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!
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.
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.
