TAL 100RS on Astroboot bargain zone £150

[Charic]

OVL, Optical Vision Ltd, still supply, but there is no mention that TAL is out of production http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_telescopes-tal.html

[Stu]

That's interesting. I think Neil English tested an R vs an RS and the R came out better. I guess there is probably variability in lens accuracy across all of them so it depends on the actual scopes which turns out better.[/

quote]

I remember reading that report and thinking that it would easy to swap the lenses over. In the end I'm glad I didn't because the gain would have been almost undetectable to anyone unless they had both scopes side by side, and the originality of two nice scopes would have been sacrificed.

On another Tal note, I heard that Tal are no longer producing astro gear but quite a few dealers are still selling them- I even saw a 200K on one UK website. Can it be assumed that this is old stock (discounts please!) or is Tal still in production?

I get what you mean about originality, although if you kept both scopes then no permanent damage done. It would be interesting to see another few shootouts to check whether it was a consistent difference on every pair.

I keep hearing rumours that they have stopped production, but the scopes keep appearing. It would be a shame if they have stopped, they are a nice anti-dote to purely Chinese production ie something a little different.

[nightfisher]

Thanks chaps!

You are welcome . Sometimes I need saving from myself so I understand where you are coming from!

I thought I had a problem until I saw your collection . I must do a family shot at some point when the weather holds for a while.

You will need a very wide angle lens for the "family shoot"

[aqualand]

Been following the reverse auction and then saw this thread

Came within my price range and just pulled the plug, apologies to anyone else who was interested and everyone else for the bad weather.

Garry

[Astro_Baby]

I think you'd find very little difference in them.  The Rs are reputed to have worse baffling and the focuser can be a headache.  The RS has nicer baffling.  Mine doesnt conform to either the purple lens or the clear lens type - it has a greensih tinge to it and yes I would still say if I could have only one of my scopes I'd pick the TAL.  Its not necessarily optically better than the others (the Skymax 180 for instance will trounce it on planets) but taking all things into account its the best all rounder plus it looks nice and feels 'right'.  

My best is TAL bung them together from whatever is available, I have seen RS types with a slightly different focuser for instance so they probably just use what they have to hand to make each batch which makes each scope almost unique, unless people buy from the same batch they all seem to have subtle differences which again is quite a nice thing in a world of mass production.

[nightfisher]

I agree with Mel about if i had to keep just one scope, like she says, my 150 pro will trounce the 100rs on luna and planets but a 100rs is just a superb great all round useful scope

[AndyH]

Tal (the brand name of astro products made by NPZ Optical Factory in Novosibirsk) was taken over or merged(not sure which) with Schwabe. I think this is a holding company of a giant Russian Tech conglomerate? I think all this happened early 2015.

A post in a thread on a large Russian astro forum, by long time designer Lev Parko, mentioned that the only products that were being produced (as @ May '15) were the TAL-65 newt, the TAL-75R frac, TAL-1 newt, 2" diagonal, 15mm UWA eyepiece and their 12.5mm astrometric eyepiece. No idea if this will continue.

As has been the case, since forever, don't expect to see anything coming outside of Russia for the forseeable future, if at all. 100RS owners should know that for a couple of years you were buying the scope for less than the factory list price, which I think was thanks to a long time deal OvL had with Tal.

Andy

[AndyH]

The R & RS discussions are basically really about the different optical tubes, not the lenses. The lens & lens cell is exactly the same design as when they first were produced, back in the late 90's. Coatings were changed(technology improved, according to Lev Parko) over the years. So I agree with previous posters, that any differences were probably down to the actual quality of lens grind/polish/alignment in cell, rather than coatings*. Don't get me wrong, the deep purple coatings just scream 'Russian Optics' at me, whenver I see them. Utterly divine.

Andy.

* that's my belief and will stick to it 'til proved otherwise

[nightfisher]

Tal (the brand name of astro products made by NPZ Optical Factory in Novosibirsk) was taken over or merged(not sure which) with Schwabe. I think this is a holding company of a giant Russian Tech conglomerate? I think all this happened early 2015.

A post in a thread on a large Russian astro forum, by long time designer Lev Parko, mentioned that the only products that were being produced (as @ May '15) were the TAL-65 newt, the TAL-75R frac, TAL-1 newt, 2" diagonal, 15mm UWA eyepiece and their 12.5mm astrometric eyepiece. No idea if this will continue.

As has been the case, since forever, don't expect to see anything coming outside of Russia for the forseeable future, if at all. 100RS owners should know that for a couple of years you were buying the scope for less than the factory list price, which I think was thanks to a long time deal OvL had with Tal.

Andy

I just love it when Andy joins a TAL thread, a real font of information, regarding this post it makes good sense to get a 100rs while you can, and if you already have one then hang onto it 

[Astro_Baby]

Mine aint going anywhere soon but it will be up for sale when I am put in me own pine box for recycling back to carbon

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

Thanks for the info,Andy.

 Very interesting to us TAL fans,as always.