Newly acquired Tak FS128

[Joves]

Hi all,

Haven't posted for awhile, but am excited to announce the arrival of a new addition to the family this afternoon. Whilst my wife is pregnant again, that new little addition won't be here until around November. Of course, I'm very excited about that as well, but this new member of the family is likely to keep me up at night in a much quieter fashion. This newbie is an absolutely immaculate (some might say mint) Takahashi FS128.

I've had my eye out for a good example of one of these for quite awhile, after having read a number of glowing reviews of them, but they seem to be getting harder and harder to find (particularly here in Australia where the astro community can only be described as minuscule). Boy I seem to have hit the jackpot with this one. It is absolutely beautiful and looks like it is brand new. Oh, and man oh man, is it BIG. Much bigger than I initially anticipated. Makes the NP127 seem more like a TV85 :S

Can't wait to get it mounted and out under clear skies. If only these clouds would disappear. Oh, and the wife... If only she would head to bed. I'm wondering how the heck I'm going to get this one inside with her noticing. Looks NOTHING like a Televue!!

[mikeDnight]

Fantastic!

I bought a FS 128 back in march 2003, when I opened the box I thought they'd sent me a 152 by mistake. It cost me £3,850.00, which was the most I'd ever spent in one go for a scope, but what a fantastic scope it turned out to be. In my view it was the best of the FS series. Sadly I let it go in a part exchange deal for a FS 152, which needed atleast a G11 to mount it. Consequently, it began to put me off using it. Today I use another incredible Takahashi fluorite apo, the new FC 100D, which is a terrific planetary performer and very contrasty.

With that beautiful FS 128 I made an intense study of Mars during the 2003 apparition. The scope outperformed everything it was ever pitted against in respect of contrast and definition and I really mean everything! Larger aperture scopes fell by the wayside, and even today with the abundance of totally colour free triplets, the FS 128 still comes out on top with regard to contrast and definition.

Never let it go, its one of the greatest telescopes ever produced.

Mike :-)

[Joves]

Thanks for such a great, positive reply Mike. Makes me even keener to get it out for its first light (with my eyes, of course). It sure is a monster of a thing. I can only imagine the relative size of the FS152.

I've heard great things about these scopes and have read many peoples thoughts that they are up there with one of the nicer visual instruments produced. I've never looked through a Takahashi scope before, so it'll be nice to do it with this one.

Your sketch of the 2003 Mars apparition is amazing.

Glad to hear you're enjoying your FC100D. Had this not come up, I was entertaining an FC series scope. Disregarding the difference in aperture, which I understand is difficult to do, how would you say it's performance is compared to the FS series of scopes?

Thanks again for your response Mike!

[John]

Fanatastic Joves - a dream scope for most of us

Will it compliment the TV NP127 or is it a potential replacement ?

[Scott]

Jealeous? me? never . I guess we'll have to wait for mrs Jove to go to bed before we see the baby pics . Get it out west to some dark skies 

[mikeDnight]

Hi Joves.

You're in for a real treat!

On a really steady night the Takahashi will give you X100 per inch of aperture. I remember having a competition with a friend, who at the time was using a similar aperture TMB triplet. We pushed the magnification well over the top just to see what the breaking point would be. The Takahashi's star image remained essentially perfect at around X2,800.00. The TMB reached around X1,700. I have to confess though that the reason for the TMB only reaching X1,700 is that my friends eyepiece collection ran out of steam. He begged me to lend him mine but I wouldn't. He he! I won! :-)

The contrast in the Tak FS 128 is legendary, as are all their fluorite doublets. Takahashi have returned to using true fluorite for that very reason. The first view I had through the new FC 100 was a real stunning moment for me. Its contrast is outstanding. My friend who I mentioned earlier and who has over 45 years observing experience said, it was the only scope that had ever truly WOWED him on his first look through it.

I think you should get one to use as a grab and go scope. I'm sure your wife will eventually come back to you. :-)

I'd like to be a fly on the wall when your good lady gets her first look at the FS 128. He he!

Mike

[dweller25]

Congratulations Jove, welcome to the club ....... pictures please or it did not happen

[alan potts]

Joves,

Your collection of very fine scopes just got finer, never seen one but I have never read any bad about anything beginning with 'T'apart from cost, many congratulations for a green faced      A lan.

[Joves]

Fanatastic Joves - a dream scope for most of us

Will it compliment the TV NP127 or is it a potential replacement ?

Thanks John. I've been keeping an eye out for one of these for a long while now. Am very happy to have found one in such amazing condition. It has clearly been loved by its previous owner/s. Obviously, the true test will be through the eyepiece though. The past two owners have raved about its condition and views, so I'm expecting/anticipating it will be as nice "on the inside" as it is on the out.

