Show us your Tal

[markse68]

Not to be confused with a similarly named thread for some Japanese scopes, this is for the Russian scopes built in Novosibirsk 

These scopes are getting old now, but are characterised by great optics, solid if a little crude mechanics and have always been great value. They have a great character about them - solid and no-nonsense, that makes them very loveable

an old thread about the history of Tal telescopes:

 

This is my Tal 150p - a 6" f5 newt. It's my current favourite scope. Unusual for a Tal reflector it has a parabolic mirror which although it fails a star test (I don't have the skill to analyse it but it's not quite symmetric about the focus point) it's tack sharp and has given me absolutely stunning views of the planets these last months at powers up to 300x.  The mirrors are showing some aging and I may get them recoated at some point. The mount isn't Tal- it came with a heavy pier mount originally. It has a 1.25" R&P focuser which I plan to replace soon with something a bit more luxurious- justified because I love this little scope and use it all the time.

 

This is my Tal 200K- an 8" f10 Klevsov-Cassegrain which I bought for planetary but haven't really used that much as the 150p turned up and is working for me so I stuck with that, and I don't have a practical mount for it currently. Comparing it to the 150p it will take higher mag with a brighter image obviously and after collimating it produced lovely pin point stars and with the curved secondary vanes, no diffraction spikes which is really nice. I will at some point use it for planetary imaging I think.

 

It came with the legendary Tal 8x50 finder which is really a bit special- it has a huge fov sharp most of the way out. I think it uses the same 25mm Plossl that was also quite legendary

it has a 1.25" R&P focuser like the 150p- a bit crude but it works and with negligible slop

 

This is my Tal 100RS - a legendary 100mm f10 achromatic refractor. I mainly use this for white light solar with Baader film and intend to get a Lacerta Herschel wedge for it this year.

 

The earlier 100R had beautiful purple coatings like the Plossls but tis one has a very pretty golden coloured objective coating

It has a 2" Crayford focuser! With loads of travel too. After adjustment it's really quite nice and usable

the legendary Tal 25mm Plossl- look at those coatings 😍

 

There must be loads of Tals out there so show us your Tal

Mark

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by markse68

[John]

I don't have any TAL's now but have owned a few in the past.

This TAL 100 RT was both an excellent performer and (in my view) good looking:

Thanks to FLO I also got the chance to try the TAL Apolar 125 refractor, a 6 element design but using no ED glass. A very interesting scope 🙂

 

 

 

 

[markse68]

Never heard of a 100RT John- what was different to the R and RS?

I'd love to get my hands on an Apolar-wow!  fascinating scopes though I've read tricky to collimate! There was regular 125mm Achromatic refractor too I think though that was rare as well- I think someone on this forum has one- looks very similar to that Apolar

Mark

[Kimboman]

They all look very robust pieces of kit and very nice too

[Peter Drew]

One of my pair, manual drive.

[John]

1 hour ago, markse68 said:

Never heard of a 100RT John- what was different to the R and RS?

I'd love to get my hands on an Apolar-wow!  fascinating scopes though I've read tricky to collimate! There was regular 125mm Achromatic refractor too I think though that was rare as well- I think someone on this forum has one- looks very similar to that Apolar

Mark

The RT was the first TAL 100 to be produced I think. I bought mine new in 1999. It's main features that differentiated it from later models were the metal dew shield and a short travel rack and pinion focuser with a bespoke mirror diagonal that fitted using a tapered collar rather than the more normal 1.25 inch push fit barrel. The focuser and diagonal arrangement were rather limiting really because not all eyepieces would come to focus in the scope and you could only use the bespoke diagonal with it. Later versions improved on the focuser a great deal. Mine came in the wooden "coffin" and the kit included the very nice 25mm TAL plossl and a 10mm Kellner which was OK but not quite so good. 

The collimation of the Apolar would have been rather tricky. The optical arrangement was like this:

The instruction manual simply advised a return to the factory (in Siberia) for any collimation adjustments !

A 150mm Apolar was designed and prototypes tested but it never went into production as far as I am aware.

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by John

[Marki]

Here are the two I still have. A 100RS and a 125R. Both achromats and both lovely to use. I did have a 125 Apolar, but returned it as it has been damaged in transit.

I think the 100RS is a superb f10 achro, and it fired my enduring love of refractors (and Russian glass). The 125R at F8.9 is good too; the example I have needed a fair bit of attention to correct soem aberrations (from the wonderful ES Reid) to enable it to give of its best, but since then its been really good.

