Tasco
Model 6TE-5 Review
‘Period re-enactment viewing’ is
apparently a thing, or so I’ve read. So, what if the period you want to
re-enact is the 1960s/70s and your broadsword of choice has ‘Tasco’ on the
scabbard?
On the one hand, there’s Tasco’s table-top 4VTE: my first scope and an ideal compact
nostalgia piece for fans of 1960s Tascos, but for the horrible variable-power
eyepiece that makes it basically useless.
On the other hand, the full-sized 9TE-5
is a proper telescope and very usable, but it’s a big thing to have hanging
about gathering dust if you only want to ‘re-enact’ with it occasionally.
What to do? One possibility is this,
the Model 6TE-5. It’s much like a the 9TE-5, but the size of the 4VTE. Perfect
for solo re-enactments, it looks great on top of your bookcase meanwhile.
(For me, re-enactments always start
under the Christmas tree – both my childhood Tasco’s
were Christmas presents – so apologies for the fairy light overload if you’re
reading this in July).
At
A Glance
|
Telescope |
Tasco
Model 6TE-5 |
|
Aperture |
50mm |
|
Focal
Length |
600mm |
|
Focal
Ratio |
F12 |
|
Length |
58cm |
|
Weight |
~1.5kg
incl. mount |
Data from Me.
What’s
in the Box?
This is a
slightly later box design (I think) than the yellow-and-black style my own childhood
Tascos came in, possibly late 1970s?
Still,
whatever the decade, it’s always Christmas on Planet Tasco ...
Design
and Build
Tasco
was founded in 1954 by a guy named George Rosenfield and was
initially given the snappy name ‘Tanross Supply
Company’, which eventually got shortened to Tasco.
The Tanross Supply Company began as a hardware and fishing
tackle supplier, but started importing re-badged Japanese scopes from the late
1950s, probably as a response to burgeoning public interest in space following
the launch of Sputnik. Those scopes varied from spy-glasses that were little
more than toys (like the 1ETE) to ‘observatory class’ (back then) 4” refractors
on driven pier-mounts, made by Royal Optical.
Staple models
like this 6TE-5 had a long life, well into the 1980s, after which much more
plasticky fare invaded the Tasco catalogue. The 6TE-5 doesn’t seem to have
undergone the gradual decline in quality that beset some larger models,
although the original 1960s metal focuser knobs did change to plastic at some
point.
Tasco
marketed several small refractors with a similar 1960s vibe. The 40mm 4VTE looks
much the same, but as I mentioned above it has a fixed (!) variable-power
eyepiece that gives the dimmest views (even though the objective is fine).
The 4VTE
looks similar to the 6TE-5, but is a much more compromised scope.
Optics
The
6TE-5’s single-coated 50mm objective is an air-spaced Fraunhofer achromatic
doublet of 600mm focal length giving F12. It’s no coincidence that F12 is the
focal ratio above which simple eyepiece types work reasonably well and it’s a
focal ratio shared by many small achromats of the era.
All Tascos originally
carried a small sticker saying they’ve passed the ‘Japan Telescopes Institute
Inspection’. This was silver and oval on earlier models, gold and round later.
Some OTAs also
had another mysterious sticker with a two-letter code. On my larger 9TE-5 it
reads ‘GJ’, on this 6TE-5 it’s ‘FN’. These may refer to the sub-contractors for
the optics, which varied (Tasco was just an importer). If you know better,
please drop me a line!
Just like
the 60mm 9TE-5, the focuser label plate has a minuscule (so small I needed a
magnifier to read it) Circle-T symbol in the bottom right corner, so on some
level it was ‘made’ by Towa, a brand well-known for good optical quality.
Circle-T usually
indicates good quality.
Tube
This OTA
is classic 1960s Tasco: a white metal tube, with a black cast lens ring and in
this case a white metal dew shield (unlike the larger 9TE-5’s which was black).
I love that look – the black lens ring and contrasting white dew shield –
perhaps because it features on various bits of Tasco bumf from that era.
At some
point in the 1980s Tasco switched to similar models but with red tubes which I
really don’t like (sorry), but that apparently evoke their own nostalgia in
some younger collectors.
Focuser
The 0.965”
focuser looks just like the plastic ones fitted to loads of cheap modern scopes
on Ebay, but in fact here (as with the larger
9TE-5) it is made of cast metal and black enamelled, with a chromed metal
draw-tube and rack.
The
focusing action is smooth, precise and free of slop or image shift. Travel is a
bit limited, but generally sufficient for both astronomy and terrestrial
viewing with a useful range of eyepieces and magnifications.
Just about
the only things on the whole telescope made of plastic are the focuser knobs. As
I mentioned above, earlier 1960s examples would have sported cast and chromed
metal knobs like some junior Takahashi (see the pic of the 4VTE above).
Mounting
Like other
Tascos of the time – including my current 9TE-5 and the 3T-RB I owned in my
early teens – the 6TE-5 has a yoke mount finished in nostalgia-invoking
typewriter-crinkle black. Here, instead of a full-sized tripod, there are just
three short, thin legs that fold inwards when you move the scope around. The
legs and yoke make a table-top mount.
The
altitude bearing is just two bolts which tighten into lugs permanently attached
to the tube (so you can’t easily re-mount the OTA). Tension is adjusted with big
and rather handsome chromed knobs. The azimuth bearing is a push fit with a
lock screw.
