Telescope Reviews: Tasco 6TE-5: My First Light

Hi all,

As promised more pictures and first light, sorry for the length but I got excited!

After several days of rain and cloudiness I got a break last night and give my new Tasco Cosmic 6TE-5 a first light. My regular observing sites are usually from my driveway or from the condo pool area, it just depends on which direction I need to view my targets.

Last night my main goal was to see if this new addition would perform on the Moon, one of my favorite targets. Unknown to me, my wife had alerted a few neighbors that I would be at the pool with a new telescope so I was greeted with 6 smiling friends full of anticipation that I would have a big ole telescope that would show the American flag on the Moon surface.

You should have seen their faces when I walked out the back door carrying the Tasco Cosmic 6TE-5 in one hand and my favorite soft drink in the other!

The clouds were still popping up here and there. Finally about 9PM the clouds began to drift toward the beach and the Moon was positioned above our clubhouse. Our pool area has a few small tables, perfect for this setup.

The first thing I noticed was the tabletop tripod was not what I was use to when it comes to a scope mount. The feet are threaded and I have no idea what for. Any one know why these are threaded? Anyway the metal feet slipped all over the table and could end up as a disaster. So a trip to Home Depot earlier in the day fixed it using 3 spring door stoppers and removing the rubber tip and slipping them over the threaded ends of the tripod. Works like a charm!

The Tasco Cosmic 6TE-5 comes with three .965" eyepieces each in a nice plastic bolt case. The eyepieces include a H20mm(30x), H12.5mm(48x), and a H6mm(100x). I do like the magnifications these eyepieces give you but after using them for a few minutes on the Moon I soon realized they were not up to par, each exhibited a cloudiness in the image. Luckily I had a set of Meade Modified .965" eyepieces from a Model 300 purchase. I put away the Tasco EPs and for the rest of the night I used the Meades and was very pleased with their performance. The Meades, a Ke22mm(27x), HM12.5mm,(48x) HM9mm(67x), HM6(100x), and a SR 4mm(150x), were absolute winners for this small scope.

I had set the finder scope up on a distant street light cover and discovered that using the finder is horrible. The finder is a 4x15 finder with a cross hair of some type of very fine thread. But getting your eye down to the finders level with the diagonal in the scope was to me next to impossible. Most of the time I would remove the diagonal and sight the finder scope in and then replace the diagonal very carefully.

The night was hot and sticky but decent enough seeing to make this a valid first light for me. The temp was about 85*. The transparency was more of a problem because at times there would be a slight haze in the air and sometimes the Moon would be engulfed in the haze. But in the in between times I had a great time using this little gem. My friends and neighbors had seen me "test" scopes before so they waited patiently until I pronounced this scope a winner and then they lined up to look at the Moon themselves. Plenty of oohhs and aahhs and "I can see a crater" and "what was the name of those dark areas again?"

My time with the Moon was better than expected with all the EPs but found the 4mm was too much and revealed a dim and mushy image. However, Schiller was a real showoff. I really love the southern region and all the formations there. The large ray from Tycho that cuts across Mare Nubium appeared as a 3D gully. Plato was earning its older name of the "Greater Black Lake". I will say that tonight (July 4th) the 4mm did pretty well on the Moon. Dim but no mush.

As the night progressed I aimed the Cosmic at Saturn, setting in the LP of Jacksonville and was surprised that I couldn't make out the "ears" in the Ke22mm. The image was really tiny but clear enough for me. I eased up the magnification using the HM6mm (100x) and the "ears" were more defined. Using the SR 4mm (150x) made the image a total mushy mess.

The few stars I looked at with the Tasco 6TE-5 included Vega, Deneb, Antares (washed out by Luna) and a few others all focused to pinpoints. Mizar was split with the Ke22mm. What a gorgeous sight. The Moon and the light pollution were washing out so many of my favorites, like Albireo either washed out or blanketed with clouds.

When it came to color I noticed no CA on any object I tried. I am very happy with this purchase and will use this scope many times over the coming years. However, there are two, maybe three shortcomings with this scope. The tripod, the finder scope and, in my case, the eyepieces didn't live up to my expectations.

Now for a few questions for the more experienced classic scope users out there:

Why are the feet on the table tripod threaded?

Please, please can someone recommend a better/bigger mount?

Can you recommend a different finder? Or how do you handle the finder as is? Anyone know what the FOV is for this 4x15 finder?

peace & clear skies,

--------------------
Richard H.

Antares 105mm f/9.5 Elite Series Refractor
AstroTelescopes 102mm f/7 Refractor
Orion ShortTube 90mm f/5.6 Refractor
Meade Model 300 80mm f/15 Refractor
Tasco Cosmic 6TE-5 50mm f/12 Refractor
Orion SkyView Pro 8" Intelliscope
Orion Scenix 10x50 Binoculars
Zhumell SuperGiant 20x80 binoculars

NightSky Journal