tube that has 32mm OD and another OD 38mm & ID 32mm that I guess I could make a stepped tube, flock the internals and it might work ok. Would feel tacky compared to the nice solid metal of the rest of the scope but preserve rather than sacrifice an original barlow at least. I recall a couple months back using the TAL-1 barlow inserted into the TAL-M barlow and got good views of Venus thru that crazy combo, will have to check that this works or if memory fails me but if it does then perhaps that's a better solution than knocking up a plastic tube solution...?

ah well, I've now 2 of those 🙂

or there's a very nice 6-inch frac going in the classifieds section, bargain price too 😉

Only at 6 here but then not really room to get more. One of them, the TAL-1, was bought just for the 25mm Plossl with 32mm barrel eyepiece it came with in order to complete the set for the TAL-M I already had, figuring I could always sell the scope itself on later. But then I shifted the mirror and replaced the focuser with a 1.25-inch one and it's still here and in use. Bino's tho, that's a different story, 30+ pairs 😮

true but unlike solid ground the water will have some give to aid damping the impact and offer some final deceleration should you not have lost quite enough speed.