Good question regarding the NP127. I really haven't given the poor thing the chance it deserves. It absolutely needs re collimating, and possibly a new objective lense (possibly not, but I'd rather not have marks on mine, even if they don't impact the view), so I'm feeling as though it is only fair to send it off for an upgrade. It's clearly a magnificent scope. The couple of brief looks I've taken through it have been amazing, even though the stars it throws out have slight tails on them, as silly as that sounds. Aside from the objective marks and collimation issue, it is also an immaculately maintained scope. I can't help but think that with a new (and collimated) objective, plus an upgrade from 6:1 to 10:1 focusser, it will be the pride of the bunch. I need to get my Binovue collimated as well, so I'm thinking I might as well ship them both off together and look forward to receiving back a "good as new" NP127. I'm a fan of widefield TV views, so I'm pretty sure the Tak will be a companion and not a replacement. I'm certain of it, actually.

[Joves]

Jealeous? me? never . I guess we'll have to wait for mrs Jove to go to bed before we see the baby pics . Get it out west to some dark skies

Haha... Scott, my wife went to bed. She woke up (thankfully ), got ready for work and took off as the nanny arrived. Purposefully taking my time getting ready for work myself, I took this as the perfect opportunity to get the scope out of the car and take it inside to look for its hiding place (kidding about hiding place, but no need to have it sitting there like a new feature of the home when she got back). Well, I needn't have been so crafty. Upon getting it inside, it became pretty obvious there was nowhere to hide it. The thing is HUGE. So it sat in its case on the dining table, just waiting for her. This afternoon, the anticipated text arrived within minutes of me expecting it to... "Is that a new telescope???xxx". The question marks concerned me but the kisses reassured me... Confusing response

Anyhow, as expected, all was fine... I have a great wife!!

Good news regarding the size of the scope is... It's surprisingly light when lifted out of its case. Hardly what one would call grab and go, but certainly manageable!

[Joves]

Hi Joves.

You're in for a real treat!

On a really steady night the Takahashi will give you X100 per inch of aperture. I remember having a competition with a friend, who at the time was using a similar aperture TMB triplet. We pushed the magnification well over the top just to see what the breaking point would be. The Takahashi's star image remained essentially perfect at around X2,800.00. The TMB reached around X1,700. I have to confess though that the reason for the TMB only reaching X1,700 is that my friends eyepiece collection ran out of steam. He begged me to lend him mine but I wouldn't. He he! I won! :-)

The contrast in the Tak FS 128 is legendary, as are all their fluorite doublets. Takahashi have returned to using true fluorite for that very reason. The first view I had through the new FC 100 was a real stunning moment for me. Its contrast is outstanding. My friend who I mentioned earlier and who has over 45 years observing experience said, it was the only scope that had ever truly WOWED him on his first look through it.

I think you should get one to use as a grab and go scope. I'm sure your wife will eventually come back to you. :-)

I'd like to be a fly on the wall when your good lady gets her first look at the FS 128. He he!

Mike

Mike, your description of your experiences with your past FS128 make me feel a whole lot less guilty for purchasing this one. Cheers mate!!

Your competition (and methods for winning it) with your mate is classic. I take it you have a slight competitive streak?! Haha

My good lady was actually fine, funnily enough. She's only seen the case so far though. I reckon she'll be somewhat wide-eyed when she sees the actual scope. I know I was

[Joves]

Congratulations Jove, welcome to the club ....... pictures please or it did not happen

Thanks David.

This isn't much of a picture, but I'm pleased to say that it did actually happen!

[Joves]

Joves,

Your collection of very fine scopes just got finer, never seen one but I have never read any bad about anything beginning with 'T'apart from cost, many congratulations for a green faced A lan.

Cheers Alan.

You're right about the "collection" part. I look forward to the day when I find myself living under nice enough skies to warrant owning them. Until then, I'll have to be satisfied with the occasional peek at/through them. I assure you, they will be put to the proper use they deserve someday though!

Having never owned a Tak, yet having a growing family of Televue's, I've always just preferred the look of TV over Tak. This might possibly sway me on that... The FS looks almost good enough to eat!

I do love my TV's though. The TV102 I've recently purchased is also a beautiful looking scope. I'm looking forward to setting it up alongside the FS128 and comparing their slightly longer FL, contrasty doublet views!

[alan potts]

Joves,

I know just what you mean about looks, I am sure that Tak scope are as good as if not better than most on the market but they don't do it for me in the looks department, I know it's is silly but I like a scope to look good to me,. Having said that I would be happy with a Tak and wear dark glasses.

Alan

[JamesF]

It has to be said, Tak kit does look like it was manufactured for the NHS...

James

[Joves]

I hear you loud and clear Alan. I like a scope to look good to me as well, particularly a refractor. Personally, I think my PST is the exception to this rule. I find it to be about as ugly as a scope can get, but I love that little blighter.

As for the FS128... In the flesh, it's an absolute beauty. I've always thought Tak's looked really basic and, dare I say it, a little cheap... That was until I saw this in person. It really does look quite lovely!

[alan potts]

I don't see much chance of seeing one in the flesh, all I ever see are pictures. There have been a few of these really top draw scopes on the S/H market in the last few months, AP TEC,Takahashi as well as a couple of APM Lzos's, all hold good money in the S/H market. I guess the market is small as even the cheapest are around 3000 Pounds and one AP 155mm was nearer 7000. There is something about a refractor and for the life of me I don't know what it is, I would like a 6 inch but it will be something like a Sky-Watcher Espirit as I would not like to imagine how much one of the best costs, divorce could be less.

