110 replies to this topic

[bremms]

Are the slow-motions fairly smooth?

Smooth and very little if no play in the axes.  It is such a nice little scope. More like a Telementor that way.

 

And yes, it is very cute.  You know you want one!!!

Edited by bremms, 20 July 2018 - 08:30 AM.

[Chuck Hards]

Marc, did you have to clean out the old grease, and re-lube it?   

 

 

 

 

Yes, I want one. 

[Steve_M_M]

Mine is gray too.

 

As Marc said, the slow motion is smooth with no play.  It is a quasi tangent arm, so no grease either.

 

From my prior post on the Alocr I had 3 years ago...

 

Edited by Steve_M_M, 20 July 2018 - 09:32 AM.

[Chuck Hards]

Thanks for that close-up, Steve.  

[Andy Howie]

Are the slow-motions fairly smooth?

Very smooth with the tangent arm knobs. They have a limited travel, but it's never bothered me. Just wind them back, nudge the tube over a bit and start again

 

 As with the knobs mentioned above, the scope is also smooth and jerk free, panning about like a dob. Just semi clamp both axis screws. I never fully clamp mine down. Tangent knobs still work perfectly.

 

Nearly ten years ago I regreased both axis. Easy to do as only one screw in each needs removing. Always best to check it's got some grease in them as there's no bearings, just a good sleeve fit. I also stripped the focuser and regreased that too. Not that it really needed it. Easily done, just be aware of not losing the tiny shims under the rack.

 

A true grab-'n'-go scope, quick cool down, easy to use, sharp optics(helped I'm sure by the small 17mm secondary obstruction) and rarely needs collimation once set. They must use some military grade mirror coatings as i can't think of any reports of a Tal mirror that's degraded. Just neglected - left in sheds with no caps on - sort of stuff. Hell, mine is 25 years old, used regularly and the mirror is perfect.

 

Andy.

[Steve_M_M]

Well, the excitement has turned to sadness   I planned on giving this away on Friday at a start party I am doing in Arkansas this weekend.  Unfortunately, I have spent hours and hours sanding, filing, and lubing the threads on the telescope mount to no avail.  I can still only thread the telescope into the tube barely 1/2 turn.  It has not gotten any worse or better with about 6 hours of work.  It will thread into the tripod base, but neither of the tubes.    Back in the box it goes.  No light for this guy/gal for quite some time.

[Chuck Hards]

The missing piece has arrived.  Along with a few other pieces. 

 

 

[Chuck Hards]

Nobody's noticed yet...   

[Kasmos]

Nobody's noticed yet...   

What, the extra pipe for the taller pier?

[Chuck Hards]

We have a winner!

 

Too shaky but the eyepiece height is great.

[Andy Howie]

Welcome to the club !

 

 Out of interest, what year is your Alkor?

[shredder1656]

The missing piece has arrived.  Along with a few other pieces. 

 

TAL 65 007.jpg

 

TAL 65 008.jpg

Congrats!  Looks great!  How are the views?

 

I stumbled across a 6" version of this scope, but I have not been able to get the seller to respond.  Probably sold.  All of the recent banter about this scopes piqued my interest.  But, I wonder if the 6 is as nice as the smaller Tal.

[Chuck Hards]

I actually have two of them, both from 1994.

 

 

 

I only got the stand yesterday and last night was overcast and smoky, so I have only looked at nearby objects on the ground.  I can't even see the mountains only a few miles distant due to smoke in the air from regional wild fires, unfortunately.  But those images hold promise.

 

I bought the last one from the eBay seller that had several of these a couple of weeks ago.  When it came, it was missing the stand.  The box was factory sealed so it wasn't the seller's fault.  When I contacted him about it, he told me that he had another that he was keeping for himself, but would send me the stand from his.  Realizing that would leave him with something he couldn't use and might have difficulty selling, I made him an offer for the whole thing and he accepted, giving me a substantial discount to reflect the incomplete one I had purchased initially.  A real stand-up eBay seller and a breath of fresh air.  

 

I may make a reproduction stand in the future, for the missing one, for now I'm just glad I have a complete TAL 65.

