Epocs

Old rusty screws for scope.

2007-02-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

So after looking for new screws for over a month I decided to try and salvage the old ones. I soaked them in WD40 for an entire month hoping the rust would crumble away. It did somewhat, although not as much as I would have liked.

Either way I continued to sand and paint other parts of the scope such as the tube mount.

New rusty screws for scope.

2007-01-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

Today I tried looking for some replacement screws at a place that carries anything and everything dealing with hardware. They could not find one screw to replace the scope's old ones. All the sizes were off by millimeters. How could this be? Has screw technology changed in 20 years?! Alas, I was told that the screws were usable and that I should purchase a rust remover of some sort to bring them back to life.

Painting scope.

2007-01-04T09:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I started painting the scope with some standard hardware-store-bought spray paint. Probably not the best choice for painting this thing,and it will probably peel off at some point, but hey i didn't want to splurge on this. I'm saving for a new scope. This will just keep me busy until then.

First, I added one coat of white primer paint.

Then, two coats of black enamel paint.

Here is the recently-dried accessory tray, which was the most rusted piece in the set. See picture in first post.

Done!

The aluminium tube was painted with one coat of white primer and two coats of white enamel. The red was boring me...

Sanding scope.

2007-01-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

Two days ago I sanded down the major parts of the scope.

The tube. Appears to be aluminium.

The finding scope mount and focusing unit mount. Die cast metal.

Dismantling scope.

2007-01-01T13:02:00.000-08:00

Happy new year!

I have begun the new year by dismantling the scope to its individual pieces. I found that most of all the screws have rusted. Some were tricky to get out and they will all be replaced with new ones.

The finder scope.

the focusing unit.

The star diagonal and eye piece. This will be changed so I won't bother to clean it.

Scope found, now what?

2006-12-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

I have had an urge to explore the night sky and all of its inhabitants for a while, there for I have been thinking about purchasing a telescope. But then the other day I found an old refractor telescope my father had bought about twenty years ago.

The scope and its legs look as if they had been salvaged from a sunken ship. Rust and mold line all of its exposed areas. Looking through its eyepiece I can distinguish some sort of light seeping through. I check out the eyepiece lenses, the scope's objective lens and notice they are in bad shape but probably savable with a good cleaning. The mount will need a lot of work. Mh... I have an idea.

The new year is approaching so I decide to give myself the challenge of refurbishing this used scope into something workable to see if I am worthy of purchasing a a better reflector in the future. I have read that it is better to get to know the sky with your eyes and some binoculars before purchasing a telescope. So I will take it steady...

I have looked around and found an excellent resource about how to upgrade Tasco telescopes at Joe Roberts' page here.

I will begin by dismantling the scope and sanding down the parts for painting and replacing the rusted screws. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions. So lets get started!

What I have to work with:

A Circa late 1980's Tasco F14, 60mm diameter, 800mm focal length Refractor Telescope. Made in Japan reg. 1740083.
Lots of rust and mold.

Cringe...

A strange type of finder scope. It uses a prism that is moved out of place manually when looking through the main eye piece.

The objective 60mm lens.

Here's the focusing unit with .965" star diagonal and 23mm eye piece. Gonna change to a hybrid diagonal to use 1.25" eye pieces, as suggested by Joe Roberts here.

The rusty telescopic legs that wont budge any way except outwards.

Here is the equatorial mount looking very sorry. Not sure how I will fix this yet.

The accessory tray.