improving a really lousy scope?

Hello,

A friend of mine has a Tasco Luminova refractor on a (very shaky)
equatorial mount. There is a picture of it he
http://store3.yimg.com/I/gormangift_1769_10161294

The scope was purchased about 2 years ago for her son. They have never
been able to use it because a) the mount was too shaky and b) the finder
scope is nearly impossible to align with the main scope. The saw a few
brief flashes of the moon and gave up.

I 'fixed' the finder scope by adding a spacer and using better screws
to attach it; the mount works a little better by adding some weight to
the tripod. I was able to use it to get some okay views of the moon and
a couple of the really bright star clusters.

I've also got a few extra eyepieces that they can use in place of the
ones that came with the scope (it came with a 1.5x barlow; however, it
makes the image so blurry (even on a good scope) that it hurts my eyes
to look through it).

My questions a

1) What else can we do to improve the performance of this scope and make
it usable for an 8 year old? His mom can't really afford to replace it
right now, but eventually she'll get him an Orion Starblast or Sky Probe
3 or something similar. But for now, he's stuck with the tasco.

2) The finder scope has a small hole on its mount. There is a metal
rod about 12" long that inserts into it. What is this rod for? In
the picture above there are two metal plates hanging from it (she has
the plates as well). I've seen this on a lot of dept. store scopes but
never on anything from Orion or Celestron or Meade etc. (I took the rod
out, as it contributed to the problems with the finder scope).

Thanks a lot. I'd like to get this scope usable for my friends.

Josh

ps I'm reading this page as well
http://www.rocketroberts.com/astro/tasco.htm

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 22:09:35 -0700, Josh Gregorio
wrote:

Hello,

A friend of mine has a Tasco Luminova refractor on a (very shaky)
equatorial mount. There is a picture of it he
http://store3.yimg.com/I/gormangift_1769_10161294

The scope was purchased about 2 years ago for her son. They have never
been able to use it because a) the mount was too shaky and b) the finder
scope is nearly impossible to align with the main scope. The saw a few
brief flashes of the moon and gave up.

I 'fixed' the finder scope by adding a spacer and using better screws
to attach it; the mount works a little better by adding some weight to
the tripod. I was able to use it to get some okay views of the moon and
a couple of the really bright star clusters.

I've also got a few extra eyepieces that they can use in place of the
ones that came with the scope (it came with a 1.5x barlow; however, it
makes the image so blurry (even on a good scope) that it hurts my eyes
to look through it).

My questions a

1) What else can we do to improve the performance of this scope and make
it usable for an 8 year old? His mom can't really afford to replace it
right now, but eventually she'll get him an Orion Starblast or Sky Probe
3 or something similar. But for now, he's stuck with the tasco.

2) The finder scope has a small hole on its mount. There is a metal
rod about 12" long that inserts into it. What is this rod for? In
the picture above there are two metal plates hanging from it (she has
the plates as well). I've seen this on a lot of dept. store scopes but
never on anything from Orion or Celestron or Meade etc. (I took the rod
out, as it contributed to the problems with the finder scope).

Thanks a lot. I'd like to get this scope usable for my friends.

Josh



At a *GUESS*, I think the rod and the plates are for projecting the
sun onto.

Something like this with binoculars:

http://www.spaceweather.com/sunspots/doityourself.html

That would mean taking out the erecting prism, and just projecting
right out the back of the scope onto one of the rear plate.




ps I'm reading this page as well
http://www.rocketroberts.com/astro/tasco.htm

--

Find out about Australia's most dangerous Doomsday Cult:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/wanglese/pebble.htm

"You can't fool me, it's turtles all the way down."

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 05:09:46 GMT, Wally Anglesea™
wrote:

SNIP



At a *GUESS*, I think the rod and the plates are for projecting the
sun onto.

Something like this with binoculars:

http://www.spaceweather.com/sunspots/doityourself.html

That would mean taking out the erecting prism, and just projecting
right out the back of the scope onto one of the rear plate.



Following up, If you *are* going to view the sun this way, just be
careful, and block out the finder scope by putting some sort of cap
over the top of it.

And ONLY do the projection with this scope, obviously, never look at
the sun through it, and *no* eyepiece filters.

--

Find out about Australia's most dangerous Doomsday Cult:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/wanglese/pebble.htm

"You can't fool me, it's turtles all the way down."

Josh Gregorio wrote in
:

Hello,

A friend of mine has a Tasco Luminova refractor on a (very shaky)
equatorial mount. There is a picture of it he
http://store3.yimg.com/I/gormangift_1769_10161294

The scope was purchased about 2 years ago for her son. They have never
been able to use it because a) the mount was too shaky and b) the finder
scope is nearly impossible to align with the main scope. The saw a few
brief flashes of the moon and gave up.