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by Marki

[John]

1 minute ago, Marki said:

 

... I did have a 125 Apolar, but returned it as it has been damaged in transit.....

.

 

The first 125 Apolar that I was sent suffered similarly - an internal lens element broken in transit. It's a long way overland from Siberia ...... 🙄

Lovely scopes Mark  👍

[Captain Scarlet]

I managed to resist the 200K that just went on eBay for £400-odd, but I was _very_ tempted. I have an Intes M603 (sorry am I allowed to mention it on this exclusively TAL thread 😜?) for which I paid £300-odd, refurbished and is very very nice. Which puts into perspective the 7” Intes that’s currently on offer on our classifieds 😳

[markse68]

If I hadn’t already got one i would have gone for that one on Ebay too Magnus- it had the stepper motor driven mount too which would have been nice. Your Intes sounds like it was a real bargain!

Mark

[markse68]

12 minutes ago, Marki said:

Here are the two I still have. A 100RS and a 125R. Both achromats and both lovely to use. I did have a 125 Apolar, but returned it as it has been damaged in transit.

I think the 100RS is a superb f10 achro, and it fired my enduring love of refractors (and Russian glass). The 125R at F8.9 is good too; the example I have needed a fair bit of attention to correct soem aberrations (from the wonderful ES Reid) to enable it to give of its best, but since then its been really good.

 

Lovely scopes Mark  I’ve never seen a 125 come up for sale anywhere since i’ve been in this hobby- must be either really rare or so good that nobody will part with theirs! 

Mark

[Roy Challen]

I don't currently own a Tal, sadly, but have enjoyed a 1, 100R, and a 100RS. All fine telescopes.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Roy Challen

[dweller25]

Here is my TAL 100RS - the scope from hell, all sorts of problems - sold with full disclosure…..

 

And here is my long gone TAL 125R achromat - a really nice scope…..

 

[DaveL59]

My collection as it is, starting with the baby TAL-M that I refurb'd a couple years back, some time after this pic, and the TAL-1 on a manual mount.

The TAL-M came in its original wood box, sadly don't have those for the others. The TAL-1 has been updated with the later 1.25 inch focuser

My 100RS (green objective) sitting on the EQ5 Synscan mount, R&P mount that has very long travel. It now sport the bigger 8x50mm finder and hopefully  soon will have some nice TAL wood tripod legs too 🙂 

The eyepieces: (all TAL at least AFAIK, as supplied with the scopes to the original owners)

Also have the Lanthanum 2x Barlow not shown above as well as the x3 Barlow for the TAL-M (32mm barrel fit). The TAL-1 was bought specifically for its russian-fit eyepieces as I was after a 25mm for the TAL-M as regular 1.25's can't easily work with that scope unless you also adapt the built-in finder.

 

[markse68]

Nice collection Dave  I'll have to gather my eps for a family shot too- you should be able to tell if they are original Tal by the barrels which are distinctively heavy duty Russian

I use a Tal 2x barlow all the time- I compared it to a Celestron Shorty 2x and a TV 1.8x and whilst it's a bit warmer it was every bit as sharp- I really like it- it's really compact too.

Mark

[John]

Interesting review of TAL super and ultra wide eyepieces here from Bill Paolini:

The TAL Super & Ultra Wide Angle Eyepieces - User Reviews - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights

I've very rarely seen any of these for sale in the UK. A couple of the 24mm UWA's perhaps but that's all.

Edited March 27, 2023 by John

[DaveL59]

I think I may have a TAL x4 barlow too tho can't recall, will have to check sometime. All the EP's are solidly made so quite likely they are TAL, shame they don't carry the markings but they work fine which is what counts. 

Shame the lighting in the shots I have don't capture the nice colours on the top lenses, will have to do a better pic some day 😉 

That little TAL-M is so simple to use and only missing the extension tube and spanner from the original kit, so I made an extension with some acrylic tubes, flocked to prevent reflections. So in combo with the x3 barlow and 15mm EP that little scope gets up to around x160 with good views, even via the finder when I've forgotten to slide it out of the optical path 😄 

Edited March 27, 2023 by DaveL59

[markse68]

18 minutes ago, John said:

Interesting review of TAL super and ultra wide eyepieces here from Bill Paolini:

The TAL Super & Ultra Wide Angle Eyepieces - User Reviews - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights

I've very rarely seen any of these for sale in the UK. A couple of the 24mm UWA's perhaps but that's all.

