Piero

Not sure I posted this already.. if so apologies! Anyway here is my TV60, straight through at Jupiter.

Yup. an AYO II! Looking forward to it!

I'm actually waiting for 2 Baader adapters and something from Switzerland , but they will take a while to arrive...hopefully for Christmas.. oh well, they will arrive at some point!

Great setup John! Your Tak looks great on your wood tripod! @Shopaholic To add more about solar filters, I also use a solar wedge, which is placed instead of the diagonal. I have both the 2" Baader and the 1.25" Lunt Herschel wedges. They work very well, particularly with an additional Baader Solar Continuum filter. See few posts above for pictures. Regarding filters for nebulae, I use what John uses. Both of us own the old version of Lumicon OIII. The last version seems to have a wider band, so it will be less effective. The Astronomik OIII can be an alternative. An OIII filter that works well, should pass two OIII lines (501 and 496) with transmission higher than 90%. The whole transmitted band should be tight, about 12-13nm, hence the reason why these are called line filters.

Hi @Shopaholic and welcome on SGL! You can make a support for holding the Baader Film or buy one from FLO. This is placed in front of the telescope objective. I don't use a Moon filter as I tend to observe the moon when it is not full. The best solution to defeat light pollution is to go under a darker sky. There are filters to improve the views of emission nebulae but these work much better under dark skies and can have little effect under severe LP skies. Unfortunately there isn't such a thing like a filter to view galaxies.

I was suggesting the same! Use a manual blower first to prevent scratches.

Here is an update of mine: Replaced ES30_82 with Pan35. Added (old) Lumicon OIII. The VIP is missing in the photo. And here is my 1.25" set. The 1.25"-to-0.96" adapter is used as eyepiece cap and for solar observation with the 1.25" Lunt Wedge. Despite the size, the Nikon + ZA Barlow with 55mm spacer weighs around 250g. At the bottom there is a 1.25" DMG NPB. The Lowepro bag stores the eyepieces used on a session. Use cases: SW 8" dob: 2" set, VIP with Zeiss zoom, ZAB with Docter, Vixen HR Tak100: 2" set but Lunt 20, 1.25" set but 24 Pan (mainly solar and medium / high power) TV60: 1.25" set Future 12-ish dobson F5-F6: like 8" dob, but Lunt 20 as main low power eps.

Looking forward to seeing it, Kevin.

Very nice telescope Mark! Congratulations! Looking forward to reading your first report!

Here is my last upgrade. I also use a single polarising filter with the wedge.

I'm also a leftie

A lovely set of scopes you got there! Super review and a very interesting thread!

Thank you John! Getting a thick handle like that in the eye must not be pleasant! If I remember correctly from one of your posts, you observe with your left eye, right? If so, at least you didn't hit the good one! I'll pay extra care! Thinking about it , I always hold the handle. Dunno.. This gives me certainty about the telescope angle and slow motion accuracy.

As I love observing the Sun, here is another update, which works fabulously!

A step at a time. First I need some time to get acquainted with this telescope, mount, and my eyepieces using this telescope. We'll see in the future.

Thanks Stu! No, I haven't tried binoviewing. Maybe one day I will. Need to sell some unused glass first, though! Which targets do you usually observe with your binos?

I had a second solar observation.. Crikey! The Tak really takes high magnification! I revisited the sunspot 12670. At 308x (and well above!), a few interesting details of the black spot were distinct. To the left side (refractor view), an nearly horizontal cut was visible. This first headed to the centre and then vertically down for a bit. At 308x only the horizontal segment was visible, whereas the vertical segment appeared as an unclear brighter dot. The two didn't appear connected. Above 308x during those minutes when the wind ceased completely, this vertical cut emerged like a short channel about as large as 1/4 of the horizontal cut. They both had similar lengths. Lines on the penumbra region and granulation were visible at 308x and higher mags, easily.

Thanks for the clue, John! I agree that it's worth giving it some time. My Zeiss zoom was the same when I bought it and now is just firm (..or maybe I got used to it! ). Do you observe standing or sitting with your refractors? I guess the best solution is an adjustable chair. I've found a couple of stools here in my house, one taller, the other shorter than a normal chair. The tall one seems to work reasonably well from ~30 to ~75 deg, whereas the short one from ~75 to ~90 deg. Sitting still makes me feel unnatural, but this solution works much better than using a normal chair (to me at least).

