TAL100RS

[DaveL59]

hi all

recently picked up this scope, in nice condition and on an EQ5 mount rather than the wood tripod. Came in a cardboard carton with wood plank to secure the OTA and a set of EPs. Seller was advised this was a TAL100R tho the box and manual say 100RS, the lens shows a greenish tint rather than the purple that the 100R seemed to have from reading elsewhere. Sadly other than a TAL sticker on the tube there's no ID plate on the OTA itself.

From what I see it has a 2-inch R&P focuser with long travel, the diagonal fits into the 1.25 adaptor ring and is of a regular 1.25 nosepiece so am wondering, is this a RS version , it seems to be but I've no idea how to confirm this?

Am happy with the scope but as yet not had a chance to view the night sky with the weather we've had lately, hopefully tonight...

Any info gratefully received 🙂 
Dave

[Dave_D]

may well be a RS... looks totally different from my 100R

 

[DaveL59]

thanks Dave, did wonder too that none of the EPs or diaganol carry the tal mark like yours does, tho the 25mm super plossl does have the lovely purple coating where the other tal one I have is more light green. All seems good just some paint chips on the main tube, tho I did find tonight that one of the rings on the leg that link to the spreader stabiliser has cracked, hopefully I can find a replacement part or do a suitable repair.

[DougM43]

Pretty sure yours is the RS version, As your description the 100r had a purple coating to the lens with the RS having a green coating and on later models light blue, also the older 100r will only accept 1.25 eyepieces.

you won’t be disappointed with it, fantastic scope.

just as an edit,,it seems there was some early RS models with the purple lens as they were changing from the100r to the100rs. I discovered this little nugget of info while trying to find an old post where @nightfisher did an interesting side by side comparison between the two scopes but alas I can’t find it to add a link.

Edited June 30, 2019 by DougM43

[John]

The TAL100RS came with the Skwatcher EQ5 mount and steel tripod and a 2 inch focuser with a chrome finish drawtube, just like yours in fact.

Here is the picture from the OVL brochure from a few years back:

 

[DaveL59]

that's great folks, thanks for confirming what I thought from what I had in my hands and had read 🙂 

It is indeed a lovely scope, complete with 25, 9 & 6.3mm EPs, barlow & reticule. A few paint chips on the OTA plus sort an EP tray for it and one of the leg spreader fixings has cracked are the only things to sort. Before I'd noted the broken part I had it out in the garden for its first light, view of Jupiter was the goal tho it was playing hide and seek behind the old dead oak to my SE. Got some nice clear views with the Tal 25 & 9mm Eps tho the 6.3 seemed to be pushing it a bit far but then I've no option here other than to be viewing over nearby rooftops. The vixen NPL 20&10mm  got their first light test too and they too were well worth the price paid  

[jock1958]

Hi Dave

My 100RS has no data plate either only identifier was a label on the finder bracket with serial number and year of manufacture 2011 and the obligatory TAL sticker on the tube.

Only differences I can see between yours and mine is my finder bracket bolts directly onto the OTA tube, yours attaches to focuser attachment assembly and your focuser tube is silver and mines black.

As you’ve already confirmed you can safely say it’s a 100RS, maybe an early version?

Clear skies!

 

[John]

I think the version of the TAL 100 that Dave has was followed by the version reviewed here by Astro Baby:

http://www.astro-baby.com/reviews/TAL 100RS/TAL 100RS Review.htm

They went back to the TAL EQ1 mount and wooden tripod for that one.

I've owned a couple of the earlier ones known as the TAL 100RT. These had a 1.25" only focuser, metal dew shield and deep purple lens coatings:

 

[Alfian]

A very nice find and assuming all is well with the optics I think you will be more than pleased with way it performs.

[F15Rules]

6 hours ago, John said:

I think the version of the TAL 100 that Dave has was followed by the version reviewed here by Astro Baby:

http://www.astro-baby.com/reviews/TAL 100RS/TAL 100RS Review.htm

They went back to the TAL EQ1 mount and wooden tripod for that one.

