Dave1

@mikeDnight thanks, in part the sketches you've done over the years with the various Takahashi's that you've owned did influence my decision to buy my Tak FS78. 3" class refractors are my favourite size of telescope, so it made sense to get a premium refractor in that class. I hope I don't get Takitis 😄 I'd love a 4" though. Waiting on my 95mm More Blue telescope tube rings to turn up from Flo, so that I can mount them to my EQ3-2 mount. Can't wait 🙂

This little beauty turned up the other day, Takahashi FS78.

Well this has landed today. My first Apochromatic telescope, Takahashi FS78. So I've finally joined club Takahashi ! I'd new it would happen! Can not wait to use it, of course it's raining here 😄

Yeah right, the weather has been very friendly for astronomy.

@wookie1965 I see, I only asked to see photo's so that I could see if the worm drive is a similar design as the EQ 3-2. Both the worm drives on the EQ 3-2 are external and can be adjusted without stripping the mount down at all. On the EQ 3-2 worm drives there is a little grub screw which is for fine adjusting backlash in combination with the 4 worm drive mounting screws. Only tighten the worm drives up as tight as necessary to get a smooth operation in combination with the little grub screw. There is a tendency for people to over tighten the worm drive mounting screws, again do these only as tight as needed for the worm drive to operate with the least amount of pressure and no backlash. The 4 Allen head worm drive mounting screws on my EQ 3-2 are only just tight, and I use the term tight loosely. Before I take my mount outside I will probably be getting Locktite 222 thread lock, to thread lock those 4 screws. One thing to also bear in mind, is that nearly every internal nut was over tightened from the factory, even the nuts that hold the DEC and RA axis together. I literally only did them just tight enough so there was no lateral up and down movement along there respective axis, this made a huge difference to the performance of the mount. The lube Skywatcher uses, its the stickiest lube I've ever across, its utter crap. I hope Skywatcher has updated the lube it uses in its mount from the Skyscan era. Have you told the company that did the work for you? I see you have motors. Would going from target 1 to target 2 then back to target 1 be a tracking error on part of the software rather than hardware issue? Have you checked all you settings in the software?

Hi Wookie, Haha, could you me close up photo's of the worm drives on both axis? @wookie1965 Dave

So today I continued with this project. My Nema 14 motors turned up last week, which was surprisingly quick considering they came all the way from China. About a week ago, I had a quick observing session, to test the mount as well as observe what I could, seeing was bad. The EQ3-2 did have a bit of backlash, which is normal for EQ3-2 built by Synta ( Skywatcher ), I've owned three EQ 3-2 mounts, one Skywatcher branded the other two Skyscan 2001. The Skywatcher mount I bought new. The Two Skyscan I bought secondhand. So today I stripped, cleaned, and regreased the mount. I also adjusted the worm drives for backlash adjustment. On both axis I now have zero backlash. So in all its all going very well. Next to do in the project is sort the motor mounts out.

Yep I've only had one chance to observe since this thread was started, with my new mount so that I could even observe at all ! I expect when I actually remember that I have a Carl Zeiss Jena Ortho 10mm, that it will probably become one of my favs.

At the moment my most used eyepieces are my Carl Zeiss Jena 16mm and 25mm Huygens. Followed by my Brandon 8mm.

Well this thread is long over due an update. The declination axis as photo'd above in my previous post works and should work very well, it just a bit unsightly. The RA axis shaft isn't quite long enough to mirror the DEC axis in exact setup, as I need to fit an extra thrust bearing and need to get an adjustable clutch pressure screw collar made like on the declination axis. I could of course use wavy disc springs which could save considerable space, if it works? Another option is to research the Fullerscopes MKIV deluxe mount worm gears and clutches. I sort of started down this road today, to see if my Beacon Hill worm gears are big enough.

5 not including the Tal 125 Apo, and all of them bought secondhand. I suspect some of them may of been mis-collimated even if the previous owner told me it was collimated, I had no way of checking before taking them home. But I can be extremely fussy when it comes to collimation.

@John I think you may of hit the nail on the head there, I think over long journey's down rough roads, or rough handing. Refractors do come out of alignment. I know nearly every refractor I've had I've had to collimate the lens. The Skywatcher ED150 weren't the only 6" class ED doublet to suffer in early period of production, the LUNT / APM 152mm ED Doublet suffered similar issues in early production models.

Yes most of the details you've raised in this thread were detailed in your review and on other threads. Like I said John, I have read your review and every review going. The first example you received is the only one in the world to have been reported as being oval in shape, its also the only one to have been received with a broken lens, I doubt that it left the factory like that, as hard as that is to believe. I do think you where very unlucky in that regard, but it is not representative of Tal products in general. The reason Tal product disappeared from this shore is because the Chinese upped there quality of there optics and QC, that is a remark I was given directly from a retailer when I was thinking of buying one of the last brand new Tal 100 RS in stock in this country, that and the Chinese were doing it at a price Tal could not compete with if all of Tal designs are taken into consideration. Tal like all other Russian manufacturers were asked by the Russian military to make optics under contract, like Intes- Micro. Although Tal and Intes Micro always did make optics for the military, the amateur astronomy aspect of the business was only secondary.

I think its worth bearing in mind that every manufacture turns out lemon's every now and again, just that some manufacturers turn out less lemons than others. I once bought a brand new Skywatcher Skymax 180 Pro brand new, I put it on the mount and the finder had this weird issue where it appear if viewing the star that there was constant vibration, so I returned it to the merchant I bought it from. That merchant tested the finder and found the same issue I had reported and had no quibble in giving me a full refund, he also said he had never encountered such a weird issue before. The Tal 125 Apolar I've bought comes in its original wooden coffin, with Tal diagonal, and finderscope. I'm hoping by now that if there was any issue(s) then it would of been sorted, since it's been quite awhile since they were made. I'm not to worried as the place I've bought it from is an optics shop, that does offer returns.

