[meteorite-list] Tasco Scopes

From: Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 16:25:46 -0400
Message-ID: <e51421550905221325v6bf83ebbj89b78128cc91c3df_at_mail.gmail.com>

Hi Bernd and List!

Please forgive the off-topic nature of this post - this will be brief.

Some people don't know that the older Tasco refractors from the 1950's
were made by Royal Optical of Japan - a highly respected maker of fine
glass back during that period. The optical quality of those early
Tascos matched the better known (and more respected) Unitrons and
Polarex of the same era. The only critical difference between the
highly-regarded Unitrons and the Tascos, was the mounting - Unitron
mounts were much more solidly-built.

Tasco reflectors were hit and miss - mostly mediocre at best.

Over the years, Tasco imported telescopes (and microscopes, including
petrographic) from a number of different Japanese optics houses.
Royal Optical produced some of the best. Tasco's last gasp was right
before Halley's Comet when they imported the 9VR 60mm rich-field
refractor which was made by Vixen. The 9VR is still highly regarded
as an f/5 astrograph. After that, during the late 1980's, Tasco
started importing from Taiwan, China, the Phillipines, Macau, Hong
Kong and Malaysia - quality and quality-controlled suffered horribly
and the result was a lingering bad reputation that stains the Tasco
brand name to this day.

I love the old white-tube Tasco refractors. :)

Best regards and clear skies,

MikeG






On 22 May 2009 19:29:21 UT, bernd.pauli at paulinet.de
<bernd.pauli at paulinet.de> wrote:
> Hello MikeG and List,
>
> "Nice old-school refractor with solar projection screen in the background
> behind Matt.
> Looks like a vintage Tasco. Those are great little small scopes, they don't
> build them
> like that any more."
>
> Yeah, TASCO ... brings back memories of my Tasco Newtonian. It was a "nice"
> scope
> but when I got my Celestron-8, I immediately realized that TASCO and
> CELESTRON
> were worlds apart: price - quality - resolution of double stars - eye piece
> quality - stability,
> etc. Here's a pic (pers. mail) of the Tasco scope I had in the early 70's
> :-)
>
> Best from Germany,
>
> Bernd
>
>

-- 
.........................................................
Michael Gilmer (Louisiana, USA)
Member of the Meteoritical Society.
Member of the Bayou Region Stargazers Network.
Websites - http://www.galactic-stone.com and http://www.glassthrower.com
..........................................................

Received on Fri 22 May 2009 04:25:46 PM PDT