Tasco 999VR (Article)

I'm looking for more info on this interesting classic Tasco telescope, model 999VR. Was made probably in the 80's by Vixen for Tasco. Uses 0.96" eyepeices and the views are supposely very crisp for a Tasco! This is a 60mm refractor with a focal length of 300mm, f/5. 
This will make a great grab and go setup and can be packed up in a briefcase!




Moon with Tasco 999VR at 300mm


Added: There seems to be two more variants of this scope, there's
also the 9vr and a 99vr. The 9vr/99vr was supposed to be the best
of the bunch with better glass and a effective 60mm objective. The
999vr still has a 60mm lens but is stop down midway making it
effectively a 40-45mm scope.

In fact daytimes views are sharper in the 999vr with a more pleasing
image, but it is comparatively dimmer during astro use due to the
stop down baffle midway in the tube. It is not advisable to remove
the baffle to counter the stop down problem as it will greatly degrade
the image as reported by Jae from cloudynights forum.

Jae has also mentioned a Meade Cometseeker Model 227(?) which
may be better than the Tascos.

Astronomy With Small Telescopes (An Introduction)

(click to see a larger pic)

This site is dedicated to anyone who enjoys using small telescopes.
I currently have a Celestron Short Tube 80 (ST80) refractor
and a recently bought tiny 50mm refractor by Edu-Science from
Toys r Us!

This toy r us scope has surprisingly (!) decent optics for its
price. It has a cemented doublet achromatic objectives, and
looks to me like a single layer coating on the objectives, not
sure if its on both air to glass surface, and has an aluminium
tube, albeit very thin, but nicely metallic painted.

The pic shows my ST80 (top) and my edu-science 50mm
(below), both are hideously stickered over by some fake
'carbon fibre' look-alike decal sheet bought for about S$12.

My interest in astronomy started many years back. These are
some of the scopes I've owned, and eventually sold over the years.

-Celestron C5 (vintage orange tube!) (Sold)
-Celestron C80 f/11 refractor (current scope)
-Celestron C5 (white & black tubes, i got at least 3 of these over the years)
-Celestron C8 (Sold)
-Meade ETX RA (Sold)
-Takahashi FS78 (Sold)
-Pentax 75SDHF (Sold)
-Skywatcher 150 mm f/5 refractor (Sold)
-Celestron SLT 102 refractor (Sold)
-Celestron ShortTube80 (current scope)
-Vixen A80SS (Sold)
-Edu-Science 50mm (this is a fun little toy scope..) (current scope)
-Celestron Nexstar 5SE (current scope)


Price: S$36.90!! Land & Sky Telescope by Edu-Science
At least the box didn't show some silly high 545x magnification!

Welcome aboard!
Jeffrey
SINGAPORE
1 22 N, 103 48 E