Takahashi FS152 back from MoonRaker Telescopes

[lardy]

And Very Very pleased with the results

I brought this Tak about 6 months ago, a thorough inspection once home highlighted several problems that would require some work.

The legendary Tak focuser wasn't that legendary, It had some slop and on further investigation i found the rack had been rubbing on the body causing movement and a nice pile of Aluminium shavings in the focuser and OTA, while the focuser was off I noticed one of the baffles was out of true, and jammed.

More worrying was the Tak rings only had 2 out of 4 good threads on the plate mounting bolts, the spacing for the mounting bolts was different to the large ADM Dovetail plates that i use  and one of the hinge pins was sheared off. 

John @ Jtechdesign did a fantastic job of recovering the holes, my brief was to keep the Rings original which ruled out wield filling of the damaged holes due to the heat which would ruin the  Tak dimpled finish. John machined holes and inserted threaded plugs which were glued and pinned, then re-drilled and threaded these plugs to the same  measurements as the ADM plate.

Cheaper than buying new CNC rings and a LOT cheaper than new Tak rings ($700 plus and import tax)

John is an Excellent machinist and for bespoke parts and repairs is very handy to know. 

Once the Rings were repaired I brought an adapter from Starlightinsturments and using my focuser from my APM gave the Tak an outing ... and spent the night mooching through the veil nebula. The Tak is a very impressive scope, I have yet to do a side by side comparison against my APM but I really think it will give it a good run for its money and that Fluorite doublet just does not scatter light .

Deciding that there is room for two large Fracs, it became a "keeper" and the other issues would be sorted and some hard earned cash spent.

The pervious owner had had the tube sprayed but not the dew shield due to the unobtainable logo sticker ... there were a few chips,marks and scratches on the OTA, the baffling was a more grey black and coupled with the unmovable twisted baffle I contacted Mark at Moonraker, we discussed my requirements and I drove a 450 mile round trip to deliver the tube 6 weeks ago.

The old logo was teased off the dew shield and taken to a printer who does van graphics (he owed me a favour) and 5 new logos were printed to the exact specs as the Tak.

A new 3.5 focuser was ordered from Starlight.

Well yesterday I drove 450 miles again to pick up My Tak tube ... the tube and dew shield have been enamelled and baked by a company who specialise in Show motorcycles, the finish is superb 

Mark removed the baffles, painted and replaced .. flocking between each baffle as they were inserted (he relished telling me how a lump hammer and jig tool was used to remove and replace the baffles).

Mark is a true Artisan at what he does and having met him twice now, a thoroughly nice person. I am so glad I approached him to work on my Tak   

It's still sat on my coffee table .. and likely to remain there all day so I can just look at it, just need a quick clean of the objective to remove the dust bunnies and its all ready for its next outing ... Jupiter

[John]

It looks superb now - what a fantastic scope and well worth sorting out these issues to bring it back to excellent order again

[lardy]

It deserved it John, 1 of 10 in the UK, or so I have been told.  

[alan potts]

Beautiful scope and as said nice to see it back at it's best, I hope it has not come back with extra clouds. I am beginning to think there is something in this new gear bad weather lark, I bought a mount and paid for a scope and have not see the sun, stars or anything else since .

[Dude_with_the_tube]

absolutely beautiful scope mate! Despite me owning  Vixen 150Ed i always fancied a Takahashi and FS152 is my dream scope to have.maybe some day i will have it.

Enjoy the views and may skies be clear for you

[ollypenrice]

So nice! (The scope and the project.)

Olly

[F15Rules]

Fabulous job Lardy. I've just dealt with Mark for the second time and he's revamped my D&G 5" F15 tube for me..( I'll do a post on it soon). Just excellent workmanship, reasonably priced, and a thoroughly nice bloke to deal with.

Dave