Alan

[Joves]

I know what you mean, Alan. It wasn't that long ago I was looking for the first time through a newly purchased TV76 and I've been a little hooked on refractors ever since. The image is just so crisp!

I think a 6" would be fantastic (dare I say, pinnacle) but I just don't think I could come to grips with the size. Who know, soon the 5" will probably seem "average" and the 6" a natural progression?! John's Istar images do kinda frighten me though, I must admit!

The holding value of decent refractors do seem to make them a little easier to stomach purchasing though. This particular scope has been purchased for the same price I paid by its two previous owners (I've seen it sell each time) so it seems a fairly safe bet if, for some reason, I decide it's not for me. I can't see that being the case though. I'm not very good at letting go of equipment. Haven't sold anything to date!

[mikeDnight]

I think people either love the Tak look or loath it. Takahashi have retained their classic looking refractor style despite the competition trying to dictate a more modern slant, with go faster stripes, lots of shiny bits, unnecessarily butch CNC everything, egg timers and rectal thermometers.

I really love the simplicity of Takahashi engineering including their beautiful, buttery smooth, yet strong rack and pinion focusers.

Joves wife obviously loves Takahashi as hes been allowed to live, for now at least.

Its amazing just how wonderful and understanding wives really are.

In January 2003 I got my first look through a Vixen 102mm fluorite apo. That little scope whopped everything on the field in regard to its razor sharp planetary images and there were some big scopes pitted against it, and I wanted one.

At the time the Vixen 4" fluorite cost £2220.00 including GP mount. I worked like crazy to get the money and after three months I had it.

I thought I could have bought one off the shelf but there were none available. The sole UK importer couldn't garauntee I'd get one for several months and I wasn't willing to wait.

I phoned Nick Hudson at True Technology, who at the time was the sole importer of Takahashi. What a lovely chap Nick is! He said "I'm sorry Mike, I don't have any 4" in stock but they will be here in about four weeks." He must have been able to sense my disappointment because he then added "I do have a 5" in stock though!" I turned to my wonderful wife and told her what Nick had said. I put on my most pathetic look and told her the price of the 5". It must have been a really pathetic look because she agreed to me buying the FS 128 at £3,850.00.

After that came a mount that could carry the scope, then the high end eyepieces, the list goes on as do the pathetic looks. Wives can be great!

Mike :-)

[John]

The most I've spent on a scope is £800 and I can't see that changing in the forseeable future so Taks and Tele Vue fracs are out of my reach unfortunately.

It's nice seeing photos of them and hearing of other folks experiences with them though, just in case a windfall occurs

It would be interesting to see how close my Skywatcher ED120 would run against one of these "exotics". I guess the differences would come as the power went on with the figure of the better quality objective enabling the image to hold it's form for longer.

[ollypenrice]

It has to be said, Tak kit does look like it was manufactured for the NHS...

James

...which is fine by me. The perfect antidote to William Optics! I love that unstyled look of Tak scopes, though it probably takes ten stylists working flat out to produce it. (To quote J K Galbraith, It is somewhere around the fifteenth re-draft that I introduce that element of sponanaity for which my writing has been praised...)

Olly

[JamesF]

It's purely the choice of colours that creates that association, Olly.  It's so redolent of 70s hospitals and dental surgeries

James

[mikeDnight]

It would be interesting to see how close my Skywatcher ED120 would run against one of these "exotics". I guess the differences would come as the power went on with the figure of the better quality objective enabling the image to hold it's form for longer.

They perform remarkably well John. The ED 120s in whatever model you buy them are outstanding value for money and their optical performance is really up there with some of the best. Where they would differ in comparison with a scope such as a Takahashi FS128, and ignoring the superior Tak engineering, would be in the high level of optical finish to the Takahashi. The Taks optics are outstanding. Diffraction rings are essentially identical both sides of focus, showing no zonal errors or spherical aberration. This enables the Tak scopes to soak up magnification well beyond normal expectations, given good seeing conditions of course.

I've owned three ED 120s over the years and have seen some incredible sights through them. I honestly think they are looked down on because they are so cheap, relatively speaking. Stick another one and a half grand on their current price tag and they'd be worshiped like gods. Anyone who has an SW ED of any aperture has a superb instrument in their possession. Coupled with good quality eyepieces they can really perform.

Mike :-)

[Rainmaker]

Hi Aaron,

Congratulations on acquiring such a beautiful Takahashi, I did tell you it was immaculate, did I not !!!  I wish you many clear skies with it.

I am sure you will love it, when I owned it I spent many hours with it just cruising the sky.  The lunar views it will show you are beyond belief.

Look forward to reading your posts once you have had some time under the stars, as I said, I would have bought it in an instant were it not for my TOA130S.

Regards,

Matt

[Rainmaker]

Here is pic for you Aaron till you get a chance to take more.......  ( you won't be able to hide from your dearly beloved for very long !!!)