Dave1

The 80's Vixen 80mm F15 I had was good, not quite as good as my Towa though. The Towa revealed low contrast details better. My Skylight 101.6mm F15 has a Vixen or Vixen specification Japanese optics in it. David

I was aware of Antares being Canadian, I nearly bought one, some of them were still in stock some places a couple of years ago. The point being that, nobody seemed to know where they were made. What stopped me was the stopped down optics. EDIT: I posted my initial response before Johninderby edit his post above mine, where he wrote the second paragraph which goes into more details on the origins of Antares. So now we can see it was assembled in Canada from parts from around the world. David

I remember those Antares, not sure where in the world they were made, but I do remember them having stopped down apertures. The 105mm was stopped down to 93-95mm depending on who measured. As far as I'm aware the Takahashi and Scopetech operate at full aperture. I actually had a mid 1980's Vixen 80mm F15. I compared the Vixen and Towa 80mm F15 side by side on Jupiter. Same nights, same seeing conditions, same eyepieces, same diagonal. The Towa was the better scope on Jupiter. Which given the Vixen had better baffling, was surprising. The Towa is flocked though. David

That's just it John, a lot of the Achromat sold today are low quality examples. Which give many a person a bad perspective. If they have tried a high quality example like we both own, they might just might change there minds, taking the mounting requirements of larger Achromats out of the example. At the end of the day, quality costs, doesn't matter if its a achromat, ED doublet, or triplet. Its the time put into building a fine optic that counts/costs.

Hi Everyone, Recently I discovered the Takahashi Starbase 80. Over on cloudy nights I did a lot of digging about. The owners are generally very happy with the performance of the Starbase 80 telescope. They are also seasoned observers. Its been discovered that the factory making the optics for the Starbase 80 is Kubota Optical in Hanamaki City. Kubota Optical has been operating for a long time. This is why Takahashi America mention Hanamaki in there sells pitch. Kubota Optical make both the Takahashi Starbase 80mm and Scopetech ( https://scopetown.co.jp/ ) line of telescopes. I did some research on Scopetech and discovered they make a 80mm F15 which is there flagship telescope. They also pride themselves in making high quality telescope in the time honoured Japanese tradition. In France they have tested the 80mm F10, 80mm F12.5, and 80mm F15. The 80mm F15 came out as 0.972 Strehl in D Ray which is most important for Planetary. The Tester was Joerg of Wellenform, who does all the testing for APM telescopes. The French have tested the light transmittance of the lens coatings, the result they got back was 99.5% So not quite the advertised 99.9% but not very far off. Foucault test for Scopetech 80mm F15 Diffraction test for 80mm F15 Letter for 80mm F15 upload image free Results for 80mm F15 Chromatic residue : 2.71 Ray & Wavelength / Marechal Rms Value & comment F 486nm 0.043 0.93 strehl E 546nm 0.029 0.967 strehl D 589nm 0.027 0.972 strehl C 656nm 0.020 >0.98 strehl with PtV lambda/9 So these aren't just good beginners telescopes. These are actually very high quality optics made in the time honoured tradition of Japanese Optics. This is why Takahashi choose Kubota Optical in Hanamaki. The 80mm F10 ( Takahashi Starbase 80) made by Kubota Optical test results are just a bit behind the Scopetech 80mm F15. I for one will purchase a Scopetech 80mm F15 to compare to my Towa 80mm F15. The loser will be sold. 80mm F15 is my favourite size of instrument. So I am trying to get the best I can. Best Regards David

I don't image. So I don't need a reducer. David

That's a great price for both the Skywatcher ED100 Pro F9 and HEQ5 mount! Enjoy

Great report, as somebody that is starting to take double stars more seriously, I will give some of these double stars ago!

I was out observing tonight with my 80mm F15. I thought seeing was pretty bad tonight, could see boiling, and it wasn't very transparent. I did think to go for Tegmine but the constellation of Cancer is towards the light pollution, combined with the seeing conditions made it a hard target, so left it out tonight. I did bag 54 Leonis in Leo. I also spent time on Venus.

Nice mods.Did you put the bearing around the focuser nob?

