Vivatar 76700

[orca]

Hi All

Just a carpenter (joiner) by trade. Having trouble deciphering the set up and use of this telescope. Any help would be welcome, or did I pay $180.00 CND for a inferior machine.

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @orca and welcome to SGL. 

I think you have answered your question.

I am not sure what brands you have in Canada, but I would have chosen a SkyWatcher Heritage 130 or 150 Flextube. 
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/skywatcher-heritage-130p-flextube.html
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/heritage/sky-watcher-heritage-150p-flextube-dobsonian-telescope.html

I had something similar to your current 'scope, many years ago and it was not achieving what I was expecting for planetary views, so I gave it away to a neighbours son after about twelve months of ownership. It was OK for the Moon, but Jupiter and Saturn were disappointing in my opinion and got myself a small Maksutov telescope which was a bit better. I then traded it for a TeleVue Ranger (refractor) two to three years later and I still use it twenty plus years on. My other 'scopes are a Meade ETX105, (which I have re-modded the backplate after it an accident), and a Celestron C6/SCT.

Anyway... have a whale of a time enjoying this wonderful hobby and wishing you clear skies.

[Geoff Lister]

Hello orca, and welcome to SGL.

My first telescope, bought in 1986 to view Halley's Comet, was a Tasco 3T, very similar to your setup. It is an azimuth/altitude mount with a fork-and-rod coupling between the optical tube and tripod. The eyepieces have a diameter of 0.956" where they fit into the focuser draw tube, although I understand that your version has an adaptor, and will take the, more standard, 1.25" eyepieces.

The mount is not very easy to use, but I got some fine views of the comet. If the manual supplied with your 'scope is difficult to understand, it may be useful to google "Tasco 3t" and look at some of the suggested sites - the USA "Cloudy Nights" astronomy forum, equivalent to this site, has some useful posts.

This may help:- Tasco Luminova40-076420Inst.pdf

I have made a dovetail rail & ring cradle, so that the optical tube can be used with my more-capable mounts:-

Geoff

[RT65CB-SWL]

The one that @Geoff Lister has shown is the same one I used to own, as mentioned in my reply. Just could not remember the name/model, etc.

[Louis D]

On 29/12/2020 at 17:44, orca said:

Hi All

Just a carpenter (joiner) by trade. Having trouble deciphering the set up and use of this telescope. Any help would be welcome, or did I pay $180.00 CND for a inferior machine.

 

1. Well, they're only $100 on Amazon US with free shipping, and in stock, so $180 CND seems high since that's $141 USD.
2. It probably uses a spherical rather than parabolic primary mirror, but at f/9 it might be tolerable at lower powers.
3. You should be able to get good views of the moon and many open star clusters.
4. The eyepieces should probably be replaced with 1.25" Plossls for starters to get better views.  I believe it comes with Ramsden and Huygens 0.965 eyepieces along with a 1.25" to 0.965 adapter.
5. The mount is going to be wobbly and difficult to track objects with at high powers, so best to stick with lower powered viewing for now.