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TAL2 mount


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Hi Andy

I'm new to Stargazers Lounge but I have a Tal 2 telescope which has been laying dormant for 10 or more years. I've recently had more time and have been attempting to get to grips with it again. However I struggle with the manual adjustment on the mount and I'm thinking of getting an altazimouth mount with manual adjustment until I can find my way around the night sky with more understanding and then maybe go back to the Tal mount later. Is this feasible with the Tal 2 telescope. I have seen some mounts for about £150. Can you give me your thoughts as I was impressed with your understanding of the Tal mount. I also really appreciated your information on collimation which I was was abit wary of.

Regards

David

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If anything doesn't make sense in the stuff I've posted, please do ask, as there's NO such thing as a silly question. There's quite a few of us on here with 2M's, so plenty of brains to pick.

As for an alt/az mount for the 6"F8 scope itself. Mmmm. I've done it with the smaller and lighter Tal 1. The 2M's tube is pretty heavy and long though. I'll have a wee think about it.

Also why not put a post up in the mount section here..... http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/125-discussions-mounts/ asking about an alt/az mount suitable for a Tal 2M tube? A wider readership might come up with something pretty quickly?

Cheers,

Andy.

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Thanks Andy. I'm away from home for a month at the moment so I'm using evenings in hotel rooms to get more up to speed.I'll use the link on mounts to ask the question. One last simple question, what do you use to clean the mirror. Is it ok to use camera lens cleaner and/or glasses cleaning clothes. I just read somewhere that astronomy lens have a coating that is easy to damage with cleaning so I'm just checking. Thanks

Kind regards

David

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Mirrors need a different technique than glass lenses.

Have a search here on SGL or a google search.

I've always liked this version.......

http://www.astro-baby.com/TAL%20Telescope%20Rebuild/Telescope%20Mirror%20Cleaning.htm

But I do it exactly as in this vid.......

Be aware that the coatings Tal use are vey very tough, so the aluminium layer on the glass, under the coating, should last a very long time, as long as you look after it of course.

Don't abuse the mirror by washing too often. A mirror that looks slightly dirty will work fine. Wait til it's bad or has resiny looking deposits on. For example some trees give off horrid sticky resinous stuff. Lime trees are awful for that.

When you have the mirror out, put a centre spot or a ring in it's centre. Makes collimation so much easier. In the first link, there's a explanation of how to do this. More examples will be probably somewhere on the web.

Cheers,

Andy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been trying different ideas for a polar alignment tube, and this is my latest.

Polarsighttube-1Small.jpg

The tube runs alongside the mounting plate not on top. I found there isn't enough room on top of the plate to get my head in and line my eye up. The two side brackets sit on top of the plate and hold the tube quite steady while the scope is upright (which it would be if I'm looking for Polaris!).

Polarsighttube-2Small.jpg

The tube has an internal diam of 9mm. I haven't had a clear sky yet to try it out, but the FOV seems tiny. I think it will take a lot of practice and patience to get it right!

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

Jason

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Looks good Jason - better than I could do! If I may comment ... My polar sighting tube sits on top of the motor housing, i.e. I line it up on the pole before I put the telescope tube on. I can imagine that it would be quite difficult to get the mount lined up with the optics in place as it is quite heavy. The other thing that occurs to me is that you are relying on the mounting plate being accurately parallel to the polar axis, and it may not be.

If ever it stops raining I'll get my scope out in daylight and take a photo with the polar sight on top.

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Thanks Richard. It would be good to see yours in place. It would not be too difficult to modify mine. We had quite a nice day today, now it's back to "Normal" . Raining again, and doesn't look too good for the next few days!

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Polar sighting tube in place. Note the addition of masking tape!

Thanks for that Richard. I see you managed to find a gap in the weather! Does it have to be "precisely" placed on the curve of the motor housing?

I'd made the mistake of thinking the alignment was to do with the optics where it is just about the mount! It didn't occur to me to do the alignment without the tube!

I've got a lot to learn.

Thanks

Jason

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If we assume the motor housing is of uniform build (a fair assumption given that it is Russian), it is good enough to put the sighting tube "on top" and it won't matter if it is a mm or two away from being at the apex. The important thing is that the sighting tube is parallel to the mount's polar axis, and the flanges at the front of the tube's mounting bracket should ensure that, provided (of course) they are accurately perpendicular to the tube.

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Great mods guys !!

I made a similar bracket a while back.

Admittedly it's for use with the polar scope off the Tal MT-3S mount, but could be used with a std finder scope with crosshairs.

It works perfectly, which I must admit surprised me.

I've got a few picks here, http://stargazerslou...ountmt-2c/��Not great pics, but hopefully better than nothing. I've since coloured the velcro backing paper with a black smelly magic marker. Looks nicer than the white.

I used 2 pieces of alu channel, put them in a smooth side vice, drilled and them tapped them together(keeping the channel in the vice helps hold it 'true'). I added a velcro strap, that holds the scope to the mount. As I said it works perfectly and I also tried a Tal 6x30 finder on it. This was successful too, which suggests any cheap small finder 'may' work.

Andy.

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Going back to posts #43 to #46 (Andy and Richard) I have been trying to find one of the adaptors described (from 32mm to the standard 1.25in) for my eyepiece holder. I've tried FLO and Optical Vision but so far drawn a blank. I accept that for an eyepiece a bit of tape would do the trick but if I wanted a collimator the fit would need to be a bit more snug and central. One suggestion was that I change the focuser but I still want to use the 32mm eps that came with the scope. I suppose if all else fails I could find a small engineering firm to make something up, but that could be expensive!

Thanks Jason

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Jason - Try http://www.modernastronomy.com/accessories.html

If he doesn't have the exact adapter, he should be able to get one from http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/index.php/language/en/cat/c10_Adapter.html

I think you'll need(check i've got the female & male threads the correct way round)

1. M42x1(female) - M42x0.75[aka T2](male) adapter http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5223_TS-Adapter--M42x1-female-to-T2-male-for-russian-objectives.html

2. T2(f) - 1.25" eyepiece adapter http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p210_Visual-Back-T2-to-1-25----with-additional-T2-male-thread---long.html

Andy.

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