I 'fixed' the finder scope by adding a spacer and using better screws
to attach it; the mount works a little better by adding some weight to
the tripod. I was able to use it to get some okay views of the moon and
a couple of the really bright star clusters.

I've also got a few extra eyepieces that they can use in place of the
ones that came with the scope (it came with a 1.5x barlow; however, it
makes the image so blurry (even on a good scope) that it hurts my eyes
to look through it).

My questions a

1) What else can we do to improve the performance of this scope and make
it usable for an 8 year old? His mom can't really afford to replace it
right now, but eventually she'll get him an Orion Starblast or Sky Probe
3 or something similar. But for now, he's stuck with the tasco.

2) The finder scope has a small hole on its mount. There is a metal
rod about 12" long that inserts into it. What is this rod for? In
the picture above there are two metal plates hanging from it (she has
the plates as well). I've seen this on a lot of dept. store scopes but
never on anything from Orion or Celestron or Meade etc. (I took the rod
out, as it contributed to the problems with the finder scope).

Thanks a lot. I'd like to get this scope usable for my friends.

Josh

ps I'm reading this page as well
http://www.rocketroberts.com/astro/tasco.htm


This may help with some of the problems. Go to "Improving a Department
Store Telescope"
http://astronomy.trilobytes.com.au/scope/fix-it.htm

Martin Lewicki

Thanks for all of the responses. Looking at the metal plates and such,
they must be for projecting the sun onto. Makes perfect sense (except
the the finder scope, eyepieces, barlow, and adjusting knobs are all
made of the same plastic as little army men--you know, the kind that
easily melt in the sun on a hot Arizona day).

I'm going to replace the Star Diagonal and (hopefully) the finder scope
at a local shop that carries used and refurbished equipment. That with a
couple of decent eyepeices (25mm and 10mm) should do the trick.

I'll also try weighting the mount with a small brick to reduce
vibrations and such.

Another thing that helped with the mount was replacing the nuts and
bolts holding it together with ones that were the proper size. For some
reason the Tasco provided bolts were slightly smaller than their
openings, so even when fully tightened the legs wobbled in their slots.

Josh

Josh Gregorio wrote:

Hello,

A friend of mine has a Tasco Luminova refractor on a (very shaky)
equatorial mount. There is a picture of it he
http://store3.yimg.com/I/gormangift_1769_10161294

The scope was purchased about 2 years ago for her son. They have never
been able to use it because a) the mount was too shaky and b) the finder
scope is nearly impossible to align with the main scope. The saw a few
brief flashes of the moon and gave up.

I 'fixed' the finder scope by adding a spacer and using better screws
to attach it; the mount works a little better by adding some weight to
the tripod. I was able to use it to get some okay views of the moon and
a couple of the really bright star clusters.

I've also got a few extra eyepieces that they can use in place of the
ones that came with the scope (it came with a 1.5x barlow; however, it
makes the image so blurry (even on a good scope) that it hurts my eyes
to look through it).

My questions a

1) What else can we do to improve the performance of this scope and make
it usable for an 8 year old? His mom can't really afford to replace it
right now, but eventually she'll get him an Orion Starblast or Sky Probe
3 or something similar. But for now, he's stuck with the tasco.

2) The finder scope has a small hole on its mount. There is a metal
rod about 12" long that inserts into it. What is this rod for? In
the picture above there are two metal plates hanging from it (she has
the plates as well). I've seen this on a lot of dept. store scopes but
never on anything from Orion or Celestron or Meade etc. (I took the rod
out, as it contributed to the problems with the finder scope).

Thanks a lot. I'd like to get this scope usable for my friends.

Josh

ps I'm reading this page as well
http://www.rocketroberts.com/astro/tasco.htm


I'm doing a similar thing to Josh for a neighbour.
Her son has a scope from Jessops which is a compact reflector F700 80mm.
I fitted an old but good heavy tripod to it and did some tweaking to the
finder scope.
He has now been able to see nice views of the moon and with a struggle, the
rings of Saturn.
My question is, how can we get a better eyepiece.
Of the two supplied (6mm_20mm), the 20mm is the only usable one.
A better quality 10 or 12 mm would be ideal I think.
The 2x Barlow is near useless.

The eyepieces are 0.965 dia. Can any be found in the UK or are we on a lost
cause.
Could a 0.96 to 1.25 convertor be fitted to this type of scope.

All this is new to me and so any help would be much appreciated

Regards
Philip