Show us your Tal

[markse68]

On 27/03/2023 at 19:38, markse68 said:

well the erfle is branded Siberia so not sure if it’s really a Tal but it has the Tal look.

I think this confirms that Siberia does = Tal. Just different branding. Not mine but a rather colourful “Siberia” Tal 2 just showed up on ebay 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by markse68

[Chaz2b]

Don’t know why I didn’t add text to this pic, but it shows a eq5 atop a TAL wooden tripod, I bought the tripod head from a SGL member and 3D printed six spacers to pack out between the wood and metal, fits perfectly.

chaz

Edited May 6, 2023 by Chaz2b
Added text.

[woldsman]

Kitted out for Lunar imaging. 

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by woldsman
Added Tal motor drive mount.

[woldsman]

Have just pulled the trigger on a Tal 150P (6 inch) reflector which is unusually an f5. Will probably use it mainly for visual but am wondering whether anyone has imaged with one of these scopes? It has the 1.25” focuser. I have a lightweight Canon 100d and a ZWO asi 178 mc for cameras. As neither have setpoint cooling, imaging would be lunar or planetary.  

Edited July 26, 2023 by woldsman

[Stu]

Hadn’t seen this thread before, so here are a few of my TAL Alkor and one of the three 100r/rs that I’ve owned. I put some rings on the little Alkor so I can put it on more convenient mounts but it’s easy to convert back to standard. The optics are lovely on this little 65mm newt; it has the smallest secondary over ever seen! Proper collimateable primary cell too.

[DaveL59]

On 13/04/2023 at 14:22, Chaz2b said:

Don’t know why I didn’t add text to this pic, but it shows a eq5 atop a TAL wooden tripod, I bought the tripod head from a SGL member and 3D printed six spacers to pack out between the wood and metal, fits perfectly.

chaz

Ahh I did something similar, tho I bought some nylon penny washers to do the padding (no 3D printer here). Makes a great combo too, nice and stable plus a more classical look about it 🙂 

[John]

I've never used or even seen one of these but I wonder if any made it into production ?

The 150mm TAL Apolar refractor (the original images of the prototype had the faces blanked out):

 

 

 

[bomberbaz]

42 minutes ago, John said:

I've never used or even seen one of these but I wonder if any made it into production ?

The 150mm TAL Apolar refractor (the original images of the prototype had the faces blanked out):

 

 

 

 

They all look like Russian spies 😉

 

 

[John]

Apologies to the OP of this thread for posting more on TAL's which I don't have - at least they are TAL's ! 

I've been doing a bit more digging (it's still raining !) and come across a couple more photos relating to the TAL Apolar 150 - a page from a manual which shows the specs and a photo of the objective. It clearly got close to a production model and was quite ambitious at F/6(ish).

 

The last 2 photos I've come across show a 1-off special that TAL apparently made for an observatory. It is a 200mm F/9 refractor. 1st time I've ever heard of this one:

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2023 by John

[woldsman]

Good looking example of a Tal 100RS on eBay for under £200 https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/aspire-collectables

I’ve no connection with the vendor but have purchased from him & the experience was good. Mods: hope this post is permitted. 

[woldsman]

Does anyone have a picture of what the 2” focuser looks like on either a Tal 2M or 150P reflector? Most had a 1.25” focuser but Tal added 2” focusers to some later versions.

[CCD-Freak]

I have a TAL-2 mount shown here with a 5" Photon refractor and I have the rare Vega 12v drive control.

 

[Lung]

I'm brand new to astronomy and bought a Tal M off Facebook for £50. It needs a bit of TLC so I've fully stripped it down and will slowly put it back together.

 

 

[woldsman]

I don’t really have space for them both but for the time being at least have the luxury of comparing views from a Tal 100R and a Tal 100RS. 

[woldsman]

I’ve a couple of Tal queries for the Tal user community.

Firstly, is the attachment at the end of the 2” focussed on the 100RS removable? I’d like t9 find a few mm of in focus travel.

Secondly, does anyone know what is adapter is for? Puzzled by the shinny interior.

Pictures to illustrate each query below.

Thanks!

[wookie1965]

Here is my Tal 100rs

[markse68]

My Tal 100RS has become my favourite summer scope- great for lunar and white light solar and not too shabby on doubles  It’s my lightest setup so is getting quite regular use. Back to the 150p soon though for the planets where aperture definitely is an advantage.

I’ve been treating it well and giving it some nice upgrades which i think it deserves and make it even more enjoyable to use.

Firstly a new mount- a Takahashi Teegul I was fortunate to snap up in the classies a while ago. Only recently been able to use it since I made an adapter to fit to this old magnesium alloy military tripod i found. It’s more stable than the og mount- still a bit wobbly but very useable. Nice and light too. 

Much as i love the Tal finders, when i got to look through this little Tak 6x30 I was blown away by the sharp bright image, the thin cross hairs, the tack sharp field stop and best of all the eye relief. A 3d printed adapter and the ADM QR and it fits like a charm. Holds its collimation and is a joy to use. Quick to remove for solar for added safety too

The Baader prism is fitted with a 2” nose piece which simplifies fitting and the 1.25” click lock I really love- so much nicer than the side screw on the Tal diagonal.