 

The higher serial number was the first to arrive, sans stand, and it had the styrofoam box inserts.  The second one with a lower number had the wooden box supports and the goo all over the parts, that used to be foam padding.  That stuff is a mess to remove and I need to peruse this thread for tips.  As others have done, I'll replace the goo with felt liners eventually.

 

The older one seems perfectly collimated but I had to collimate the later one.  Collimation involves removing a silvery dough-like substance from the mirror cell adjustment screws, to access them.  There are no springs, it's a simple push-pull cell with locking screws for all three adjustment screws.  A few minutes with the included screwdriver and it was reasonably well collimated.

 

Hopefully tonight will see some starlight through one or both.  It's not stable enough with the third pier section inserted unless I lay some sandbags over the feet, but it does put the eyepiece at a decent height for a standing adult observer.

 

I'm about 5'-10" and here is the scope pointed up with me standing next to it, in the 3-pier-section configuration.  Using it stock with only 2 pier sections will mean seated observing, and a bit of difficulty using the peep-sight finder.  It would benefit from a conventional small RA finder near the top of the OTA, or a Quickfinder set up near the focuser.  I'm not a fan of having to get down on my knees to use peep-sights.  That lost it's allure somewhere around age 45 or so.

 

 

The little scope has a certain charisma and definitely has that solid, utilitarian, eastern European design philosophy.   I can easily imagine the TAL factory producing artillery or MiG components, after looking over this telescope and how it all goes together.

 

 

 

 

[Steve_M_M]

The messy goo is quite a problem.  I did not find any solvent that would cut it...goo gone, acetone, CLR, oven cleaner (lol), nothing worked.  I ended up using a couple very stiff wire brushes to remove the goo in the box.  Little pieces of goo were then all over the box and I took it outside and gave it a bath.  Then let it bake in the sun for the day which dried up the rest.  The new felt nicely covered all the scars

[Kasmos]

Deteriorated foam is a problem with the old Bushnell Sky Chiefs. It was sprinkled all over the inside of both of my cases and scopes, and the objective of one. Even inside the tube. The good news is that it wasn't very gooey but more so, dried out. I removed it from the OTA and parts with mineral spirits and soaked the objective in a bath of water with some Windex in it. After about an hour it softened up. For the box I used a combination of scraping and brushing with a stiff brush where it was glued or stuck bad then brushed and vacuumed it out. When I restore the boxes I'll make some new cushions, but for now use some thin white foam packing material.

[Chuck Hards]

I actually got most of the goo off by simply rolling-it-up on itself, rather like old contact cement.  Takes forever but it does come off.  The underlying paint is damaged, as Steve noted on his, and will require some touch-up.  I may try a heat gun on it inside the box, before I resort to the wire brush.

[starman876]

I actually have two of them, both from 1994.

 

TAL 65 010.jpg  TAL 65 011.jpg

 

I only got the stand yesterday and last night was overcast and smoky, so I have only looked at nearby objects on the ground.  I can't even see the mountains only a few miles distant due to smoke in the air from regional wild fires, unfortunately.  But those images hold promise.

 

I bought the last one from the eBay seller that had several of these a couple of weeks ago.  When it came, it was missing the stand.  The box was factory sealed so it wasn't the seller's fault.  When I contacted him about it, he told me that he had another that he was keeping for himself, but would send me the stand from his.  Realizing that would leave him with something he couldn't use and might have difficulty selling, I made him an offer for the whole thing and he accepted, giving me a substantial discount to reflect the incomplete one I had purchased initially.  A real stand-up eBay seller and a breath of fresh air.  

 

I may make a reproduction stand in the future, for the missing one, for now I'm just glad I have a complete TAL 65.

 

The higher serial number was the first to arrive, sans stand, and it had the styrofoam box inserts.  The second one with a lower number had the wooden box supports and the goo all over the parts, that used to be foam padding.  That stuff is a mess to remove and I need to peruse this thread for tips.  As others have done, I'll replace the goo with felt liners eventually.

 

The older one seems perfectly collimated but I had to collimate the later one.  Collimation involves removing a silvery dough-like substance from the mirror cell adjustment screws, to access them.  There are no springs, it's a simple push-pull cell with locking screws for all three adjustment screws.  A few minutes with the included screwdriver and it was reasonably well collimated.

 

Hopefully tonight will see some starlight through one or both.  It's not stable enough with the third pier section inserted unless I lay some sandbags over the feet, but it does put the eyepiece at a decent height for a standing adult observer.

