Chris

Congratulations Jeremy, you won't be disappointed

I wasn't knocking WO by the way, although I know some of their 'scope bling' isn't for everyone, and the dials are curious. Very nearly bought the WO61, planned it for ages then the Tak60 came up at a good price! I've always been pleased with the WO scopes I've owned in the past, Meg72 and WO66SD's mainly. Like you say great build and yours being fpl53 and a triplet must be stunning, I found their little doublets to be very good indeed, enjoy Yes, I concur with the difficulty balancing these mini fracs, light lens cell close to the mount, and heavy focuser, I think some folk wrap an ankle weight around the front like a lead dew strap.

I think the one on the scope is to aid in building up a darks library for different temps, but I have no idea why one would be needed on a diagonal?

Good point, I can't see squat at night currently either, not even the planets with houses, trees etc in the way. Maybe you can do a re match in the winter for more target choice?

"this should be interesting" Sure will be, Derek, looking forward to reading your thoughts on this one. I'm guessing it's going to depend heavily on the choice of target and the seeing conditions, but I'm sure it will be pretty close in places.

Good thought I'll try and get the calipers in to measure it later. Still not gone bed after my night shift, should probably do that first ?

Hmm, very tempting (strokes chin). Ok it's going on the wish list My only concern being the WO dielectric diagonal I use with my Tak. I've heard one account that it will vignette with super wides.

Stop it, Piero, You're making me want a Panoptic

I've just purchased a second hand Lunt 35 so will be checking the blocking filter when it arrives, now safe in the knowledge that Lunt will sort out any issue with it. Great post, and I'm pleased you got to the bottom of things and such a good result, well done to you and Lunt

Hi Mick, I've not long sent one of those diagonals back as it showed stars as a bright vertical line with a red dot either side, kind of like a division sign turned 90 degrees. This was with my Tak fs60 f/5.9. Great built and helical focuser but terrible image quality I found with my example at least.

Well, it's got to be better than the one I had...let us know how you get on.

Stunningly engineered focuser, Ray, enjoy!

Me too, I bought a WO prism, and despite the build and helical focuser being lovely I thought the prism was sadly terrible. Very strange star shapes at f/6 in the Tak, so I sent it back as possibly defective?

Ladies and gentlemen, Derek has arrived! Enjoy my friend, if my ickle Tak60 is anything to go by you're in for a treat

Nice! I'm considering getting a solar wedge for the Tak myself, but I did have one before and sold it, so might just pick one up if one appears second hand.

That's great Paul. I was very interested in this scope as well until I read this report, so will be very keen to hear your thoughts.

No it really doesn't does it, Stu. I very much look forward to hearing how Paul gets on with it, and hope the report is a sample from the wrong end of the bell curve so to speak. He can always send it back, and should if it's not fit for purpose, then we can help him out with which scope he should re-invest the dosh in. Lets hope it doesn't come to that though.

My fingers are crossed for you getting a particular good example, Paul. The optical test I linked suggests that an ST80 achro would be a better choice. I've just fully re-read the test and they say they struggled to achieve any kind of focus! I'm not even convinced that it will be ok for H-alpha, the test says not. I don't mean to be negative but I really don't want you to think that just because it says ED in the specs that it's a typical ED scope. I really rate Bresser, but have no idea what they were playing at with this scope? anyway, like I said, I really hope yours is much better than the test sample, Paul. Fingers crossed for you. There is no denying that it's a lovely looking scope though, and I hope you prove the optical test wrong

I'm a bit worried you're expecting ED glass performance, Paul, you might want to read the optical test below in order to manage expectation for general night time observing at least. http://interferometrie.blogspot.com/ I personally think they should have made it around f/7, then I'm sure it would have been roughly semi apo at a great price.

Only used it 3 times so far but I've been very impressed with the image it puts up for such a tiny scope. 2! are you going to make a bino-Tak?

What a great looking travel setup, and the views to match it's looks by the sounds of it. Wishing you many happy holidays with it, Jeremy

Lovely scopes AdeKing, and you certainly know the history of your scopes!

Thought I'd re show this now it's on a proper mount.

Takahashi FS60-CB aboard a Berlebach castor, sporting a Vixen HR 3.4mm ready for when the Moon or Jove make an appearance.