TASCO 9te-5

[Jazza (Jay)]

Hullo folks,
Couple of friends of the family have moved back to germany and have left me a new toy to play with

It's a tiny little 60mm refractor 700m focal length.

Seems to be pretty solidly made, got a few scratches on the tube and the dew cap seems to have been hit hard against something (or maybe crushed in shipping when they brought it over?)

Came with a tiny tiny 5x finder a 2x barlow a 26mm and a 6mm eyepiece, as well as the diagonal. Unfortunately the diagonal seems to be a bit dead lots of dirt on it and what appears to be water on the inside of the prism *sigh* Cleaned it up as best as I could and it seems better but... the eyepieces are also .965" which I find ridiculously hard to use.

Seems to me I can either try and find a hybrid .965" to 1.25" diagonal or use an adapter but which of these is less likely to cause issues with focus?

Some searching on the net makes it look like these were made in a time when tasco actually made decent scopes heh.

The mount is a little wobbly but it's not exactly a huge scope *grin* will have to test it out when the skies clear up some.

Thought I'd share!
Jay

[koputai (Jason)]

Hi Jay,
I have one that looks exactly the same, only in red. Mine's a 59T, 60mm Dia, 700mm Fl.
The mount is pretty crap, everything has lots of slop, always did, since the day my Grandfather and I bought it in 1985 with Halley fast approaching.
The Tasco eyepieces are the weakest point. I gave up using the supplied 4mm, 6mm, and 12mm Ramsdens that came with it, and got a 20mm Kellner, a 25mm Symetrical, and the two beauties shown below. They are Unitron 0.965's, a 12.5mm Orthoscopic, and a 9mm Symetrical. They are both great eyepieces, the 12.5 is one of my favourites. I even occasionally use it in my 8 inch Dob, and up against the 13mm Nagler all it lacks is width of field. I think on axis it's at least equal to the Nagler. It has a 15mm eye lens!
Your 26mm may be alright, but the 6mm probably isn't worth the effort, and neither will be the Barlow. You should be able to pick up a new 0.965 diagonal on Ebay, they're on there all the time. Keep a look out for Unitron eyepiece's, or take a look at Kokusai Kohki for some new Orthoscopic 0.965's.
http://www.kkohki.com/English/kkohkiparts.html

Cheers,
Jason.

[JethroB76 (Jeff)]

One of these went recently on astromart in the "vintage" section for about $90US, I think it was circa 1966..

[Jazza (Jay)]

Woah old then *grin* cheers for the replies and advice folks, Jason thanks for the advice but I've found that in general the 0.965's are just too small for comfortable viewing, though I confess to not having tried any high quality ones. May have to stay on the look out

[madtuna (Steve)]

look what just popped up in the classifieds

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=28131

[Jazza (Jay)]

Timing timing hah!
Still not sure whether to go the hybrid route... but definitely have to consider those.
Cheers for pointing them out.

[koputai (Jason)]

The better quality ones are definitely easier to use, and are much more rewarding.
Another option, which I use on another 0.965 equiped scope, is to unscrew the eyepiece clamping ring off the end of the focuser to expose the thread. This thread is the same as the filter thread on 1.25 eyepieces, so I just screw a 1.25 eyepiece on the end of the 0.965 tube.

Cheers,
Jason.

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

I have some bits and pieces here from my 60mm. PM sent.
The bits to the rear are a camera adapter, a home made camera adapter and a home made eyepiece. Didn't get anything with it and had to make my own at first.

Cheers
Bill

[Jazza (Jay)]

Well that's impressive!
PM returned

[Jazza (Jay)]

Well finally got a chance to have a look through it with a working diagonal and a couple of eyepieces Bill graciously supplied and I must say I'm impressed, quite sharp images for such a small scope
Very nice on the moon, large open clusters and the like.
Easy to transport too.
Jay