Identify my telescope!

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Happy Christmas all!

This thread is a fairly random one, but i'm hoping the knowledgeable among you might be able to assist us.

About 7/8 years ago, my mother won a telescope in a raffle (I did warn you) and it looks like the pictures attached.

It came in a large wooden box with dot-matrix printer paper as packaging, with Russian cyrillic writing (I kid you not). There was no instruction manual or diagrams of any kind.

My father had a passing interest in it, but unfortunately the telescope has sat for all this time without any real use.

Needless to say, we could now do with a few more €€€'s around the house and we're looking to sell the telescope.

So - Can anyone identify the make and potentially tell us how much it's worth 2nd hand? (In mint condition as never used). If you can support your claim, we'd probably take 60% of the true value and happy to pass it on to someone who could actually get the use out of it!

Happy Christmas all and thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Roger

emo72

its a reflector, but surely there is some tag on it? 6 to 8 inches perhaps?

mickmackey1

Yep, it's a Newtonian reflector. Looks like a 6-incher to me, you might squeeze 200 euro for it.

slade_x

That's a Tal / (Sovietski), it is from a reputable Russian based telescope manufacturer. More specifically it looks to be a TAL-150P or TAL 120. is this a 6 or a 5 Inch?

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

As there is no motor I would lean more to it being a 5" TAL-150P which is mounted on a GEQ pillar


Those pier/pillar mounts are even more excellent if you are willing to drill holes in the feet and bolt them into concrete, it isn't really necessary though

I would imagine that was first purchased from a UK Distributer, if it was a TAL-2 it was worth about £450-500 New. Maybe £300-350 RRP for the 150P, but you could probably research more yourself after you measure it and identify exactly which TAL model it is.

Tal/ Sovietski's are highly reviewed for quality of contruction, I assume yours also has all metal construction, focuser etc.

Rubecula

I would agree with Slade_X about this being a Tal. unsure which one though.

Mr_Roger_Bongos

Hi All,

Hope you had a great Christmas day.

Thank you very much for the feedback.

Assume i should be measuring the diameter of the opening at either end?

Slade_x - You can tell from handling this thing that it's incredibly well made. 7 years or so out of the box and looks like brand new (helps that we didn't use it..:o).

I've looked up a few reviews of TAL telescopes online and it looks like it's a TAL-2.

Would my best bet be to stick it on adverts.ie and just link it to the sales thread?

Thanks all for your help!

slade_x

Mr_Roger_Bongos wrote: »

I've looked up a few reviews of TAL telescopes online and it looks like it's a TAL-2.

I am not 100% sure but I thought the bundled TAL-2 OTA's were sold with a motor driven equatorial mount

Mr_Roger_Bongos wrote: »

Assume i should be measuring the diameter of the opening at either end?

Yes that will give you a close approximation to the mirror diameter.

Mr_Roger_Bongos wrote: »

Would my best bet be to stick it on adverts.ie and just link it to the sales thread?

Thanks all for your help!

Yes that is the Policy here.

hairybelly

Price also depends on what eyepiece it has.

tbh you can get 6 inch dobsonian refractors for €280 from Orion so I'd say you wouldnt even get close to that for it. Helps that it has a tripod I guess.