Post by RobbW on Oct 18, 2010 23:30:26 GMT -6
Well, not really, but close enough. My wife, daughter and I were heading over to my in-laws' new place Sunday night to celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary. Along the way, we saw everyone's trash out at their curbs since Monday is garbage day. We passed this one house and my wife was like, "Was that a telescope out with their trash?" I had caught it out of the corner of my eye and decided to make a u-turn and take a quick look. Pulled up on the opposite side of the road, ran across and grabbed it. Put it in the back of the Tucson and headed to my in-laws.
After getting home later, I pulled the scope in to have a look. When I had grabbed it from the curb, I could tell it wasn't anything fancy; too light and kind of flimsy. But oh well, it would be good for the kids or an extra scope at outreach events. Turns out it's an old Tasco 9F 60mm x 800mm refractor. Certainly not a high-quality scope, but it also isn't the cheap, all-plastic crap you get at Toys 'R Us these days. This thing is all metal except for the focus knobs. It was dusty and slightly dirty, but seemed in relatively good shape. The objective lens didn't have a mark on it. It didn't have any EPs with it. It takes .965" EPs, and all I have are 1.25" and 2". Oh well, I'll come up with something.
Tonight, after putting our daughter to bed, I decided to take this scope completely apart, give it a good cleaning, and then reassemble with new grease on the moving parts and ThreadLock on the tripod screws. Got everything back together and finally it took it out back for a quick look at the moon. I don't have any .965" EPs on hand. So I used a little electrical tape to tape one of my 1.25" on to the scope.
Being a Tasco, I wasn't expecting to see anything really well. However, to be honest, I was actually impressed with the views through this thing. Everything was nice and sharp! I took peeks at the moon, Jupiter (saw the four main moons and I'm wondering if I actually caught a fifth one way off to the side, probably not), Capella, Alderbaran, and Pleiades. I was only outside for about 10-15 minutes, but had a great time catching all those.
I have to head to bed now, but I just wanted to write this up while I was thinking about it. I think I may really like this scope for a grab-n-go when I don't have time to set up the C8. The only things I need for it are a .965 to 1.25 EP converter and a diagonal so I don't have to stay on my knees to see anything above the tree line.
Not too bad for another man's trash,eh!
After getting home later, I pulled the scope in to have a look. When I had grabbed it from the curb, I could tell it wasn't anything fancy; too light and kind of flimsy. But oh well, it would be good for the kids or an extra scope at outreach events. Turns out it's an old Tasco 9F 60mm x 800mm refractor. Certainly not a high-quality scope, but it also isn't the cheap, all-plastic crap you get at Toys 'R Us these days. This thing is all metal except for the focus knobs. It was dusty and slightly dirty, but seemed in relatively good shape. The objective lens didn't have a mark on it. It didn't have any EPs with it. It takes .965" EPs, and all I have are 1.25" and 2". Oh well, I'll come up with something.
Tonight, after putting our daughter to bed, I decided to take this scope completely apart, give it a good cleaning, and then reassemble with new grease on the moving parts and ThreadLock on the tripod screws. Got everything back together and finally it took it out back for a quick look at the moon. I don't have any .965" EPs on hand. So I used a little electrical tape to tape one of my 1.25" on to the scope.
Being a Tasco, I wasn't expecting to see anything really well. However, to be honest, I was actually impressed with the views through this thing. Everything was nice and sharp! I took peeks at the moon, Jupiter (saw the four main moons and I'm wondering if I actually caught a fifth one way off to the side, probably not), Capella, Alderbaran, and Pleiades. I was only outside for about 10-15 minutes, but had a great time catching all those.
I have to head to bed now, but I just wanted to write this up while I was thinking about it. I think I may really like this scope for a grab-n-go when I don't have time to set up the C8. The only things I need for it are a .965 to 1.25 EP converter and a diagonal so I don't have to stay on my knees to see anything above the tree line.
Not too bad for another man's trash,eh!
