I have borrowed a telescope

[andypraktica]

I haven't been on the forum long, and all my threads have been related to my binocular viewing. However, last week I was chatting to a mate, and he said that he would lend me his old telescope (around twenty years old), which he has hardly used.

It is a Tanzutsu 76mm reflector, in yellow, and has an assortment of bits and bobs which I know nothing about:

H6mm and 20mm eyepieces

T - Adaptor

Sun filter - which I promise never to try out!

A kind of "dog leg" adaptor???

I have mounted it on my camera tripod in preference to the spindly thing included, but I do not have a clue how to use it.

I have been using the 20mm eyepiece this afternoon through the back window at home, trying to focus around a mile away, but everything is a little blurry and dull - the mist and general inclement weather does not help.

Now, even though I know nothing about telescopes, the construction of this leaves a little to be desired, and the precision of the components seems - well, not too precise.

Any suggestions please, and try to keep them constructive and sensible!

Oh OK then, get all the funny comments out of the way first.

[Towa]

Tanzutsu was a Japanese company that Tasco used as a supplier after they dumped Towa.

Out of interest does the scope have a glass corrector plate on the front or is it just a standard

Newtonian set-up?

The dog leg adapter sounds a bit like the standard Terrestrial viewing prism that was shipped with the scopes.

[andypraktica]

Hi,

If I take off the front cap, it is very much like looking at a large camera lens, albeit one with a one inch plastic disc in the centre.

The information around the edge of the lens frame is:

Tanzutsu

76mm

F = 600mm

Catadioptric

Focal ratio 1 : 7.9

As I say, this is my first foray into telescopes, so I know nothing about setting it up, I have no instructions, and I have no intention of touching any of the screws in case I upset the colimation.

Thanks,

Andy

[AndyH]

Any chance of some pics of the scope and bits n bobs? That'd be cool.

Sounds like a schmidt-newt, what with the corrector on the front.

No idea of the quality of these scopes. Mind you, I can remember maaany years ago, Tasco had a red model, that sounds similar to this.

Andy.

[andypraktica]

Hi Andy,

It looks just like this:

Tanzutsu 76mm telescope

That is all the information I can get,

Andy

[AndyH]

A bit more info on the scope.

Not sure if you've seen this already, but here it is anyway.

CN FORUMS ARCHIVE Telescope Reviews: Unusual 'Cat'

Cheers,

Andy.

[Towa]

Andy

What you have there is Lo-max 600, made by Tanzutsu. The same model was put out by Towa (model. CT-30).

It was a bit of a strange scope, an awful lot of plastic on it. Many seemed incapable of taking high magnification,

the primary mirror was glued into the base of the scope and trying to collimate it was an absolute pig.

If the scope apears to give a decent image, then don't even try to adjust the mirrors, if you do, you will most likely spend the next

fews years trying to get things right again.

I seem to recal that this model may have had a barlow lens built into the focus mount.

[John]

I had one of those a long time ago !.

It showed a decent image of the moon with the 20mm eyepiece and I did managed to see Jupiter with 2 faint cloud bands and it's 4 moons. And that's about it - I really could not get on with it. Collimation was difficult, the mount rather wobbly and the scope was limited to .965" eyepieces. To be honest I found my 60mm refractor to be a much better performer than the Tanzutsu / Tasco.

Wait until the moon is around and enjoy the view of that. You might find trying to see much more with it rather frustrating to be honest.

[John]

I seem to recal that this model may have had a barlow lens built into the focus mount.

It did have a corrector / barlow lens at the bottom of the draw tube. That did not help collimation either .....

[andypraktica]

Thanks folks, to be honest I have not used it yet, because the last two nights have been mist shrouded.

There is a lot of plastic in the construction.

One question, is there any way to rectify the upside down image?

Andy

[yeti monster]

In space, there is no up nor down!

You could use a prism, but that's just adding more abberation in to the light path, unless you are terrestrial watching, there's really no need, you soon become adjusted to to invertion.