F15Rules

Just for the record, I made my tongue in cheek remark about sticking with fracs precisely due to my local seeing. We live at the bottom of a hill (in Lincolnshire!!🤦‍♂️😂), a hill which rises from the bottom, where we are, at just over 100 feet above sea level, to c 440 feet just a few hundred yards up the road. This may not sound much, but it does cause regular temperature inversions which often play havoc with seeing into the early hours, after which time it does steady down a bit. When we moved here I didn't know about this micro climate phenomenon, but was tempted by the Bortle 4 skies vs Bortle 5 back in the Midlands. In practice, since we lived here, this has definitely and regularly reduced my opportunities to observe in good seeing conditions. Lovely though our rural location is, knowing what I know now, if and when we move again, my first astro priority will be a level location, with good southern horizon and no very close by tall trees and conifers! I do agree that the Tak 180 Mewlon is a very interesting scope..it's light, compact, a nice aperture, and I just love the way the finder stalk doubles as a carrying handle (seriously, Jeremy!)..that feature alone speaks to superb, high precision engineering by Takahashi..👍 Dave

I have read all of the above with interest. I think I will stick with refractors.😉 Dave

Great report and a good read😊👍! I do like a good Mak..when properly collimated, they can rival an apo refractor for colour free, sharp images.. Dave

Thanks Jeremy, It will be good to keep a handle on the developing Mars Opposition😊.. Dave

In 2017 I was in the happy position, at the age of 61, to acquire my dream scope, an immaculate 1999 Takahashi FS128 Fluorite Apo complete with Takahashi equatorial mount, tripod and a few Tak accessories. It was to be my "lifetime scope", and my wife fully supported the purchase. I owned the setup for 7 years but in the last 2-3 years began to have to accept that my deteriorating eyesight would prevent me from getting the best from the FS128 going forward. Also, the FS128 is a large, bulky scope for it's aperture (although not too heavy), and with our poor climate for astro, I reluctantly decided to slightly downsize the scope but to keep the Tak mount. Here is where I think the point I want to make kicks in. When I sold the Tak in February, it was a 24 year old scope, albeit in superb condition. I had 3 firm offers to buy it at the asking price within 3 hours of offering it for sale: I managed to get back very close to what I paid for it in 2017, and with the proceeds I was able to buy a mint 1 year old Vixen SD115S apo (itself a superb scope), and a set of 6 high quality Vixen LVW eyepieces, with some change left over. So the Tak depreciated very little, and I doubt that any reflector would hold it's value in the same way (although the reflector would of course cost far less to begin with). I actually feel that your stated plan to end up with ED 80mm and120mm to 128mm refractors and an 8" reflector would give you an ideal spread of scopes that would cover all your needs for the rest of your observing life. On different objects and in different conditions, a 5" refractor and a 8" reflector can show a fantastic, wide range of objects really well, and are different enough to justify owning both if you are able to. I hope your future work and eye health circumstances allow you to achieve this. All I would say finally, is if/when the opportunity arises, seize it!..your eyesight will likely never be better than it is now, nor your physical strength for lugging equipment around. I have never regretted buying the Tak, and am fortunate to have found a worthy, if slightly less powerful replacement. Good luck with achieving your astro goals. Dave

..and there is a fantastic Vixen ED103swt apo refractor on the for sale forums right now! Right up there with Takahashi and a bargain at under £700.. Dave

That's an ingenious solution Mike!👍 I almost bought one of those finders some years back for just £85 I think it was.. but I couldn't figure out how I'd fit it to my FS128 at the time.. Great job. Dave

Cracking finder Mike, it should be a nice low power scope in its own right! I saw that for sale, it had an odd looking connection "stem"..how did you make it fit on your scope setup? Dave

Lovely mount Neal, and it looks great in the black painted version. What scope will you be mounting on it? I have a lovely old Vixen 80mm F15 (1200mm) focal length refractor which would have come on a mount like yours.. I don't have an SP mount at the moment but I am storing one long term for my son in law, so am using his, in the traditional Vixen "Hammerite Green"..and a Skywatcher EQ5 tripod.. Enjoy!👍 Dave

I'd look for a used Takahashi 1.25" prism or Baader T2 prism diagonal, both come up fairly often for c.£70 used. Both optically excellent, but the latter is more robustly built. HTH, Dave

You'll see, Tim!!😜🤣

Is that yours, Paul? Are you coming back to your senses, er, I mean, to the dark side of refractors?? It looks great, one of the few frac finishes other than white that I can stomach!😜🤣 Seriously, congratulations, and enjoy that lightweight beauty!👍 Dave

An entirely Logical response, Mr.Spock.. - thank you, and live long and prosper! 🖖🖖🖖

Thanks to my good friend Steve (@Saganite) (and Tim, @Franklinof course), my recently acquired Vixen LVW set is now complete.. The new to me 3.5mm will give me 254x in my Vixen SD115S, and with the 1.6x barlow, 406x. Here's the full set.. (L-R, back to front) - 3.5mm, 5mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm, 22mm, 42mm.. Plus decloaked 2" Axiom LX 23mm & 31mm 84 deg UWAs at bottom right.. Scope and Cyclops Eyepiece wise, I'm now done!! 😂 Dave

Of course, I was being tongue in cheek (being myself the owner of an Apo wich costs almost £3k new), but it does beg the question.. ...and it does also remind us that even the most humble, cheap scope available today is far superior to the tools that early astro explorers such as Galileo could dream of..we are very fortunate! If only we had their levels of dark skies!😊