Tal and Russian musings.

[AndyH]

As some of you may be aware I have a few Tal things.

I recently(spring) bought a Tal MT-3S stepper mount after I saw it for sale by Widescreen Centre at half price thanks to a tip off from MartinB, to whom I sold my Intes MK72.

Hoping to take it to the Kielder event to give it a tryout, I was trying to adapt it run off a 12V battery like my Tal 2M mount. Now, I was a tad inebriated and know nothing about electricity. (Russians don't seem to use coloured wiring)Splat, I fried the motor corrector and also the motor. I think I mixed up the polarity or something.

Anyhoo, the 2M went to Kielder and I left the MT-3S for later.

In October I decided to see if it was fixable. Got a new corrector from Belgium and attempted to run, but no luck. Motor defo dead, bar some faint rumblings.

It has been widly thought that Tal were unreachable, but I remembered a Tal Russian forum that I had saved to favourites years ago on another pc. With the help of google translator, I could read it's pages in semi translated English. After some searching I came across the email for the export manager(?) Yuri Elovenko. Plucking up some courage I decided to fire him an email. Remembering my father telling me years ago that, when abroad, locals appreciate it, if you at least attempt to use the local lingo, I, with the help of bablefish, also included the note in Russian cyrilic. I was amazed to receive a reply the next morning! (Novosibirsk is 6 hours ahead of us!!) In broken English and also in Russian I was told that, yes, I could order a new engine(motor).

Cue lots of emails to and fro and I'm getting a new motor and a motor lead that connects to a cigarette lighter.

Considering the low cost of the items($7 & $21) I'm delighted by the polite and patient replies to my mails.

I must say I'm begining to be able to type some Russian without the use of a translator now. Nothing fancy, just stuff like Andrew, thanks, sincerely, motor, cigarette lighter and of course, 2 beers please

The moral to the story is, spare parts are available for your Tal scopes and mounts. Just not the modern 'click to order' way we're used to.

Cheers,

Andy

[TheThing]

Good news!

I have always had a soft spot for Tals and was gutted when my mount snapped a few weeks ago (thanks to Andy for coming to my rescue with a spare part though!)

Is the stepper working now?

[Whippy]

Great story Andy, a bit of persaverence pays off big time .

Tony..

[martin_b]

Oh.. I'll have to power mine up now!

I have been using the scope on the mount, but only manually, as always seems to be the way with these things work has got in the way of observing but hopefully I'll have more time this winter.

PS: (I still might get a got mount though just to maximize my viewing time)

[SpookyKatt]

Yeah this is a great story and its nice to know that there's

still a way of getting spares/support from the manufacturers.

Tempted by the lure of a Tal 125 now....

Kathleen

[AndyH]

Good news!

I have always had a soft spot for Tals and was gutted when my mount snapped a few weeks ago (thanks to Andy for coming to my rescue with a spare part though!)

Is the stepper working now?

Parts being posted tomorrow.

Andy.

[AndyH]

Great story Andy, a bit of persaverence pays off big time .

Tony..

Absolutely Tony. What do they say? Where there's a will there's a way?

It also shows how the world is shrinking, so to speak. No way this could have been possible years ago.

Cheers,

Andy.

[F15Rules]

Hi Spookycat,

Wonder if you can get a Tal 125R in the UK any more, and if so, how much?

Just love mine, have never seen another in the UK so far..mine was previously owned by 3 SGL members in its almost 5 years. This owner will be its last!

Dave

[SpookyKatt]

This owner will be its last!

Hi Dave,

Hehe sounds like you certainly have no intention of letting

the 125R go !

Don't know, I can't imagine there are too many about in the UK,

in all honesty. They never seem to come up for sale so if there

are a few around perhaps its testament to how much their owners

love them that they're never up for sale.

Might take a driving holiday to Russia one of these days in an empty

van instead....

Kathleen

[F15Rules]

Hi Kathleen,

That would be an interesting journey! It never ceases to amaze me how these Tals we love have travelled so many thousand miles overland, in often freezing temperatures..no wonder they ship them in a Baltic Pine Coffin!

My one gripe with Tal is their PR/Marketing function...as someone who is in that line for a living, I just know that Tal lose loads of potential new sales by not replying to mails, not keeping good supply chains with their dealers, etc etc..that's where the chinese score and where they are likely to push Tal out of the mass market if they are not careful. Which would be a shame, cos they make beautiful scopes..

..will get off my soapbox now...

[AndyH]

Regarding emails.

I must say, I've had a responce from Yuri Elovenko, from every mail I've sent him(and thats lots).

Can't speak for any other contact email addresses. I think I tried one on the telescopes.ru site years ago, that came to nothing.

I guarantee if you're looking for a price and availability question, then he's your man. His written English is quite understandable.

uran@npz.spektr.siberia.net

As for marketing etc, I wonder if they get good enough sales in the motherland and old soviet block states, to not be overly worried by large 'foreign' sales. That's just my take on it and am probably completely wrong.

Cheers,

Andy.

[F15Rules]

Hi Andy,

You make some good points, maybe they don't need to ship the things halfway around the world! Thanks for the heads up on your contact, I shall file that one away for future reference!

Would still love to see them bring over a 6" refractor...no need for an apo, an F9 Achro would be fine, and still "only" about 5foot long with dewshield etc..what a beast that would be! Let's form an orderly queue:hello2:!

cheers

Dave

PS: what about last night? Best (only!) clear night for weeks, with a ++++ almost Full Moon drowning everything out!

[crepitis]

As a point of interest, are there any forum members from Russia ?