Tasco telescope12/16/2023 ![]() Hi Malcolm, your post is very interesting. It's also nice to know that all these decades on, other SGL members recall good experiences with tasco scopes too. I have fond memories of my time working in the small offices in Welwyn, and was (and still am) proud of my association with Tasco. However Tasco were producing expensive amateur scopes with apertures of 8" and above, and on suitable driven mounts, and I did try and persuade management to import a few of these scope for the serious astronomer, but it never happened. Where Tasco succeeded though was that these scopes introduced kids to telescopes and the basics of astronomy, and once they started looking up would move on to the 3TR or 11TR, both of which were good optically for a commercially mass produced scope The thing was that Tasco started to cater for all markets, including the toy market, and then got a reputation for making poor scopes with plastic lenses, or cheap glass lenses that required a baffle and thus effectively reduced the aperture by 50%. The clock drives for the 11TR were mains driven, which given the amount of dew that forms on equipment is quite scary !! The higher end scopes like the 11TR etc had reasonably good optics, but rather flimsy mounts. I worked for Tasco between 19 when it was a family run firm based in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, with the distribution centred in Newbury. Now days 'we' amatuer astronomers get wound up by streetlighting and light pollution! Edited Decemby Philip R When I first heard the term 'clock drive' when I started astronomy, it is exactly as I imagined them. I daresay if I had one like it today I would probably be horrified at how mushy the views, how duff the focuser was and the constant 'ding-ding' from the chimes and having to wind it up every 10 minutes would drive me nuts but back then it was my pride and joy.Īmazing what you can get these days - that old scope probably cost about what a car would have cost back then All white tube, black fittings and wooden legs. No idea who the manufacturer was - I think it was marketed as 'Helios' but it came out of Japan it didn't have any manufacturers labels on it except at the back end it said something like 'Superiorr Japanese Astro Scope' and some Japanese markings, serial number etc and unfortunately I have no pictures of it at all now but it was probably the prettiest scope I ever owned. The clock drive had a teeny chime in it so when it was getting low on wind up power is would go 'ding-ding' to alert you to wind it back up Ok it was wind up and only ran for about 15 minutes but back then it was the bomb and VERY expensive. I had a 5" reflector back in the late 1970s that looked a little like Tascos 16T - it was super deluxe and even had a clock drive. I can imagine there have been many astronomers who started with a Tasco and it is disappointing that Tasco telescopes aren't as widely available now. Very sadly, I didn't have a proper telescope as a child (I won't go into details on the awful "toy" telescope that almost put me off astronomy.). I always wanted a Tasco refractor for Christmas as a child so I wanted to get one in recent years and I haven't been disappointed. While the mounting on my 2 inch/50mm isn't the best (it is on a table tripod), the views are perfectly acceptable and I have also had a good view of the Orion Nebula with the Tasco. Hi John, I have read that Tasco telescopes were much better made in the 1960s. While every telescope in here is red, most modern-day Tasco telescopes don't have red tubes now. I have attached three images from the Catalogue. It is disappointing how plastic is used in small Tasco refractors nowadays, although I think the 2 inch red refractor is the only one that now has a plastic tube. Unfortunately, the tube of my Tasco is plastic as well as the focusing knobs and the eyepiece barrel, but back in the 1980s metal was always used and the 1980s Tasco counterparts look so much better and the metal tubes are noticeable in the images. I have a 1980s Tasco Catalogue that has a really good range of refractors as well as two reflectors. I have a small Tasco refractor that gives perfectly good views of Venus's phases, Jupiter and its moons and Saturn's rings. I remember around eighteen months ago I mentioned Tasco telescopes on the forum and I commented about the unfair criticism they have had.
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