More than you would think, if you think outside of the UK. Just didn't really seem to catch on in the UK or USA. The thing to bear in mind is the Apolar was more or less the same price as the Skywatcher ED120 on launch £1499. In the likes of Russia the Skywatcher ED120 was nearly twice the price of the Tal 125 Apolar in the beginning. The 148 page thread, which is still on going, on the Russian forum, has quite a few people that does/has owned a Tal 125 Apolar. Although there is quite a lot of bickering on it.

@Alan White yes I do quirky or tend toward old school in most area's of my life really. @wookie1965 I've always read how good the Tal100RS is, not had my hands on one. Might do one day. Yes I Always take a slow approach. @R26 oldtimer There was more than one on Astroboot back then. There was atleast two. Two of them ended up in Denmark. One of which needed quite a lot of work to bring the lens into alignment. I most of the folks that own Tal 125 Apolar tend to hang onto them. So they must be good performers. Depending on who you listen to, some say there is no chromatic aberration, some say little, some say these are equal to chinese ED doublets, others say the Tal 125 Apolar is just behind Lzos.

This is the Tal instructions for this telescope translated by google. The attachment is of the actual Russian instructions with photo's. The photo's will need to be used or the instruction wont make any sense. The front lens can be adjusted for both tilt and lateral movement according to Tal's instructions. As for the rear lens, that is dealt with by adjusting the focuser. The middle element is not really meant to be adjusted, I've only ever read of that needing touching once. That was because I think the lens had tilted in transport from the UK to Denmark. I will be making a folder and saving all the instructions I've found online to peoples solutions, just in case I do have any issues. The design of the telescope ensures the safety of the factory alignment during the entire period of operation, subject to the rules of operation. In the event of accidental clearance, it may be necessary to additionally adjust the telescope. Clearance in TAL-125-5ARO can be of two types: - Transverse chromatism (coloring the image of a star in the center of the field of view on one side of the blue on the other side of the red color); - Coma (an image of a star in the form of a "comet"). All alignment operations are performed when observed in an eyepiece with a focus of not more than 8 mm (without a diagonal mirror). To begin alignment, remove the blend by loosening the two screws 1, remove the base of the lens hood by unscrewing the screws 2 and, loosening the locking screw 3, rotate the engraved part 8 for a quarter of a turn counter clockwise on the side of the lens. Transverse chromatism is eliminated by three screws 4 arranged at an angle of 120° to each other, while weakening the lock nuts 7. Slide the lens with these screws towards the red color along the direction of the spectrum. In the figure, the lens must be moved upwards. The coma in the image of the star is eliminated by tilting the lens with bolts 5 and nuts 6 (a key with a throat size of 7). Counter nuts 7 should be removed. Deflect the frame of the lens in the direction of the pipe from the side of the "tail" of the coma, or approach the pipe from the side of the "core" of the coma. In the figure, the top of the lens frame must be deflected from the pipe, or the bottom should be brought closer to the pipe. After alignment, rotate the engraved part 8 clockwise to a stop, wrap the locking screw 3 and tighten the lock nuts 6 and 7. Check the image quality. Alignment requires some experience and qualifications. Tal 125 Apolar.doc

I've always been of the mind set of have a go and if I don't succeed the first time try try again.

Yep it's a great club that transferred to IO when yahoo groups ceased to exist. So great material there, I think folk would be surprised what can be observed through a 60mm. @JeremyS

Hi Seb, One site which is dark, which I've used before, met up with other astronomers, which isn't to far from Blandford is Knowlton Church. There is also another Astronomy group in Dorset and Hampshire area. It is called South Coast Astronomy Group or SCAG for short, sadly they are no longer active on here, but they do have a Facebook Group.

Well I've slowly been going through a 148 page thread on a Russian forum about the Tal 125 Apolar telescope. Just come across a interferometer test results for a Tal 125 Apo. It's in 532nm green. Looks very good indeed.

Well one telescope I've always wanted to try, is the Tal 125 Apo, I guess its unique quirky looks, and the performance I have read from various reviews suggest this telescope is one hell of a performer. Even if it has slight collimation issues. Plus it unusual lens design somehow appeals to me. So I recently discovered one of these telescopes for sale. My eyes nearly popped out of my head! In surprise of course. Remembering that every review I've ever read said that these telescopes can suffer from being mis-collimated. I decided to find out how one goes about collimating one of these telescopes. I can tell you that took a lot of research, and reading on astronomy forums from around the world including Russian, Danish, Italian, German, American and of course here. Thankfully I now have the original Tal instructions on how to collimate the Tal 125 Apolar telescope, and know of atleast two people if not three that have collimated these telescopes at home. With that in mind and my mind at rest over collimation. Tonight after repeatedly asking myself if I had lost my senses and wouldn't it be better to get a Skywatcher ED120 or even a Tecnosky ED125 F7.8. I went ahead and purchased the Tal 125 Apolar, let the fun times begin. When it arrives I will of course take photos, and let you know about its performance. Oh yeah did I forget to mention this is my first Apochromat telescope?

How are you finding its performance?

That would be a very interesting comparison I am sure I am not the only one who would be interesting in reading it!

@John its been a couple years since I did astronomy proper, so its been awhile since I've read all the bits of information here and over on Cloudy Nights regarding the Skywatcher ED150. Thanks for the summery. @Peter Drew thanks Peter for your feedback, have you had a chance to compare it to a 6" F15 achromat refractor? I'd be delighted with a 6" telescope on the planets.