moonsafari

Behold. Thank you all very much for your help. It’s been truly appreciated.

The postman brought me a few more goodies this morning 🤩

12 hours ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

I haven’t taken to Barlows either - just as an option, what about some of the Tak TOE eyepieces (I’d LOVE one - and you were looking for ingenious ways to spend money 😂) or I do have the TeleVue 3-6mm Zoom which is fantastic. 
I haven’t tried the Tak extender Q which sounds very interesting.

Really looking forward to hearing how you get on with all this amazing equipment!

Edit: ooh just reading back on all the great advice you’ve received - definitely some stuff to file away for the future!

Yeah, everyone has been amazing. Lots of great info on this thread that I was never expecting. Big ups to @badhex for introducing me to this forum!

12 hours ago, MalcolmM said:

I remember saying that ... about 15 eyepieces ago

My partner is also convinced Takahashi scopes breed

Malcolm 

I feel you. I already feel the slippery slope and I haven't even got my tripod yet.

Okay, I'm done now. I've ordered the Tak TOE 4mm to start off with.

Can't wait to show you all the final setup. Appreciate everyone's time, guidance, wisdom and assistance! You've all been absolute legends. Thank you.

2 hours ago, Stu said:

You are certainly leaving a lot of power on the table with x74 as your max. The scope will cope with x200 and more on good nights, but as a starter I would make sure I had x150 and x180 covered as they will be useable quite frequently. 

Adding the Tak extender (which is x1.6 I believe) would give you x118 with the 10mm. I would probably aim for something around 4 or 5mm. A 5mm XW would give you x148 and say a 4mm TOE would be x185, great for Jupiter and Saturn. You will find that us planetary junkies tend to stack the focal lengths in at the shorter end so you have plenty of options to match the seeing.

Thinking about it, another option at the moment might be a x2.5 Powermate. These are optically excellent and would give you x185 with the 10mm and x92.5 with the 20mm. If you added a 7mm XW you would then have x105 and x264 which would be useful for close doubles on good nights.

So, either a 5mm XW and 4mm TOE or a 7mm XW and x2.5 Powermate.

These are just suggestions obviously, but some food for thought amongst the other ideas.

Just now, Stu said:

Should be an awesome setup when you’ve got everything 👍

So excited and pumped! I ended up getting the Nexus II as well, so I'm in for some super fun times ahead.

Thanks, everyone. This is all super helpful!

I ordered the AZ75 and Uni 28 today as well.

1 hour ago, Stu said:

You are certainly leaving a lot of power on the table with x74 as your max. The scope will cope with x200 and more on good nights, but as a starter I would make sure I had x150 and x180 covered as they will be useable quite frequently. 

Adding the Tak extender (which is x1.6 I believe) would give you x118 with the 10mm. I would probably aim for something around 4 or 5mm. A 5mm XW would give you x148 and say a 4mm TOE would be x185, great for Jupiter and Saturn. You will find that us planetary junkies tend to stack the focal lengths in at the shorter end so you have plenty of options to match the seeing.

Thinking about it, another option at the moment might be a x2.5 Powermate. These are optically excellent and would give you x185 with the 10mm and x92.5 with the 20mm. If you added a 7mm XW you would then have x105 and x264 which would be useful for close doubles on good nights.

So, either a 5mm XW and 4mm TOE or a 7mm XW and x2.5 Powermate.

These are just suggestions obviously, but some food for thought amongst the other ideas.

This is awesome. Thanks so much, Stu.

@Nicola Fletcher@SthBohemia@Stu@dweller25@badhex@HollyHound@MalcolmM @JeremyS@BGazing

Hey all,

Given that I'm starting off with the following rig, does anyone have any recommendations in regards to a Barlow or the Tak extender for my FC-100DF, or would it be worthwhile just adding one more high powered eyepiece to my rig below?

– 1.25" Tak prism diagonal
– Pentax XW 10mm and 20mm
– TeleVue Nagler 13mm Type 6
– 1.25" Celestron variable polarising filter

Thanks so much, you've all been incredibly helpful. Still waiting to finalise my tripod and mount setup this week, but was able to grab a sneaky look at Jupiter last night!

