jetstream

Your scope is the "best of the best" IMHO and must be a super performer. The LZOS lens is legendary and it is too bad that the factory has switched its market direction. Big loss for us actually.

I find this as well.

I can see why they call the "Super Apochromats" John! As you know I considered the same scope you have along with a TEC 140. Rumors abound that the recent LZOS is not the old LZOS so I scratched that scope off the dance card but I don't know that any of the rumor is true. I am glad I didn't pick an oil spaced lens after viewing some images of leaks on another forum, simply because of my temps here. The TSA's air spaced triplet will serve me well.

Thanks Shaun, this scope has the fastest, best "snap" focus" of all my scopes, just ahead of my 15" dob. My first view through it was across the bay at about 800 yds, at the trees. The 3-6 Nagler popped the trees into razor sharp view at 150x... unheard of in the other fracs- from this I knew it was going to be good.

Once the construction is done up on the ridge I may have a permanent spot for it but I have a problem...big red pines and white pines. I need to move around to get open spots for different objects, but we'll see. I love the trees so they are staying. This is a great mount Stu, thanks for the advice btw! Forgot to mention- AZ mode.

Thanks Ben! I'm not split on this though...

When I started writing this first light report I said to myself that I won't make it seem that this Tak is so much better than other telescopes. I purposely understated how well this scope works Chris- it is extremely good. Even under avg conditions, with Jupiter low the 120mm + the HR2.4 at 375x showed the GRS well, riffles in the bands and polar shading. Many other things were tried and once again this telescope is top notch. I don't want to make it seem like other scopes are not good though, Gerry

Thanks Stu, the AZEQ6 is a vg but hvy mount. I figured out how to align it and will work on getting the accuracy up a bit. I guess it should be really level lol! Even with the clamshell the settling time was just over a second and the tripod was not firmly in the grass. I'm getting a TPI leg spreader battery tray which is highly recommended. The CDN GPS module I bought works a dream btw...

The TSA120/AZEQ6 arrived a while back and I was lucky enough to try it out tonight. This is just a brief report with more to come as I gain experience with this telescope. I'll get to the point here... even with Jupiter low and the seeing avg the TSA120 gave me the best view of Jupiter through a refractor so far... I can only imagine them when the planet is higher. The colors were very deep and with much detail showing in the belts and really fine shade lines through the caps were coming through. The eyepieces used were the Zeiss 25.1-6.7/VIP barlow, 3-6 Nagler zoom and a 4mm UO ortho. The finder EP is the 42mm LVW and a Baader prism diag held the EP's. Well, Izar can be a good test of things and the scope came through with flying colors- I love that little bright blue ball sitting on the bigger star. The optics of this refractor are good enough to show up eyepiece differences, even at this small aperture. Yup, the 3-6 Nagler got beat on Izar, with the Zeiss producing a much cleaner "tighter" look. The 3-6 zoom does do well in the color dept on Jupiter however and will stay in the collection. The Zeiss zoom also bested the 3-6NZ on Jupiter overall. If asked to describe the look through the TSA120 I would call it "surgical" or precise, razor like. My own preference is for triplet refractors but the doublets may produce richer colors on some things- I do play around with different tone EP's and that prism diag to get the colors where I want- and they are excellent in this scope. The UO 4mm, while giving sharp views, did not give me the color tone I wanted for this set up so its out... I like the TSA120 already, after one brief night out ps- this scope will be killer on Saturn

The 18ES is a VG eyepiece Shaun as is the short eyerelief 16T5 Nagler. They are both behind the 17E in the contrast dept though and the Nikon 17HW will be here in a few days to compare. Just my thoughts here- the 16T5 does not outshine the 18ES 82... if I was going to shortlist the choices it would be the Delite, Delos and the Morpheus.

What is your max mag you observe with now regularly?

I see no reason to supercharge binos, just me. The Denk Binotron 27's are very good ( I have them) as are the MkV's as you know. One thing about the Binotrons- many say they are not a true 27mm clear aperture but in the middle powerswitch position it is...

My vote- SW Heritage 130, I love these scopes and they can be used on a tripod when one is acquired.