 

I'm about 5'-10" and here is the scope pointed up with me standing next to it, in the 3-pier-section configuration.  Using it stock with only 2 pier sections will mean seated observing, and a bit of difficulty using the peep-sight finder.  It would benefit from a conventional small RA finder near the top of the OTA, or a Quickfinder set up near the focuser.  I'm not a fan of having to get down on my knees to use peep-sights.  That lost it's allure somewhere around age 45 or so.

 

TAL 65 005.jpg

 

The little scope has a certain charisma and definitely has that solid, utilitarian, eastern European design philosophy.   I can easily imagine the TAL factory producing artillery or MiG components, after looking over this telescope and how it all goes together.

Those are nice scopes.  I have some Tal stuff hanging around for the 5" model. Some extra primaries and secondaries.  They might still be here.

Edited by starman876, 05 August 2018 - 07:40 PM.

[Chuck Hards]

A few more pics, set up now with just 2 pier sections, as supplied.  I read in the English-language manual that a 1 pier section option is considered a "table-top" configuration by the designers.

 

An overexposed pic showing the secondary mounting details.  

 

 

 

Tree tops about a half a block away, hand-held cellphone shot and lowest power configuration.  This eyepiece has almost no eye relief.  I need to make some dedicated eyepieces for this focuser, the prime focus is way down inside the focusing tube and any other option using adapters won't work.  I don't want to move the primary mirror forward, so will just make a dedicated set of Plossls for this one of these days  years.

 

 

Standing back a bit.

 

 

 

Wildfire smoke is still thick on the valley floor, I can't see more than a few blocks in any direction.  The sky is cloudless, however, so I may get to try this out tonight on a red-tinted Jupiter and Saturn.  I did look at the sun with it, using a Baader filter from my 70mm binocular.  Not a spot to be seen, but a nice, crisp solar edge.  Weird seeing a red-tinted sun in a Baader filter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[starman876]

handsome looking scope

[Chuck Hards]

The Criterion eyepieces for the 4" Newt fit this focuser perfectly.   I've also shimmed the Swift zoom to fit.  Stay tuned 

[Chuck Hards]

Well Jupiter was detailed but dim, the local smoke is just too thick.  Even Venus is very much dimmed.  Even so, I saw more than just the equatorial bands, some temperate latitude details.  There is a wicked ghost image being produced by some surface, I suspect an edge of the secondary holder.  I could make it go away by placing just my finger in a certain position in front of the telescope.  Need to research that and apply a spot of black paint.

 

The Swift eyepiece would not come to focus.  The Criterion eyepieces would not come to focus.  Not enough IN travel for either.  So it is going to take some custom eyepieces after all.

 

The stock Barlow works very well.  You get three magnifications by using the eyepiece alone, with the Barlow, or with an extension tube and the Barlow.  But the lack of eye relief with the factory eyepiece is a royal pain for me.

 

Got to hit the sack, can't wait for Saturn or Mars to get above most of the smoke.

[mlucas9]

Found the above on my old hard drive and thought it may be of interest? Not the greatest of translations, but hopefully okay.

Hi Andy,

 

Thanks a bunch for the Novosibirsk history lesson...good stuff.

 

Best Regards,

Mike

[Ben Bajorek]

I took the plunge on eBay on one of these bargain little TAL reflectors.  Perfect out of the box, no issue, works great.  Sort of like opening King Tut's tomb after breaking the seals.

 

 

 

 

[Chuck Hards]

The scope certainly has a charisma all it's own, it's cute as the dickens, in a utilitarian sort of way.  Yet it works ergonomically, as well, if used seated.  My only change would be a red-dot reflex sight near the top of the tube, instead of the factory peep-sights.

 

Congrats!

[Ben Bajorek]

Yes, you get a lot of exercise using the peep sight, a lot of stand ups and kneel downs, kind of like a Catholic Mass.  Back in the Soviet era these telescopes were provided with a small live garden gnome who would aim the scope for the observer, making them the first amateur GOTO scopes.  Sometimes the gnome would need encouragement from the also provided vodka flask.  

 

I wonder what the story is behind the sudden appearance on the market of a bunch of unused / unopened 25 year old Russian telescopes?