99.7% Moon, binoviewing with a Telementor

[John]

A little research into Thomas Harriot seems to indicate that the telescope he used, his "dutch trunk" as he called it, magnified around 6x. Maybe the 6 x 25 non achromat finder of my old Tasco might not be far off

It would be interesting to see how the Moon looks though that, when examined carefully, compared with Harriot's map

 

[John]

14 minutes ago, John said:

A little research into Thomas Harriot seems to indicate that the telescope he used, his "dutch trunk" as he called it, magnified around 6x. Maybe the 6 x 25 non achromat finder of my old Tasco might not be far off

It would be interesting to see how the Moon looks though that, when examined carefully, compared with Harriot's map

 

Apologies for deflecting your observing report thread Stu

I can always start a new one on replicating the views of the early observers.

[Ships and Stars]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Lovely stuff. I very much enjoy vintage scopes too. I now have aTelevue Genesis, Vixen FL102S fluorite, a TAL 100r and the Telementor. Need to get more use out of the TAL to see how it performs. I suspect that one will find a new home in future but the other three will definitely stay.

I like Russian stuff as well - have a few old Zenit cameras going back to late 50s/early 60s. The TALs are well-regarded it seems, but I don't know much about them. I just picked up a TS Optics binocular fork mount which has a Vixen rail mount. It has an 8kg capacity, but I think it will hold more. My 7.2kg bins will stay put effortlessly at a 40-60deg altitude by only lightly tightening the altitude lock. Anyway, I was thinking it would also double up nicely as a great alt-az mount for a refractor. I like the wooden tripods as well though!

I'm out with the 300p and binoviewers tonight but the atmosphere is pretty wobbly - moon looks like a flag blowing in the wind and stars are a ball of mush. Might be heat coming off the house though, so will give it another crack now  👍

[John]

16 minutes ago, Ships and Stars said:

..... The TALs are well-regarded it seems, but I don't know much about them....

 

Some reading when you get time:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/317902-the-history-of-tal-telescopes/

 

[Stu]

On 01/12/2020 at 20:24, John said:

Apologies for deflecting your observing report thread Stu

I can always start a new one on replicating the views of the early observers.

No worries John, always interesting to see where threads end up 😁

Might get more attention in a dedicated thread, but not a problem to carry on here 👍