Nicola Fletcher

@JeremyS This is absolutely fabulous- please tell us how you get on with it! I’d be really interested to know whether you would have this or a TSA120 if you could only have one…for visual use. I can’t afford both!

My FC76-DCU last weekend at Star-B-Q in Wicklow, Ireland, with its friend the Starwave 102 ED-R.

Thank you for the report and super photos Sunshine, your Tak looks so classy! And that massive dob - wow!

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!

Enjoy every minute with that beautiful scope @moonsafari!

Hello and welcome to the forum! It’s a very friendly place and I’m sure you’ll enjoy the conversations and advice from members. I wouldn’t claim to be an expert by any means but I’m also pretty obsessed with the Takahashi brand and have done a fair bit of research on the various options for accessories. I have an FC76-DCU so will leave it to others to comment on the FC100 options. However, like you, I was also daunted by the variety of diagonals, eyepieces etc etc. Following some great advice from this forum, I ended up going for a Takahashi finder, Takahashi 1.25” prism diagonal and Televue eyepieces (24mm Panoptic, 13mm Nagler and a Nagler 3-6mm zoom), for a simple yet portable setup which was my objective when choosing the FC-76. You may not need such portability and might prefer a 2” diagonal and/or binoviewers which I have yet to try but would like to at some stage on my 4” refractor. I’m delighted with my setup which I also use on alt-az mounts, both manual and go-to (personally I use a Giro Ercole mini and a SkyWatcher AZ-EQ5 which can also carry my 4” refractor as well as the Tak). Best of luck with your selection and I certainly think it will be a fitting tribute to your grandfather and a telescope that will give you many years of enjoyment. I hope you find my experiences helpful.

Thanks @Captain Scarlet and @MalcolmM! I’m still thinking of whether the scope is essential- but a good pair of binos is which I have. I can’t wait to see these - it blows my mind that these will be upside down. Thank you both very much for your help and I hope I’ll report back with some interesting observations.

Thanks @Geoff Barnes for your ideas and input! Like you, I’ve an idea of what would be visible in the Southern Hemisphere, but less of an idea of what should be visible at the equator. 47 Tuc and the Tarantula would be real bucket list targets for me - here’s hoping!

I’m off to the Serengeti, Tanzania, in September. We will be camping in Northern Serengeti (approximately 3 degrees S) and I am hoping that I may get a glimpse of the LMC (Especially the Tarantula Nebula), SMC and 47 Tuc while I am there. According to SkySafari, these will rise above the horizon to the south. What do you think? Is it possible that I could get a good view of these? SkySafari looks like this might be possible although they will be fairly low in the sky. I’m also trying to decide whether to bring my FC76-DCU or just my binoculars. Any opinions would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance!

I just love the look of that setup! I’m sure you will really enjoy using it - I had a Celestron Mak for many years and I enjoyed it so much.

What a great story @JeremyS, I too first read Starlight Nights from a copy at the library. I’ve managed to get my own copy now and it is one of my treasures. I also love Telescopic Work for Starlight Evenings by Denning. I managed to get an original copy but it was expensive and I doubt there are too many still available. The electronic copy is freely available online though as far as I remember.

Thanks for such a great report - your excitement came through and it was a great read! I’ve not had the pleasure of looking through a dob but your report certainly made me want to even more!

What a great story - it must have been an incredible sight. It’s still a pretty spectacular place although the wind can be biting from there even today!

The location is an isolated cottage in Co Wexford that I have rented several times. I suppose that’s one of the main advantages of the Grab n Go setup - it fits in the car alongside all the other bits and pieces I bring with me! 😊

Yet another Tak - my FC76-DCU. I can make it more grab and go with a smaller mount but I really like the AZ-EQ5!

I’m sure more experienced people will give their recommendations and obviously it depends on your budget, but the Altair Starwave or Starfield from FLO 4 inch refractors have very good reviews and I think are good all-rounders. Similar scopes are sold by several suppliers but here are two examples: https://www.altairastro.com/starwave-102ed-r-fpl53-refractor-459-p.asp https://www.firstlightoptics.com/starfield-telescopes/starfield-102mm-f7-ed-doublet-refractor.html The Altair version also comes with FPL-51, rather than FPL-53, glass which is less expensive. I bought the Altair Starwave 102 ED-R just over a year ago, based on good reviews here and on other sites, and I’m delighted with it as an all round portable refractor.

Some telescopes are more beautiful than others - if that was in my living room I would never look at the television!!

Best of luck for a few more clear nights this weekend. I have clear skies, all going well, promised for Sunday, and a list waiting too!!

Thanks for the report Dave, it was a really enjoyable read! Orion is also something I never tire of - it’s great to have it back!

Eacellent, really looking forward to giving it a try!

Wow, thank you! That really means a lot 😊 I will keep going and hopefully improve - I’m really enjoying sketching and have been very inspired by your sketches and others on this forum. I’ll tackle a planet next!

Congratulations on getting such a wonderful little scope. There’s just something lovely about the FC76 DCU isn’t there! Mine has done some local-ish travel but whenever I read about truly dark skies or the wonders of the southern skies, I am very glad that I will be able to bring the FC76 if I am lucky enough to travel to these places!

I think this method might be easier than trying to work with paper and pencils - the paintbrush technique with the pastel powder is fun to work with and easy to erase (literally by rubbing with your finger) if you make a mistake!

These are far from perfect, but I'm very keen to record some of my observations so decided to give sketching a go. I've been following the Mellish technique shown here: using black drawing paper with white chalk pastels, sandpaper, paintbrushes and pastel pencils. M13 was my first attempt and I got a bit carried away and I think recorded more detail than I actually saw (!), but I'm happier with some of the other attempts, although I've kept them quite simple. If any experienced sketchers see this, I'd be really interested to know how you record sky conditions (seeing, transparency and anything else). I have been trying to estimate seeing and transparency using the Astronomical League's guidelines, but find it difficult to use Ursa Minor for transparency as it is situated to the north, where I have some light pollution, so I think I would always rate it worse than it actually is using that method. Any suggestions would be very welcome!

Great that you are giving it a try too - I’m looking forward to seeing your sketches! I’m using pastels on black paper - they look awful when I photograph the page with my camera - I’ll try scanning some tomorrow to see if they scan ok.