The new 'scope arrives ...

  The new telescope arrived as scheduled on the Monday.
Unboxing shots:

In the shipping box, after I have removed the "pier" stand.

The various "bits and bobs" included with the TAL-120 telescope.
The "adapter" is really a short T-mount extension ring, and would be used with SLRs with a relatively short flange-to-focal-plane distance. Not used with my Sony dSLR, but could be useful if you have a Canon or suchlike.
The "Cross-hairs Reticle" screws into one of the eyepieces and is used during setting up for aligning the main telescope tube with the smaller finderscope (which has its own built-in reticle).
The "Barrel"
has a T-mount fitting at one end and a fitting with a reataining screw at the other end, and is used when making visual obsevations with eyepieces - the barrel is not used with SLR photography.
The "2x Barlow" is a two-times Barlow lens :-) - the Barlow lens goes into the barrel, and then an eyepiece goes into the Barlow, and it makes the image look bigger (but less bright) than using the eyepiece alone. Not used with SLR photography.
The two eyepieces (I will cover why they are called "Super Plossl" in another article) are for visual observation, and give different magnifications - the magnification of the telecope is the focal length of the 'scope divided by the eyepiece, so in the case of a TAL-120 'scope, the 25mm eyepiece gives 32 times magnification, and the 10mm eyepiece gives 80 times magnification. When used with the Barlow lens, the magnification becomes 64 times and 160 times. So all together, the range of magnifications is 32 times, 64 times, 80 times and 160 times.

Looking down the "business end" - the 120mm mirroe is visible at the bottom of the tube, and the small right-angle mirror is visible in the centre of the picture

the main tube of the telescope, also showing the mounts for the finderscope.

The TAL-120 scope all set up in our small (and crowded!) conservatory

Another shot of the TAL-120 all set up.
The tube can be rotated as convenient, so I have it set up here to look through on the right.
The rather short "pier" stand, combined with the ability to move the eyepiece to the side of the telecope means our 10-year old daughter can comfortably use the 'scope without standing on chairs etc., and when I want to use the scope for SLR photography, I can rotate the eyepiece mount to the top, unscrew the barrel and the eyepiece, and screw on the T-mount adapter for my SLR. The camera is then over the 'scope, so there is much less strain on the mountings than having it all hanging out the side (the "camera" setup will be illustrated in another post!)