I picked up my TAL 1 yesterday and I have to say the engineering is 
pretty 'agricultural', in a good way. It certainly seems built to last!

Of course it was cloudy last night but tonight here on Teesside the sky 
was clear so I thought I'd have a quick go with it.

I didn't bother aligning the mount, I just wanted to have a quick look 
at some 'stuff'. First the moon; it was lovely getting up close again 
after 20 years. Next a rough point at Mars; I managed to bring the 
planet into view but it was very fuzzy; I could only manage to resolve a 
disc. I'm not surprised mind, the telescope was transported about 250 
miles in total yesterday.

One irritation is the focuser; there is quite a big step between turning 
the wheel and it moving at first. And there is no fine adjustment so 
that takes a bit of work...

Next things to do: check the collimation, find a good spot on the patio 
to observe from, mark the position of the pedestal and align the mount.

-- 
Abo

Abo <no@spam.thanks> wrote:

> I picked up my TAL 1 yesterday and I have to say the engineering is 
> pretty 'agricultural', in a good way. It certainly seems built to last!
> 
> Of course it was cloudy last night but tonight here on Teesside the sky
> was clear so I thought I'd have a quick go with it.
> 
> I didn't bother aligning the mount, I just wanted to have a quick look
> at some 'stuff'. First the moon; it was lovely getting up close again
> after 20 years. Next a rough point at Mars; I managed to bring the 
> planet into view but it was very fuzzy; I could only manage to resolve a
> disc. I'm not surprised mind, the telescope was transported about 250
> miles in total yesterday.
> 
> One irritation is the focuser; there is quite a big step between turning
> the wheel and it moving at first. And there is no fine adjustment so 
> that takes a bit of work...
> 
> Next things to do: check the collimation, find a good spot on the patio
> to observe from, mark the position of the pedestal and align the mount.

Hi Abo,

I enjoyed the TAL-1 I had, and it did indeed leads me onto a bigger
scope. There's no doubt though that this is a robust instrument, and has
fine optics.

I've just been clearing out my browser bookmarks and happened across
this link you may find useful, it links to a service manual too.

http://www.telescopes.ru/product.html?cat=1&prod=7

Enjoy.

-- 
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/>