Saganite

I did not sell it Richard , I bought it, on behalf of Mike, and posted it to him !! When I did sell my 8mm LVW to you a month or so back, I don't recall you being too concerned that I was selling a rare gem.

Thank you for the mention Mike. I thought it a good idea to present my new Takahashi 4" in a different way, but never expected the thread to take the course that it did. Unfortunately, my initial euphoria has been a little crushed because I seem to need much more in- focus than I have and yet there is nothing else I can remove.Focusing on objects just 30 feet away is all I can do, beyond that , I cannot bring anything to focus, so I will wait until the scope is properly mounted and then try objects in the sky.

I will do my best, but as the previous owner of my beautiful 5" f15 and now a Takahashi FS128 you know that it is going to be a tall order, as you have said that the D&G gives virtually nothing to the FS128 in terms of sharpness and contrast, and image quality, and the big 5" will easily take 100x per inch of aperture. Like most refractor owners, I feel something special about a 4" , how could I not ,when for a good part of my life I longed for a good 3" thanks to Sir Patrick , but always felt that financially it was beyond my reach.That a top quality 4" is now mine is very special, and for me , will not be in competition with my 5". The comparison though will be interesting.

FLO are awaiting a shipment, so probably a week or so.

Don't you start !

The heart's no good Dave......already broken As for the Tak, I started a thread entitled "I have just removed 55mm from my TAK tube ". A bit mischievous but it had the desired effect and was fun, but boy did it take some twists and turns, and finished in a rather incongruous fashion, but I will let you read for yourself; 67 posts long when I last looked. I am trying to compose a reply to it all. Have a great holiday. Steve

You are very kind, gentleman. Just the slightest twinge of sadness when I saw your scope Derek, but it was all in a good cause, to buy the Tak. The lovely Celestron ED102 goes to a very good home on Saturday. I still have my soul and both kidneys intact atleast.

You wait until you look through it !!

Looks beautiful Derek !

Lovely Mike. I had an impulse sale of one of these, why, I don't know. They are very good.

Thanks Shaun, I much much prefer binoviewing, so to do this so easily in my new Tak , is just great. p.s my intention was to cause a few 'hearts in mouths'

Hi Jock, I don't know the answer to this, but Mike will, I am sure, be along sooner or later and he will be able to tell you. What I can say , again , is I am so happy with this 'fix' because, though My bino's guarantee reaching focus in refractors and reflectors, by use of the OCS, it can be irksome to have to do it in the session, and so it is great to now have the freedom to use eyepieces at native, in both my refractors.

Exactly what I had hoped for Cheers Jock

Here she is, much shortened, but ready for action !

Cheers Michael, I am very happy, but two weeks waiting for the means to mount it, is going to be hard, however, I won't wish clouds on the rest of you , just to ease my pain.

I thought the title might grab the attention of certain people. I have had this Takahashi for just two days, and the clamshell is two weeks away, so I set it up on the breakfast bar as I just had to look through it. I put in the T2 prism diagonal with the 2" nosepiece, loaded the binoviewer c/w a pair of Ultima 30's and.......nothing, I could not reach focus.The telescope was already considerably shorter than when it arrived anyway, as I had removed the spacer tube and 1.25" adapter to fit the 2" adapter that came this morning, courtesy of Ian King Imaging. I played around with the various OCS systems of my bino, but nothing worked. I did however discover that I had to hold the eyepieces a good 40mm above the binoviewer to get any sort of focus, but I had no way of extending the focuser to achieve that. The solution would be found online, I thought, so off to Professor Google, and sure enough the answer to my problem was on Cloudy Nights, courtesy of our very own mikeDnight, who clearly showed that the removal of the green extension tube between the main tube and the focuser, allows the focuser assembly to be screwed into the tube directly. This I thought sheer genius by Takahashi, because to reach native focus ,which I now can, would normally involve hacking off a section of tube. So my thanks to Mike for taking the trouble to post this "fix",( it is on SGL somewhere, but I don't now need to look for it), and I am absolutely delighted that all my bino pairs can be used at native focus. N.B My wife's somewhat mischievous comments about my new scope were, "Aren't you disappointed with such a small scope for so much money" and " you would think that a new telescope lens would be cleaner than that" knowing very well , I hope,that the scope focused on the greenhouse at the end of the garden showed every tiny piece of dirt and dust on the glass panes. Also, whilst relaxing over coffee this morning, she said ," have you ordered a clamshell for it". After I had stopped choking , I confessed that I had done so before the scope arrived, and mumbled something about how she knew about it. " You referred to it when You were removing the rings from the other scope, and I know you cannot use the scope without it, I do listen you know, and I am not daft. At the risk of boring everybody, here are the pictures of the first glimpse of my new scope.

That's right ,so , years of fun ahead?

Congratulations John. I used a WO binoviewer for a few years and they are really excellent, particularly with the 20mm 66 deg eyepieces supplied with the kit.

Excellent Chris !!!!!!

Well, I totally agree, and I have said before that these have a charisma all their own; wonderful eyepieces at a comparatively low cost, and with the exception of the 13mm , I have owned them all, but sold them on, apart from the 42mm, in pursuit of binoviewing pairs that I can use.

And that is very much the point, "the trust is gone" I would have taken a punt based on the picture. A few months ago I had to return a pair of Greenkat binoculars , which were very much not as described. It took approximately three weeks for the refund.

It is quite shameful what some folk will do to deceive, and describe as very good condition !!! No wonder there was just the one picture.

Pass.

Very nice scope Gert. You just need a dark sky now.

Other than that it was made by that great tool making company Starrett,.....er no. Pocket Slide Caliper .