These are my 2” Tal eps- well the erfle is branded Siberia so not sure if it’s really a Tal but it has the Tal look.  The 25mm UWA i bought new old stock from Russia and it took a long wait to find the 24mm UWA

Mark

[glynnlondon]

My 100r a keeper 

[DaveL59]

Following my post in the postie thread, I wonder if something like this could be made to work to adapt the EQ5 head onto the TAL wood tripod, leaving the original TAL tripod head in place.

 

The top of the tripod looks like this

Alternative is to just swap the legs onto the EQ5 tripod head, awaiting some spacers/nylon penny washers to do that at the moment as a get me going quick-fix. The EQ5 can't directly go onto the tripod without some form of cup as the part of the mount that sits in the cup on the SW tripod isn't flat underneath, had a look earlier this evening but didn't take a pic, typical!

Oh for a lathe and a suitable billet of metal... looking at certain makers sites, ouch those sort of bits are expensive 😮 

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by DaveL59

[markse68]

Could you use something like this Dave? 2.25” bsp is i think about 60mm id and it looks to be at least 20mm deep. Flange nuts are a lot cheaper but maybe not deep enough. Obvs wouldn’t have the azimuth pin if that’s an issue?

Mark

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111634635156

[DaveL59]

might work Mark, will have to measure up. I'd sort of like to have the TAL tripod as-is and have the option to shift the EQ5's around if needed, hence thinking maybe that Ali one might be worth trying. Easy enough to drill and tap the base to be able to bolt it onto the tripod boss, then drill out for the EQ5 securing bolt for which I'd have to source a suitable one.

[markse68]

37 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

might work Mark, will have to measure up. I'd sort of like to have the TAL tripod as-is and have the option to shift the EQ5's around if needed, hence thinking maybe that Ali one might be worth trying. Easy enough to drill and tap the base to be able to bolt it onto the tripod boss, then drill out for the EQ5 securing bolt for which I'd have to source a suitable one.

Hi Dave, I was thinking this would leave the Tal tripod top unmodified

A thick rubber washer would take up the curve on the tripod top and stop it slipping around. A long screw up through the base into the head would lock it all together

A 2.5” flange nut is 20mm high- not sure about 2.25” but it maybe and they’re common components at plumbers merchants for a few quid. Might be able to get rubber washers there too

https://www.jtmplumbing.co.uk/pipe-fittings-c433/threaded-brass-fittings-1-4-4-c312/jtm-threaded-brass-brass-flanged-backnut-p10596/s34703?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=jtm-threaded-brass-brass-flanged-backnut-2-1-4-quot-brass-2-1-4-quot-brass-2-1-4-937003rm&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&cid=GBP&glCurrency=GBP&glCountry=GB&gclid=CjwKCAjw5pShBhB_EiwAvmnNV8S0JHQYCHIPuV0AU-Hp7h_3Oas8JLvWeyzGC4YatOBcExoyY9dmshoCZqQQAvD_BwE

Mark

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by markse68

[Mr Spock]

I've never owned a Tal, but have always admired their solid construction.

[DaveL59]

So today arrived some black nylon penny washers, approx 1.5mm thick, off with the TAL hub, a very nifty arrangement for the leg bolts I must say:

The screw arrowed stops the pivot bolt from rotating and there's a stop that prevents the lever from being undone too far too.

So then with lots of faff and fiddling, assemble the EQ5 tripod hub while placing 3 washers one side and 2 the other to fill the gap and then on with the EQ5 mount:

 

And lastly the 100RS for a vanity pic:

 

yeah, yeah, no balance weight, I know 🙄

Looks pretty good to me, just as I'd imagined in my mind's eye lol and seems as solid as the SW tripod with round steel legs that the GoTo EQ5 is on once the pivot bolts have been nipped up tight 🙂

 

The base of the EQ5 mount is like this:

It'd sit on the TAL hub but the bolt from the EQ5 cup wouldn't be workable, too long and also the plastic thumbwheel arrangement won't turn as it pretty much locks into the leg mountings on the TAL hub. So I might just go order one of those EQ5 adaptors off Ali and bolt that to the TAL hub and put the legs back on that. While it seems to work OK transferred over, I think the TAL hub may be just a little more stable, plus I now have a set of legs that aren't usable for anything...

 

 Now of course the issue will be leaving it set up and hoping the kitties don't think "oooh, new scratching post, gotta go give that a try!" 😱