2 hours ago, Stu said:

It comes down to choices/preferences on cost, weight, portability and Slo Mo functionality. The AZ75 is cheaper, lighter, easier to transport and setup, and will cope with the Tak FC100DC with no problems at all even without a counterweight. It can be fitted with encoders and the handle, all it lacks are the Slo Mos. You pays your money and you takes your choice as they say. I found it a joy to use, having been used to a Giro Ercole it’s a major step up in engineering and smoothness, particularly when unbalanced horizontally. The Ercole gets quite a bit stickier in these circumstances but the AZ75 carries on as smoothly as ever.

Thanks so much, Stu. 

I've had a chat with Dave at Rowan today, who has been in touch with Berlebach about there being an AZ75 option for their tripods. Dave thinks it should be on the website this week.

Once this is confirmed, I've decided that I'm going to start off with the AZ75 with the Nexus II and the handle.

The postman arrived with a couple goodies today as well.. Slowly coming together! 

6 hours ago, badhex said:

The serious answer though is that yes, only you can really answer this after living with the setup for a while. The setup you're thinking of are good choices for your needs, and many people have similar setups which they are incredibly happy with - so it's going to eventually come down to personal preference which you can only figure out with some time and experience of the setup. 

One of the things we all find at some point on our astronomy journey is a certain purchase may or may not work out to be perfect for what you need but it's often difficult to know in advance, so if you're reasonably sure it's right, you just have to try it and see. Good luck! 

Thanks for this, Joe. Helpful advice.

37 minutes ago, moonsafari said:

So, off the back of all of this, and given I’m pretty hot on the Rowan mount and don’t want to open another slo-mo can of worms, is the AZ75 with a handle and encoders sufficient for my rig?

🙏 @moonsafari Only you can answer that question 🙏

So, off the back of all of this, and given I’m pretty hot on the Rowan mount and don’t want to open another slo-mo can of worms, is the AZ75 with a handle and encoders sufficient for my rig?

35 minutes ago, josefk said:

I'm afraid on that one i don't. I have the az100 with slo mo. If I were to get the az75 I would definitely get the handle which combined with the smoothness of the head I imagine would be fine substitute.

That was going to be my game plan. Can anyone else verify that this would suffice? 🙏

14 minutes ago, josefk said:

Hi @moonsafari. i would also vote for encoders fitted from new. I have 'Push To' aligned and running for every session but it doesn't mean i use it for every target. It is nice to find stuff manually sometimes and a lot of stuff hardly even needs "finding" BUT when time under a clear dark sky is precious and/or you're looking for something really faint it's a nice tool to have to hand - if you can't see it and you know you're bang on target then "you can't see it". You're not "lost" 🙂.  Cheers

 

Love it, thank you. I’m sold.

Do you know if the slow motion controls are a big trade-off with the AZ75?

11 hours ago, BGazing said:

Taks are awesome, go for DF or DZ unless you want to shell more on a focuser (these days Feathertouch focusers are a long wait).

Uni 18 Berlebach tripod, you can put it on some simple Altaz and at the same time SW AzGti will handle it well.

4inch Tak is a keeper.

Already detonated with the Tak, see above 😉

9 minutes ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

Enjoy every minute with that beautiful scope @moonsafari!

Thanks, Nicola!

49 minutes ago, Alan White said:

On the AZ75 perhaps a comment from me, I was one of the preproduction testers and do not work for or have any financial interest in Rowan Astronomy or Engineering.

The AZ75 with encoders works very well with a Nexus DSC or Nexus I unit, I have used tether DSC and found it very easy to use, I use a 103mm refractor, but a Vixen one. 
The mount sits well on a tripod, but I presently use a 75 on a pier for convenience of setting up.

Alignment needs two known stars and it’s simple to do, must be for me to do it.

The mount would very much suit the Tak scope, the other tester @Stu has a Tak scope or two, he may chip in soon.

