Tal owners club

[Jim Steele]

So my new telescope arrived Fri, only just had chance to set it up yesterday.

On the whole looks pretty good on my CG5, are a couple of niggles the finder dew shield is a little loose and is a scratch on the tube but nothing I can't live with.

Interestingly this one has a black focuser tube rather than the chrome one as standard.

Now just need to wait for the clouds to clear

[nightfisher]

Jim, welcome to the wonderful world of the TAL100RS.

Take time to explore its potential, i have owned mine for maybe 3 years now, and i still get wow moments with her, you may want to use her with some orthoscopic eyepieces, also if you have a 2" diagonal, try the Revelation 42mm 2" ep for some really nice widefield star fields in the milky way..............you got your self a great scope

[Steve Ward]

Lovely new tube ... 

Wouldn't be without mine now ... 

[nightfisher]

Lovely new tube ... 

Wouldn't be without mine now ... 

same here, i keep thinking about a 100ED, but it would have to replace the TAL, and i dont want to do that

[John]

Nice scope - I used to have one of the early ones back in 1999 that arrived in a huge wooden crate direct from Siberia !

The focuser used has changed a number of times on the model over the years I believe.

[Jim Steele]

Jim, welcome to the wonderful world of the TAL100RS.

Take time to explore its potential, i have owned mine for maybe 3 years now, and i still get wow moments with her, you may want to use her with some orthoscopic eyepieces, also if you have a 2" diagonal, try the Revelation 42mm 2" ep for some really nice widefield star fields in the milky way..............you got your self a great scope

Thanks nightfisher, no 2" diagonal I'm afraid so well have to make do for a while - one is on my list to buy. Can't decide between a Revelation or WO, out of interest what do you use?

Are they any good summer targets you can recommend?

[Steve Ward]

Works wonders on the Sun with a scrap of Baader film .... 

[nightfisher]

Thanks nightfisher, no 2" diagonal I'm afraid so well have to make do for a while - one is on my list to buy. Can't decide between a Revelation or WO, out of interest what do you use?

Are they any good summer targets you can recommend?

I just use a skywatcher 2" diagonal that comes with my 150 mak, i only use this set up for very low power wide field work, with the 42mm and some times a 28mm 2" ep.

Loads of summer targets, lots of double stars and some globular clusters, not least the Lunar surface, Saturn is very good with a TAL

[Jim Steele]

Cheers al, I had a bit of opportunity to use the tal last night and had a few targets despite the full moon, medium cloud cover, bad seeing and lightness of the sky. I thought of share a quick first light report.

The moon was well resolved with the 20mm eyepiece with only a small amount of CA on the limb hardly noticeable really.

Mars was visible no features or colour could be seen presumably due to poor conditions.

Jupiters bands could be seen as a milky pink colour and we're quite sharp despite the poor conditions as could its four moons.GRS was not visible.

Saturn by now had risen above my neighbours house and was resolved very nicely. No colour or details but it was by now only just starting to get dark.

All in all she shows potential so one happy bunny

[Jim Steele]

Just a quick moon shot with the 20mm plosl and my mobile phone.

Pretty decent first image shows a little CA on the limb, looks much worse on the photo than it actually appeared through the eye piece

[nightfisher]

Jim, if you invert the image to monochrome i think you will be amazed at how good it is

[brantuk]

Yup - they are very nice optics on the Tals - great grab and go scope which is very sharp and contrasty. Welcome to the owners club.

[Marki]

Great scope. I love mine to bits.  Mine has a couple of scratches and poorly applied paint, but the tube is robust and its mechanically sound. The optics are excellent indeed! Clear, sharp and contrasty (just as Brantuk says).

[Jim Steele]

Just I bit of an update - I have had a bit of time on the eye piece, and I have to say I am impressed.

Some lovely views of Saturn (and saw the Cassini division though skies were quite turbulent), Mars (small) but contrasty and blown away by the moon.

All in all I think ishe is a keeper

The one minor thing I am struggling with is the finder (which is still excellent by the way) I just keep knocking my head on the focuser when trying to star hop .

I guess a RACI would be easier; are they any peeps can reccoment that fit it?

[nightfisher]

Just I bit of an update - I have had a bit of time on the eye piece, and I have to say I am impressed.

Some lovely views of Saturn (and saw the Cassini division though skies were quite turbulent), Mars (small) but contrasty and blown away by the moon.

All in all I think ishe is a keeper

The one minor thing I am struggling with is the finder (which is still excellent by the way) I just keep knocking my head on the focuser when trying to star hop .

I guess a RACI would be easier; are they any peeps can reccoment that fit it?

Jim this is what i do with mine

[Jim Steele]

Thanks Nightfisher, only just noticed this post. Tal looks a good match with the Az4.

Which RACI is that and did you need to drill holes in the tube

[nightfisher]

Hi Jim, its the skywatcher 9x50 righ angled finder and yes i had to drill a couple of holes further along the tube to take the skywatcher finder shoe, well worth doing though

[Steve Ward]

Hi Jim ,

You can just loosen the large threaded ring behind the tube and rotate the focuser so that the finder is in a more convenient position.

[Jim Steele]

Hi Jim, its the skywatcher 9x50 righ angled finder and yes i had to drill a couple of holes further along the tube to take the skywatcher finder shoe, well worth doing though

Cheers, I presume the holes need tapping too. Something I will look into doing, and mabye check the flocking while I'm at it.

Is the lens cell easy to remove, thinking I don't want to damage it while tinkering...

[Jim Steele]

Hi Jim ,

You can just loosen the large threaded ring behind the tube and rotate the focuser so that the finder is in a more convenient position.

Hi Steve, my finder isn't attached to the focuser but the tube itself though rotating the focuser does stop me banging my head on the diagonal.

[nightfisher]

Jim, flocking is a worth while task, mine is done from the dewshield all the way down to the diagonal, including the drawtube, i feel this has picked up some more contrast, if you get the finder with shoe, it comes with some short M4 machine screws with nuts so no tapping needed, much as i like the stock helical finder, the 9x50 is a big improvement

[John]

I have the inside of the dew shields of my refractors flocked but I've not done the inside of the tubes yet. They are well baffled though as are the focuser drawtubes.

With the light cone of a refractor making a single pass, narrowing all the way, down the tube from the back of the objective lens and moving away from the inner tube walls I'm wondering if the benefit of flocking the inside of the tube is going to be that great ?

I've flocked newtonians in the past and noticed at best little difference there so I wonder if it's really worth doing a refractor, other than the inside of the dew sheild, which is in the light path ?

[Jim Steele]

Jim, flocking is a worth while task, mine is done from the dewshield all the way down to the diagonal, including the drawtube, i feel this has picked up some more contrast, if you get the finder with shoe, it comes with some short M4 machine screws with nuts so no tapping needed, much as i like the stock helical finder, the 9x50 is a big improvement

Cheers NF, something I'll look into doing next summer as I have plenty of jobs to do. Keep meaning to re grease my CG5 as I feel is not a smooth as it could be. Will tinker with that this summer while I wait for darker skies

I can live with the current finder for a while as it's very good.