Quality on a budget

[John]

I won't get many takers with this but... Tal1

I was visiting Telescope House (then in London) when the first TAL 1's had just arrived (they were blue back then) and was shown around one by Dudley Fuller himself !. He raved about the quality of the optics, the engineering and the ash wood trunk the scope came in (like a coffin !) and then said that it would put him out of business (they were still producing Fullerscopes back then). Next to it was a Meade 7" ED Refractor which was the biggest scope I'd ever seen at that time..... :shock: I got the distinct impression that Dud Fuller did not care for Meade's much ......

John

[canuck]

I won't get many takers with this but... Tal1

Tal 1. Great scope 8)

I recently gave one to a friend's 5 year old as it ticked all the right boxes:

• 
  [li]Simple enough to be used by a child (and his parents, it turns out)[/li]
  [li]Good enough to use seriously[/li]
  [li]Strong enough to survive being stored in a 5 years old's bedroom[/li]
  [li]Will hold collimation when being used as a baseball bat
  [/li]
  

I used it a few times, and the optics really were excellent.

[SteelRat]

I recently gave one to a friend's 5 year old

The scope'll survive it too.

[Whippy]

I won't get many takers with this but... Tal1

I beg to differ ...

Tony..

[russ]

Myself and Rob were putting some cheapy eyepieces through their paces on Tuesday night using the 12.5 f4.8 dob.

Some surprised and some were dreadful.

30mm 80deg Moonfish clone (£30 new) - not as bad as you would think. Only the centre 40% sharp but it didn't seem to matter much, too busy taking in the view. Thumbs up on this one.

20mm GSO Superview (£20 new from the States) - in the f4.8 it's flippin awful. Centre 30% sharp, seagulls at 50%. But it performed very nicely in the Skymax 150, so in the right scope would be a bargain.

26mm Swan Clone (£30 new) - wasn't expecting a great deal from it. Just a finder eyepiece for my dob. But it's better corrected compared to the Moonfish, sharper on axis too. But lacks the impact of the Moonfish and the light throughput. Definate thumbs up though.

15mm Vixen NPL (£20 approx from the states) - Vixens new cheapy plossl line. Very nice! Even at f4.8 this little beauty is a bargain. Sharp edge to edge, no blackout problems, easy to use. Only a narrow field detracts. Great bargain!