Tasco Torment

Started by Milt, 07/15/2003 05:39PM
Posted 07/15/2003 05:39PM Opening Post
A couple of months ago I mentioned the joy of a newcomer to the views through her used Tasco. Indeed, Jupiter had a sharp limb, bands were visible and false color was less than expected. If you could find Jupiter.

The thing was miserable to use. The finder impossible, and so much play in the mount with so little TFOV you had to hold the scope to keep it on target. The joy was soon replaced with sheer frustration.

I took it as a challenge to see if I could salvage some usefulness from the promising 60mm f/13 doublet. Took it apart, found the anchor for the altitude adjustment rod loose, a screw stripped in one pivot bracket, and the baffle at a 45° angle in the tube. Repaired above, added a red dot finder and 20mm Plossl (40x, 1.25°), and it is now a very usable scope.

My frustration is that the marketer would squander a very servicable objective by trading finder and mount quality for useless high power EP's and Barlows, and in so doing turn off the purchaser to astronomy forever.

Arghhh,

Milt
Posted 07/15/2003 06:03PM #1
I year or so ago I bought a used Tasco 60mm f/15 from an auction site almost as a joke for about 15 bucks. I was actually on an experimenting spree with 60mm refractors. It was an older Tasco, made in Japan. :-)

I was actually quite shocked at how good the optics were, much better than newer Meade and Celestron 60mm's I've seen. I was equally shocked that a scope with such good optics was virtually impossible to aim or use. The placement of mounting bolts on the tube was so bad that it was not physically possible to balance the scope at all on its dec axis unless you bypassed the mounting bolts entirely and held the tube to the equatorial head with a couple of clamps further down the tube.
Posted 07/15/2003 07:31PM #2
I've got a Tasco Starguide 4... made in the dark days when Celestron was a Tasco company. I bought it at a discount clearance store for a fraction of its new price after Tasco went bust. Yes, it's a Synta scope but I've been quite happy with the quality of the optics, electronics and mechanics.
Posted 09/16/2003 07:25PM #3
Several weeks ago I bought a Tasco Galaxsee 60mm f/15 refractor at a closeout sale on the web. After reading all the diatribes against "department store" telescopes on the internet I awaited with some trepidation the delivery of my telescope.

I am pleased to report that I am very happy with my purchase. All three included eyepieces work reasonably well on the moon, mars, and saturn. (K25mm, H12.5mm, SR4mm). The H12.5mm just isn't cut out for star work and I haven't tried the SR4mm on the stars. I have bought and tried a selection of SMA, MA, and Plossls I found here and there on sale on the internet and find the Celestron Nexstar 32mm Plossl to be great for star viewing. The Celestron SMAs are good on planets and acceptable when centered on stars. The Meade 9mm MA is very touchy on focusing and not as good quality as the Celestron 10mm SMA in my opinion. In short I am quite pleased with the optics on the Tasco 60mm scope. Planetary views are clean and crisp (even quite good with the SR4mm)and it was a real thrill for both my wife and I to see Saturn through a telescope for the first time.

The mount is an EQ1 and is a little flimsy during focusing, especially at higher magnifications. The focuser is wobbly when shaken by hand but during focusing is quite smooth with no side-to-side wobble. The 5x24 finder actually works pretty well but needs to be aligned at the start of every session. We have not tried the barlows (2x and 3x) that came with the telescope as the useful magnification of the scope is in the 90x-125x range depending on seeing conditions, using the 50 times aperture dia. in inches formula (which is why the SR4mm yielding 225x was such a pleasant surprise).

All in all, I think I got a pretty good deal for $81 including shipping,handling, & tax and expect to use this telescope for years to come. There is so much to learn in charting and learning the night sky that we will be beginners for years to come I think. We still enjoy using our Bushnell 7x50 binoculars for viewing the sky as well.

Steve