TAL 6 element, 5" refractor ???

[John]

Anyone know what has happened to the TAL 5" 6-element "apo" refractor that was trailed on SGL around 6 months ago ?.

I know that First Light Optics were hoping to bring one to the SGL star party in April but shipping from Russia was delayed.

At the time the predicted price was around £1,500 for the OTA.

Anyone know whether it's still in the pipeline or has it's development been dropped ?.

I've checked with the official TAL website and there is no mention of this scope on there

[ollypenrice]

Good question. Six elements. That's a lot of collimation and a lot of reflection. But who knows.

Olly

[Astro_Baby]

Who cares about the 5" when TAL have plans for an 8" Apo in 2010

Check it out here Google Translate

[russ]

Hmm i wonder what the chances of the 8" Apo making it here if they can't even manage the 5" Petzval? Not promising sadly.

[Astro_Baby]

Well - we can dream surely - I bet if it arrived the price would be but who knows.

[russ]

Yes indeed, it will make it!

[John]

When the 5" makes it to the market I'll start thinking about the 8", but not before though

[FLO]

I wish we could offer a reliable ETA. Last we heard the 5-inch model is due to land around Aug-Sept so we might not have long to wait...

HTH

[Psychobilly]

It will be in Aug-Sep.. it's just the year they haven't confirmed...

[johninderby]

It will be in Aug-Sep.. it's just the year they haven't confirmed...

No, it's the decade they haven't confirmed.

John

[Psychobilly]

[F15Rules]

John

I've been wondering the same thing..

As a past owner of a 5" Tal achromat, and several Tal 100s, I am positive that the scope will be optically superb and built well.

It's just a shame that Tal can't get their marketing and P R functions sorted. I think they suffer from being a small part of a much large Soviet style company, where the astro manufacturing is too small a part of the business to get much priority in New Product Development. A real shame, because their products beat many of the chinese mass produced stuff hands down, but the difference is, the Chinese (and Americans who specify the chinese manufacturers, or are owned by them as in the case of Celestron), really DO have the marketing and PR side nailed down..

Can I suggest joining the Tal group on SGL? There are some incredibly knowledgeable guys (and gals, sorry Astro Baby and Spookykatt:p!) over there and they all love Tals and use their equipment. Definitely worth the 2 seconds it takes to join up with the group:)

I don't have a Tal scope at the moment (I will again though!), but I DO have Tal EPs/Barlow and just bought an 8x50 Tal Finder (one of the best you can get) on this forum for £30! So I think the group allows me to stay on for now...

a great bunch of people, seriously.

cheers

Dave

[John]

...Can I suggest joining the Tal group on SGL? There are some incredibly knowledgeable guys (and gals, sorry Astro Baby and Spookykatt:p!) over there and they all love Tals and use their equipment. Definitely worth the 2 seconds it takes to join up with the group:).....

I might just do that Dave

I've only owned 2 TAL's - a TAL100RT purchased new when they 1st arrived on UK shores in 1999 and (briefly) a TAL 2M optical tube (6" F/8 newtonian). Both scopes were superbly engineered (way beyond what their price suggsted), were quirky, but in a nice way and optically excellent. So I'm a TAL fan too