And for Solar I have a Lacerta wedge- feels much safer than the Baader film and i think is sharper. Really enjoying regular observing of the crazy sunspot activity right now.

These Sistema lunch boxes are great for storing it all

Mark

[markse68]

On 01/06/2024 at 18:28, woldsman said:

I’ve a couple of Tal queries for the Tal user community.

Firstly, is the attachment at the end of the 2” focussed on the 100RS removable? I’d like t9 find a few mm of in focus travel.

Secondly, does anyone know what is adapter is for? Puzzled by the shinny interior.

Thanks!

Hi Woldsman,

I dont know about the attachment on the end of the focuser barrel but if you took it off you would lose the screws for clamping the diagonal/eyepieces so assume not unless you can find something shorter to fit? Mine has a different Crayford style focuser so I'm not sure.

The adapter I think was for attaching a film camera with Pentax thread directly to the telescope- strange that it looks polished inside though!

Mark

[markse68]

On 26/07/2023 at 22:09, John said:

I've never used or even seen one of these but I wonder if any made it into production ?

The 150mm TAL Apolar refractor (the original images of the prototype had the faces blanked out):

 

 

Shame that it didn't make it into production- that would have been a very much sought after scope I think!

I read somewhere that one of the lens elements in the Tal 100 was made by Lomo and the other by LZOS- not sure how true that is though!

Mark

[woldsman]

 

First attempt at imaging Jupiter using a Tal 200K & ZWO asi 178 MC. 

 

[dweller25]

2 hours ago, woldsman said:

 

First attempt at imaging Jupiter using a Tal 200K & ZWO asi 178 MC. 

 

That’s very good 👍

[Superewza]

Howdy! I remembered visiting this forum when I was in my teens so I thought I'd check in now I actually have a scope of my own 😁 My partner actually has a Skywatcher 200p, but honestly we rarely get to use it with how much of a pain it is to drag it out and let it cool down. Been looking for something that could be a bit more grab and go for a while, and picked this up for £30. Obviously it's going to need a bit of work...

I had hoped with it being from 1999, it might be late enough to come with a normal 1.25" focuser. Unfortunately it still seems to be the older push fit one, which moves alright but I'm pretty sure the plossl is well and truly seized in there. Mixed blessings I suppose as it's the only eyepiece it came with, I can unscrew it from the main tube but I'm pretty sure that's part of the focuser itself.

A couple of other things are a bit different to other TALs I've seen. The mount screws into the post, instead of just sitting in a cup at the top, which is neither here nor there really. But the way the OTA attaches to the mount seems different, the rings are actually part of a single assembly that's fixed to the mount, instead of the rings being on the tube which then have a flip bolt to secure them to the mount. This seems like it would make it hard to put anything else on this mount if I ever wanted to. Also means you have to balance it each time you mount it, I guess you could mark the correct position on the tube somehow.

When I took the dust cover off, a solitary little spring fell out. I don't actually see any on the mirror assembly, so it might be a good idea to just move the mirror up the tube from the off. I don't see any obvious scratches or pitting on the mirror, but it does seem to have fingerprint smudges on it so we'll see how that turns out after a clean.

The whole thing is begging for a proper teardown, clean and regrease, so we'll see where we stand after that. After a quick inventory I am missing:

• Two screws to attach the focuser.
• One of the screws and silver cups for the spider (this could be a pain to track down)
• One of the plastic feet that fits into the cups on the end of the legs.

[John_D]

20 hours ago, Superewza said:

Howdy! I remembered visiting this forum when I was in my teens so I thought I'd check in now I actually have a scope of my own 😁 My partner actually has a Skywatcher 200p, but honestly we rarely get to use it with how much of a pain it is to drag it out and let it cool down. Been looking for something that could be a bit more grab and go for a while, and picked this up for £30.

That's just like mine except mine's blue. I'm not sure I'd categorise it as grab and go but everything's relative I guess 😁

£30 is an excellent price though even if it does need some work. It might be easier to find a friendly local machinist to make the missing bits rather than try to find spare parts. Did you get the giant wooden storage boxes with it as well?

[woldsman]

I have some spare parts for a Tal 1 110mm that may be useful. Where are you based?
 

 

[Superewza]

2 hours ago, John_D said:

That's just like mine except mine's blue. I'm not sure I'd categorise it as grab and go but everything's relative I guess 😁

£30 is an excellent price though even if it does need some work. It might be easier to find a friendly local machinist to make the missing bits rather than try to find spare parts. Did you get the giant wooden storage boxes with it as well?

Alas, no storage box. I did notice a bit of bubbling under the paint, so I guess repainting could be in order. I do like teal...

I have a few ideas for what might work to hold the spider. Maybe just countersunk washers, on top of some rubber or felt to block the light. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of the bit that sticks into the tube could be. Failing that, we do have access to a 3d printer. Kind of tempted to print a new focuser if the old one isn't going to work with new eyepieces anyway.