I've owned a couple of the earlier ones known as the TAL 100RT. These had a 1.25" only focuser, metal dew shield and deep purple lens coatings:

 

John is correct, I owned this scope and sold it to Mel (Astro Baby) some years ago. Great scope. (I owned at least 6 of these over the years).

The weak link on the 100r was the focuser with only about 25-30mm if travel and not the smoothest 

The purple objective though was excellent and a shade better than the RS one IMHO. But the RS had the (then) new 2" Crayford focuser which was streets better than the 100r unit.

The Tal EQ mount was better than the EQ5, but quirky (eg, had limited manual axis movement without resetting). Built like a tank though, and a great wooden tripod. I find wood a better tripod material than steel.

The supplied EPs were mixed. The 6.3mm is not great, with poor eye relief. The 9mm I never used (I had a 10mm which was ok), but the 25mm was/is fabulous- think Tele Vue quality optically.

Both R and RS are great achromats so whichever you have, just enjoy it!😁

Dave

Edited June 30, 2019 by F15Rules

[newbie alert]

I'd say it looks more like the RS, the RT has a 1.25 focuser  the RS comes with a 2 inch .. I needed the 2 inch focuser version as I intend to do the pst mod with it but wanted to look at the moon first, I wasn't disappointed..great contrast 

[newbie alert]

[sloz1664]

Always hankered over a Tal 100 to compliment my Tal 200K.

Steve

[John]

I have a couple of very fine 4 inch refractors already but when a TAL 100 comes up for sale I still have to speak sternly to myself .....

 

[DaveL59]

thanks all, I'm well chuffed with it as I was wanting a nice refractor and this certainly fits the bill nicely. Could well be an earlier one before they went to the crayford so you've confirmed what I was thinking there. I'll have to get some slo-mo cables for it as it gets a bit wobbly when tweaking the adjusters directly but can always nick the ones off the SW130 newt in the meantime. Almost tempted to get the motor drive for it, one day perhaps, the 130 newt has it for RA but so far haven't used it and just manually tweaked as needed.

I'll admit too I'd have liked the wood tripod setup but heck, this one was too perfect as a complete rig to pass even with a v long round trip to collect it was well worth the effort, can always pick up the wood tripod later down the road if one turns up  

[moriniboy]

My TAL 100R has beautiful purple coatings, now used as a TAL/PST Ha modded scope.

[John]

34 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

thanks all, I'm well chuffed with it as I was wanting a nice refractor and this certainly fits the bill nicely. Could well be an earlier one before they went to the crayford so you've confirmed what I was thinking there. I'll have to get some slo-mo cables for it as it gets a bit wobbly when tweaking the adjusters directly but can always nick the ones off the SW130 newt in the meantime. Almost tempted to get the motor drive for it, one day perhaps, the 130 newt has it for RA but so far haven't used it and just manually tweaked as needed.

I'll admit too I'd have liked the wood tripod setup but heck, this one was too perfect as a complete rig to pass even with a v long round trip to collect it was well worth the effort, can always pick up the wood tripod later down the road if one turns up  

An RA motor is easy to fit to the EQ5 and leads to relaxed high power viewing. The single drive kits don't cost much either. This one (branded Orion) will fit the EQ5 just fine:

https://www.telescopehouse.com/truetrack-singlel-axis-drive.html

Works for ages from batteries as well so no power tank / external power supply needed.

 

[Roy Challen]

Great to see that there is still interest in these fine scopes.

[nightfisher]

I still feel that the finest Tal 100 was the Mk 1 100RS, this model had the purple objective lens, had a 2" rack an pinion focuser, and an early version of the plastic dew shield, i think this came with the EQ5 and wooden leg tripod, then the mk 2 RS came out as OTA option, with the kinda green objective lens and a larger plastic dew shield, and of course the 2" crayford focuser

[jock1958]

1 hour ago, nightfisher said:

I still feel that the finest Tal 100 was the Mk 1 100RS, this model had the purple objective lens, had a 2" rack an pinion focuser, and an early version of the plastic dew shield, i think this came with the EQ5 and wooden leg tripod, then the mk 2 RS came out as OTA option, with the kinda green objective lens and a larger plastic dew shield, and of course the 2" crayford focuser

Very interesting Jules. 

