76mm Altaz Reflector in Aldi Nov 4th

There's a picture of it on the ALDI ad in the current edition of the RTE Guide.


Spaceboy

Hhmmm... interesting, Shane and Gordon... oh, and Dave!

I got a 3" Tasco reflector from Santa many moons ago, and it still works fine. Today, minus the tripod and mount, the OTA goes well on my 8". Granted, age is going to force me to consider getting the mirror re-silvered soon.

I remember my first view of Saturn, the Orion Nebula, Jupiter's moons, and some great views of the Moon with it. I for one would not knock the 3" reflector on the head!


Seanie.

Fair enough Seanie, the main thing is that you were happy with it.
My first scope was a 60mm eq tasco F15 refractor back in the 80s, the moon was great at the time, the planets were interesting, I remember eventually finding M13 and M57 through it, serious imagination was required.
My residing memory of this scope was when the 20mm eyepieces main glass element fell out of the eyepiece onto concrete where it chipped very badly, 4 days before the Aug17 1989 lunar eclipse, I was like a lunatic !!

I eventually had the eyepiece repaired, I rutinely have my revenge on it by using it with the 4" celestron for solar projection, as the eyeopiece is made mainly of black plastic, its covered in black melt marks and warpings. :twisted: :twisted: but it still works as the lenses are actually glass !
(if you place the sun near the edge of the field of view, you end up melting the casing !!)

The only other eyepiece supplied was a 4mm piece of crap, it was so small that one of my friends commented that you''d need the eyes of a smurf to look through it :lol: ,

Then I borrowed the clubs 12" dob in 1991. and that was the end of that.

Dave Lillis wrote: My first scope was a 60mm eq tasco F15 refractor back in the 80s, the moon was great at the time, the planets were interesting, I remember eventually finding M13 and M57 through it, serious imagination was required.

Dave,

It's quite amazing the number of us who started off with small Tasco telescopes. While I don't have fond memories of the views through mine (other than the Moon, which in reality looks good through any telescope), it did bring me back into astronomy after a couple of decades of observing abstinence since my teens. I had a little refractor then, which I wish I'd kept.

Seanie appears to have a landed a good 'un with his 3" reflector but most are very poor, on shaky mounts and supplied with one acceptable eyepiece (usually a cheap 20mm Kellner), two unusable higher power eyepieces eyepieces (usually Ramsden or Huygenian) and a plastic Barlow. Virtually all small reflectors up to 4.5" have spherical mirrors but I'm hearing very good things from experienced amateurs about Orion's 4.5" StarBlast, which is providing excellent views for its size, the reason being it has a parabolic mirror, and it comes with two Orion Explorer eyepieces.

Gordon

It's quite amazing the number of us who started off with small Tasco telescopes.

Amazing doesnt describe it, I remember looking at Saturn through it for the first time and then looking at the voyager 2 image of Saturn on the box, I was not amused!

It's quite amazing the number of us who started off with small Tasco telescopes.

Amazing doesnt describe it, I remember looking at Saturn through it for the first time and then looking at the voyager 2 image of Saturn on the box, I was not amused!

Dave,

I think Voyager 2 may have had a slight advantage over your wee Tasco!

Santa brought me a 60mm Tasco refractor a couple of years ago (bless him, he meant well!) and even though I would not class it as a quality instrument, I too got my first views of other worlds with it. My first live views of the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter and close views of the surface of the moon were all seen through it. In truth, it was what got me started down the astronomy route! Nowadays I stick to my 10 x 50 binos and rarely (never if I'm honest!) use it. However, I'm still grateful that it gave me the interest to look up to the skys!

I still have the 60mm tasco, in fact I use the eq mount and tripod for the 4" celestron,
I just remembered that my first scope was actually a 30x30 collapsable scope on a tiny tripod, whose name escapes me, I got it when I was 6.

A few years later I concluded that the inside of the lens was dirty, I couldn't get the lens off, so what did I do ??
Out came the hacksaw and I cut off the lens, gave it a good clean and duct-taped it back on, hows that for DIY. :lol: