Some of you know that I recently acquired a Tasco 15TE. It's a 3-inch refractor on a motorized equatorial mount, the flagship of Tasco's lineup in the 50's and 60's. They also offered a pier-mounted 4", but only a few are known to have been made and none are known to still exist in this country. Tascos got a bad rap when the company abandoned their Japanese manufacturers in the mid-seventies and began to source them from China. The formerly all-metal designs gave way to plastic, and optics of lesser quality. The old Tascos have objectives of the highest quality and were serious telescopes in their day. I also have a museum-quality 7TE (60mm x 1000mm) and a 6TE (50mm x 600mm). Both of those have outstanding optics and are all-metal examples of Tasco at their finest. Only the eyepieces of the day had some serious drawbacks, that said, some of them were pretty good despite a narrow FOV. The 15TE has an interesting history. I am the third owner, having purchased it from a man who got it at the estate sale of the original owner. Patrick especially may find this interesting due to his affiliation with NASA. Here is a repost of my report on Cloudy Nights: I now have the backstory on my recent Tasco 15TE acquisition. It's pretty cool. It was formerly owned by Fred Ordway III (1927-2014), and kept at his summer house on Montesano Mt. in Huntsville, AL. Ordway's summer house was used by all the NASA German engineers on Von Braun's team as a place to relax and converse, and plan where the upcoming lunar lander would land on the moon. They built an observatory on the mountain to house a 16" telescope to aid in the landing decision. It is very possible that the Tasco was used for the landing spot research prior to the completion of the 16". Certainly it was used by Ordway for his own stargazing while at his summer house, and chances are good that his many guests (co-workers at NASA and their families, mostly) looked through it as well, including Von Braun. Ordway also spent three years working as technical advisor on Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", thanks to his friendship with Arthur C. Clarke. I'm currently scouring the internet for any photos of Ordway and his friends relaxing at the summer house, and hopefully a shot of him at the eyepiece of the Tasco. He is survived by 3 adult children. I'm trying to screw-up my courage enough to find and contact them, and let them know that I am the new owner of their father's telescope, and ask if they can contribute any photos or other details of it's history. Ordway's obit: http://quadcitiesdaily.com/?p=182794 Wikipedia article on Ordway: http://en.wikipedia....k_I._Ordway_III <http://en.wikipedia....k_i._ordway_iii/> I will post links to pictures of the scope once I get it fully assembled and restored. It has some cosmetic issues that I want to address. Paint chips, etc., the optics are in perfect condition. Here is a link to a .pdf copy of the 1968 Tasco catalog. My 15TE was made in 1962, going by the serial number. http://geogdata.csun.edu/~voltaire/classics/tasco/tasco1968.pdf I have a couple of other made-for-export Japanese refractors from the era, including a Penncrest 60mm x 1000mm (J.C. Penney house brand) and a Shrine Manon 60mm x 700mm, with optics made by Pentax, and a few others made by Towa and other makers, and branded for American companies. I'd love to hear from anyone else who has a fondness for these vintage telescopes. My very first telescope, brought to me by Santa Claus, was a Tasco 60mm alt-az in 1965. I found all the Messier objects with it over the course of about a year. Some of them were darn hard, as I recall, and took many tries before I was sure I had bagged them! But it sure was fun.