What’s the difference between the 100R and 100RS Mk 1 apart from purple coatings on their lenses and rack and pinion focusers? 

[nightfisher]

9 hours ago, jock1958 said:

Very interesting Jules. 

What’s the difference between the 100R and 100RS Mk 1 apart from purple coatings on their lenses and rack and pinion focusers? 

The 100r, had the same purple coated objective lens as the Mk 1 rs, but had the small 1.25 focuser with rather limited travel, the 100r also had a slim metal dewshield, held with tiny set screws 

[Alfian]

Regarding the 100r focuser, following experience with a Tal1 1.25" focuser which had very limited travel, and could only be used with a limited range of eyepieces, I didn't have big expectations when I got my 100r. To my surprise and joy it will bring to focus all of my 1.25" EPs and I can use the Baader Q Turret barlow too. Sure, the ability to use a 40mm 2" EP giving nice wide views would be good but much of the time that's not an issue as I can use other 'scopes for that. 

 

 

 

 

[DaveL59]

so far am loving the 100RS, I do tend to go for more vintage gear with the possibility of restoring a little 🙂 There is a sticker on the foot of the finder but its blank white so I guess the serial number has come away over time. Also noting that the securing screw for the finder foot is loose in the thread on the focusser body. Guess I'll need to re-tap and find a suitable larger thumb screw at some stage. With care I can get the finder secure so none too urgent.

So today I received this nice set, TAL-1 EPs, 25mm 15mm and 3x barlow. They're 1999 vintage I believe, was hoping they might work better on the TAL-M but seems not. Would have been after TAL modified to 1.25 inch fit so was not hugely surprised, works fine with the TAL-M barlow so that's fine. They'll work fine in my RS  and 130EQ2 scopes anyway 😄 Gotta stop or slow the buying tho, I now have 3 TAL 25mm plossl EPs! This one and 2 newer, one greenish and the other purple coatings...

[DaveL59]

On 30/06/2019 at 22:12, John said:

An RA motor is easy to fit to the EQ5 and leads to relaxed high power viewing. The single drive kits don't cost much either. This one (branded Orion) will fit the EQ5 just fine:

https://www.telescopehouse.com/truetrack-singlel-axis-drive.html

Works for ages from batteries as well so no power tank / external power supply needed.

 

seems I got lucky and picked up a hardly used EQ5 mount with Synscan goto upgrade kit locally for a nice price, just need to sort one of the spare 12v17AH batteries (ex UPS so could be a bit tired) and get things hooked up and have a play to check things out. Guess I'll need a serial cable to update the firmware assuming I can ID the model, current seems to be v3.27 from a brief power-up earlier.

Also acquired a 42mm Tal mk2 Kellner eyepiece to add into the collection.

Edited July 29, 2019 by DaveL59

[DaveL59]

so I gave up on the old lead batteries, all duds 😞 

Since I was going to have to buy something new, decided on a LiPo Car starter as mentioned in another thread. Only thing was output is 16v on the car side of the outlets which si too much I think, so added a buck converter and now have 12v stable which is driving the mount very nicely.  All in a lot lighter than lead batteries and this allegedly is 20,000 mAh so should give good run times 🙂 

While testing found the R/A on this EQ5 head quite stiff and sticks causing some not so pleasant motor/gear noises at certain positions, so it'll need a strip down and overhaul I think. Luckily the TAL also came with an EQ5 that's smooth so I've swapped the motors across to it and the SynScan is now running nice and silky smooth and quieter as it slews about, result!

For the observant, yep is the older type tripod with EQ5 mount, I plan to use this till I can sort a replacement spreader clip for the round legged tripod, tho I do like that this one sits a little taller with the legs collapsed, so will decide eventually which I prefer.