See the above linked thread, some manufacturers are responsive to criticism. You can only but try, they can send the 150ED to me first!

I don't know if it was with the colour revision. But this is the thread where they discuss a comparison between the Skywatcher 180 Mak compared it to an Intes Micro M703. But the Skywatcher USA representative comments on there about the new update of the 150 and 180 back in 2016. And gives the specs in the thread. Some of the owners Skywatcher Maks took apart there Maks, and took measurements. To confirm either way if indeed it was updated or not, they were. Some of the owners of Skywatcher maks put the optics at 1/5 wave. Skyward Eyes is the Skywatcher USA representative. Its quite a long read mind, so get comfy! https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/533792-at-last-a-skywatcher-180-v-intes703-direct-comparison-possible/page-7?hl=+180 +mak +spec

It appears so, I know over at Cloudy Nights there was a thread where Skywatcher USA was releasing the updated specifications of the 150, and 180 Mak. He never did comment about the spec of the 127 on that thread. So I can only guess if wasn't updated. If you look on Skywatcher USA website you can see the updated specifications of the 150,180. But they don't go into so much detail with the 127.

Beggers belief really, I think Skywatcher thought nobody would notice. Which of course people did, at least they did put it right, no doubt because they monitor the various forums probably.

That's only true of the 127 mm Skywatcher maks. The Skywatcher 150 mm and 180 mm maks designed were updated in 2016. The 150 mm Skywatcher now has a primary mirror which is 166 mm. The Skywatcher 180 mm mak has a primary which is 199 mm .

I had a good look at Plato tonight with my 102mm F15 Skylight. Would of been pointless with the 60 mm as it can't resolve detail that small, so I wouldn't of seen any craterlets. With the 102mm F15 I may of at time got hints of A. But again that should be theoretically impossible. Will have to keep trying when it is placed more favourably. I did spend a lot of time looking at Copernicus crater, and also Sinus Iridium.

Had quite good views of Venus and the Pleiades through my Skylight 102mm F15 with my 50 mm Erfle. Highly recommend 👍

Very handy John, might see how many I can see in my 60mm.

Unfortunately I didn't get out last night due to cloud cover. I always find your moon threads inspirational Stu. I have now managed to find a very good moon atlas for my phone. Called Moon Atlas 3D. Very detailed.

They look some amazing books!

My most used telescope at the moment is my Skylight 60mm F16.7, on an Altair Astro Sabre 2 mount. It might be a good idea to look at the secondhand market. Sometimes you can find a Skywatcher 100 mm F9 for quite cheap.

There are some old 1960's Questars eyepieces for sale on Cloudy Nights at the moment. Whether they are the screw in eyepieces I don't know. David

My order from Astroboot turned up this morning.

Well I'm quite excited, I'm managed for once, to be in the right place at the right time. Soon I will be the owner of two unused Carl Zeiss Jena Huygens eyepieces. In 16 mm and 25 mm focal lengths! First Carl Zeiss Jena items I've owned

So I own 0.965", 1.25", and 2" eyepieces. When selecting eyepieces you have to bear in mind the speed of the telescope you intend to use them in. 0.965" eyepieces of Ramsden and Huygens design typically do not work well in medium to fast telescope. In F15 telescope they work very well indeed, I have personally verified that. But I have read around F12 they become challenged. Kellners in 0.965" will be more acceptable of fast telescopes. Orthoscopic eyepieces in 0.965" are also very good and could work well down to F7. Only last week I used a 0.965" 4 mm Ramsden and compared it to 1.25" 4 mm Ortho. The difference in eye relief wasn't all that different. And on the moon details on view were very good in both. The only real difference was field of view. If you can deal with very short eye relief don't be put off. As a generalised statement, in fast telescope F5-6 or faster, you will need complicated eyepieces for high magnification if you want a perfect view. You can use simple eyepieces with less elements in longer eyepiece focal lengths, the view still will not be perfect but to some is acceptable. It depends how critical you are as an observer. If you are after new 0.965" eyepiece there is maybe 2 manufactures that I know of that still make them to order. One being Siebert Optics in America. The other being ATC in Czech Republic. Although if the prices are high, I don't see the point. Secondhand yes maybe if priced competitively. David