Unlike the
larger models, there is no slow-motion control here. To move the scope, you just push it up and down and
around. On the bigger scopes the yoke mount doesn’t always work that well, but
here it’s crude but quite adequate. The 6TE-5’s mount is a significant
improvement on the 4VTE’s too.
Accessories
The 6TE-5
came with three eyepieces protected in rubbery black Tasco bolt cases with gold
writing. All are of the fairly basic two-element Huygenian
design, but they’re of decent quality, single coated and with metal bodies and
real glass optics. Back in the day, we thought ourselves lucky they weren’t
Ramsdens, dreamed of Kellners and whispered of
Orthoscopics.
The focal lengths provided were 6mm,
12.5mm and 20mm. The latter two are sensible focal lengths, giving 48x and 30x
respectively, whilst the 6mm giving 100x is a bit optimistic.
In special little containers were a
grey neutral Moon filter and a red Sun filter. The latter was red for a reason
and is much best left in its container.
Like all
Tascos, the 6TE-5 came with a finder, in this case a truly miniature 4 x ~15mm.
On a Celestron Travel Scope 50 today, miniature means
useless, but not here. The finder itself has a metal body, coated glass lenses
and a push-fit eyepiece to allow focusing. Its view is narrow but quite sharp
and bright – well up to finding the things you’ll be looking at, like the Moon
and bright planets. The finder mount and set screws are metal too, so it even
keeps reasonable alignment.
Bumf
Tascos from
the late 1960s into the early 1980s came with a long, pale green envelope
containing an introductory booklet evocatively titled ‘A Key To Worlds Beyond’, a solar system chart with some lurid
(even in the 1970s very outdated) planetary artwork, and an excellent Rand
McNally Moon map that seemed such an exciting accessory for finding landing
spots during the era of Apollo.
The
original ‘Worlds Beyond’ booklet that shipped with larger (and/or earlier?)
Tascos included some attractive images of their larger scopes to
encourage you to nag your parents for an upgrade. But very interestingly (for
Tasco geeks like me), the booklet shipped with the 6TE-5 is much thinner and
omits those extra images (among other things).
As an
aside, it seems the booklet and especially the maps have become more
collectable than the scopes. Whilst trying to sell my 9TE-5 (for an extremely
modest sum), I had messages asking for a precise condition report on the bumf
as if I was Christie’s and they were penned by Michelangelo. Believe me, I get
it. Who doesn’t want to travel to distant worlds the colour of boiled sweets
with rainbow rings and fantasy landscapes from a 1970s kids’ TV show?
Tasco’s lurid and
evocative 1960s bumf has huge nostalgia appeal.
Supplied
eyepieces and diagonal are basic, but very usable.
In
Use – Daytime
The little
Tasco works quite well as a daytime spotter, giving sharp views, though the FOV
is narrow (esp. with the standard eyepieces). The phone-snap below is taken
with a Takahashi 25mm eyepiece, not the standard H20mm.
In
Use – Observing the Night Sky
General
Observing Notes
Despite
their similarity, the 6TE-5’s mount has less play than 9TE-5’s and it is easier
to adjust altitude tension with its knobs rather than screws. But vibes take
5-10 seconds to damp down with a 7mm eyepiece giving 86x and hamper finding
best focus.
Star
Test
The 6TE-5
showed a reasonable but not perfect star test on Aldebaran, though the in-focus
Airy disk and diffraction rings looked pretty good. It’s not as good as the
(really excellent) 9TE-5 I reviewed, though, despite both being Circle-T.
The
Moon
All the main
sights of a first quarter Moon were visible with a 7mm Takahashi Ortho’ giving
87x – major craters Tycho, Gassendi, Schiller and dark-floored Billy; Sinus
Iridium with the weird ink-blot shadow of Promontory Laplace standing out in
all the blazing sunshine around. Other lunar highlights included Alphonsus with
its dark spots and the rugged arc of the Apennine mountains.
The Moon was
nicely sharp at this magnification, though a steadier mount would have improved
the view. Considering that 87x is well above typical spotting scope
magnifications, the 6TE-5 is a good way to enjoy the Moon and as an Apollo-era
relic that’s appropriate: pin that Rand McNally map up and go hunting for
landing sites.
Mars
Surprisingly, the 6TE-5 delivered a clean, dark orange, gibbous disk
with 7mm Ortho, even though Mars was well past opposition and only 8” in size.
Deep
Sky
A long-focal-length
50mm single-coated objective at one end and a 0.965” eyepiece at the other
doesn’t really make for a deep sky tool. Still, the entire of Orion’s belt just
fitted into the field of a 25mm Takahashi Ortho’ and showed plenty of nebulosity, even in
strong Moonlight. The Pleaides looked nice too – not the blue-misty diamonds
you get with bigger apertures, but sharp and clear.
Summary
Whilst the
larger 9TE-5 is a more competent all-rounder, this 6TE-5 is so much more
compact (and easy to store and display too) that it’s going to be a better
option for many looking for a period Tasco refractor. Compared to the
apparently similar 4VTE it’s a far more genuinely usable telescope, with a good
objective, a smooth and accurate focuser and a sensible set of eyepieces. Even
the little fork mount and mini finder work quite well.
The 6TE-5
doesn’t (yet) command high prices, but does seem to be getting rarer and more
sought after.
If you’re irrationally nostalgic for
the Tasco you got under the tree circa 1971 then this 6TE-5 gets my highest
recommendation – full fat 1960s Tasco for a fraction of the usual size and
weight.