AZ75=had two threads running while in testing, one by myself and one by Stu.

 

Thanks for this, Alan. I've been reading the threads. Will most likely detonate once I've connected with @Stu. Cheers, Josh

1 hour ago, HollyHound said:

Excellent choice, and those items will more than get you going 😀

There shouldn't be any "alignment" on the mount to the tripod, as an alt/az mount. If you have the budget I would get the encoders, as it will give you the option to fit a Nexus or similar later, without having to send the mount back... admittedly, although I had mine fitted with encoders, I haven't (yet) got round to fitting a Nexus, but will do soon 🤔

Good suggestion re the encoders, I think I'll probably go this way.

Where I'm a bit confused is the following from Dave at Rowan:

The Berlebach tripod heads for the AZ100 have a shallow recess about 5mm deep and 65mm diameter.  The base of the AZ100 mount has a matching spiggot which fits in the recess which automatically aligns the mount thread with the tripod bolt.
 
However the base of the AZ75 is flat meaning there is less engagement of the thread in to the base of the AZ75 by about 5mm when fitting to the Berlebach AZ100 tripod.
This leaves the thread engagement in the mount a little short for comfort.
 
So for the AZ75 to fit on a Berlebach AZ100 tripod it would need a longer thread bolt in the tripod.  Then you get the aligning facility of the recess in the tripod.
 
So the 3/8” DM6 option will be fine if you think aligning the mount to the tripod thread won’t be an issue.

I'm just wanting to know if anyone has run into this issue before and if they've used a longer thread to make this combination work.

Look what just arrived today! Thanks for your help, @Nicola Fletcher, @SthBohemia, @Stu, @dweller25, @badhex, @HollyHound, @MalcolmM and @JeremyS!

I've ordered the following:
– 1.25" Tak prism diagonal
– Pentax XW 10mm and 20mm
– TeleVue Nagler 13mm Type 6
– 7" ADM vixen-type dovetail bar
– 1.25" Celestron variable polarising filter

Just need to finalise the tripod and mount setup. Pretty keen on the Berlebach UNI 28 and Rowan AZ75 mount. Just wondering if anyone has had any experience aligning the mount to the tripod and if anyone has used the encoders with the AZ75. Wondering if it's worthwhile spending the extra dosh.. 

I just placed an order for the DF! Thanks for your help, everyone.

Now, on to the accessories..

Has anyone had any success with this tripod and mount?

https://www.stellarvue.com/4-m002cw-complete-mount-system-wooden-tripod/

21 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

I've had both and there is very little to choose between them. I'm neither experienced enough (yet) as an observer, or had a night of good enough seeing, to see the real difference 🤔

I prefer my DZ more for it's ergonomics, in that it has a retractable dewshield and an (arguably) better focuser (certainly longer travel at least). I think, for me, there is some comfort in knowing that it represents the pinnacle of what is possible in the 100mm Tak doublet scopes 😀

There is a great review here, which highlights the slight improvements... http://scopeviews.co.uk/TakFC-100DZ.htm

The main issue will be availability... there is a massive lead time for the DZ and even the DC or DF can be tricky to get hold of. I delayed getting my DZ and then it went out of stock, and not sure it's ever come back in to stock here in the UK. Fortunately I was able to get a superb used example... in fact mine is the very same exact one, that is in that review, by cheer random chance 😁

Thanks for all of this! Yep, I read that review a couple weeks ago when I started doing my research. I also reached out to Justin who runs this blog and has recently acquired the DZ as well.

I think there's about a four month wait for the DZ at the moment..

Love that you ended up with the scope from the review, that's hilarious..

10 minutes ago, badhex said:

We had an 8mm eyepiece in so about 54x. As you saw the conditions weren't great but it was just possible to start discerning a little bit of detail. Had the sky been clear you'd have been able to see quite a lot more even at that low power. (Focal length of the scope / focal length of the EP = magnifications: 430mm / 8mm = 53.75x)

Okay, good to know. Thanks!