First Light with Tal 1

[Roy Challen]

First light for the Tal 1. I picked this telescope up for free, from Tring, and the feet for its pier from Somerset, also for free. The condition is a little tatty, and the mirrors needed to be cleaned. It is a 110mm Newtonian reflector, with a spherical main mirror of 803mm focal length. The focuser and eyepieces are bespoke to the Tal 1 and other 1.25” eyepieces don’t come to focus.
The equatorial mount is similar to the Tal 100R except that the rings are integral to the mount. It is fitted onto a sturdy aluminium pier, and contrary to many peoples’ opinions, I think it is reasonably light and can be considered ‘grab-n-go’, as long as the go is from house to garden. The whole feel is very ‘Tal’, some people like it (me), others find it a little crude. Overall, it feels like a quality set-up.

I thought I’d star-test it before collimating the mirrors. Arcturus was in a suitable position for star-testing. In-focus was excellent, out-focus slightly less so. This was a very brief look, so a fuller test in perfect seeing will be carried out at some point. As it stands, however, this scope is very usable as it is.

I looked at the Double-Double next. The wide-field view through the 25mm was very nice, but the doubles weren’t split. Neither were they with the 15mm, or with the barlow and 25mm. Only with the 15mm and the below were they cleanly split, but at that mag (x162)  it was a very good split.

Next, I headed over to Albireo. At all magnifications, the pair were split. However, the colour difference wasn’t as pronounced as I have seen in my refractors, which is unusual as there is no false colour in a reflector to affect the view. Slightly disappointing, tbh.

The Mizar system was my final destination. In the 25mm the wide-field view was beautiful, upping the mag didn’t really change that.

Overall impressions are that this telescope has good optics, but may need to be tweaked to get the best from them. It is a bit basic, but that is the nature of Tal telescopes. I found that the eyepiece position changes depending on the target, which can result in uncomfortable observing positions. With a refractor, you can simply rotate the focuser to a suitable position, the reflector tube would need to be rotated to achieve the same effect. The mount is sturdy, but also needs a little work to get the best from it. The slo-mos are a nice size, but a lack of lubrication causes juddering which creates vibrations that take a while to die down.

It would be nice to compare it side by side to my 100RS even though it would be a very unfair comparison as the RS is mounted on a Tak mount that is at least three times the weight of the Tal 1’s mount, and is essentially vibration free. However, the scopes aren’t so dissimilar in focal length, ratio and aperture, as to make a comparison pointless. One area the Tal 1 is already ahead on is its portability, and that always helps.