I forgot to report the dragon fly cluster in Cassiopeia. Really beautiful Concord-like shape with numerous little stars within. Star colours were excellent. The target took the full range of the Zeiss zoom very well, up to 6.7mm (top mag with no VIP). So at 0.9mm e.p. the stars were still perfect pin-points. This wasn't a tough test of course but just an indication of the performance using medium powers. Other comments: Focuser. The DF focuser handles my 2" diagonal (450g) plus Zeiss zoom (500g) very well in my opinion. While spanning Cygnus with this combo at the bottom of the OTA, I only had to play a very minor focus adjustment just once (the focuser was left unlocked). The focuser is a bit stiff for my taste but not something I cannot deal with. I could focus Saturn and the Sun at high power without major issues. I will see how it goes for a while, and maybe get the microfocuser at some point. OTA balancing. This is required and needs some practice, but is nothing to be afraid of. It only takes a bit of care before swapping eyepieces or before a substantial change in altitude. As stated by other members earlier in this thread, I also find the Tak clamshell an excellent tool for balancing the OTA. Really neat, quick and safe. Sitting while observing. For me this is something to get used to. I belong to the small club of people who prefer standing while observing (and prefer straight through finders too! LOL!). Hopefully, with time this will become a bit more comfortable and natural.

Saturn. The Cassini division was visible throughout the rings. During the late civil twilight, the shadow of the planet was perfectly drawn on the back side of the rings. The equatorial belt was also well represented with a rather marked colour. As far as moons concern, Titan, Dione, Rhea, and Tethys were visible. (p.s. I didn't check the position of Iapetus). Because our Moon was out (97%), having a nice DSO session was not practical. Therefore I had a more casual observation of the double cluster, Mizar/Arcor, Cygnus (neck & belly), and the Moon. Despite the glare, all these targets were very pretty and well defined. An informal star test using Deneb revealed very accurate and symmetrical concentric rings when in-/out- focus using the same distance from on-focus.

Thanks Jules! I am keeping my fingers crossed for later!

Thanks Chris. The sky is very clear and the air is steady here at the moment! How is the sky over there? I have tall trees at East, so for some hours it will be not visible. It's 97% though!

Indeed! It the sky remains clear, I will observe Saturn later this evening.

An additional note. Of course, while observing with this Tak, I couldn't help comparing the views with those I have with my TV-60. Aside from the obvious difference in aperture (and therefore resolution), what made me think quite a lot was the following observation. At higher magnification than 70-80x, the TV-60 becomes much more seeing-dependent. Eyepieces like the Zeiss zoom and the Vixen HR still allow to `open up` the image noticeably despite the seeing, but for eyepieces like SLV, Delos, Naglers, it can be tough if the seeing does not cooperate. It's a bit tricky to explain. It's as if the Zeiss / vixen HR somehow allowed to push that threshold further ahead, and therefore to show an image which is still in a good shape. Of course, when the seeing was excellent, the SLV, Delos, and Naglers allowed a bit more, but so the Zeiss /Vixen HR did. With this Tak, I kind of have the impression that the optics allow to push the magnification more before reaching this decline. As an example, I preferred the view of this 5mm using the Tak 100 than the 5mm using the TV60. I am not talking about details here, but image preservation. The image seemed a bit clearer, despite the shorter exit pupil (f7.4 vs f6). A bit of food for thoughts..

I had my first solar observation! Here some pics too! Mount. The mount does the job fine. I only need a bit of practice, that's all. It is a good mount and the tripod is surely solid enough for this telescope. Thanks Chris again! Tak - solar obs. The seeing was okay-ish, with some wind, but the sky is clear. I know it is early to say this, but it has already exceeded my expectations. I mostly used my 24 Pan, Vixen SLV 9mm, 5mm, and HR 2.4mm. At low-medium power, granulation was very clear throughout the solar surface. It was rich and interesting to observer it. At high power (308x), granulation appeared like well defined nice blocks of different sizes all over the surface. At lower-medium power, the medium size sunspot showed irregularities on the perimeter of the spot itself, and its surrounding penumbra region. At high magnification (308x), the outer and inner borders of the penumbra region were just incredible, very irregular but still very crisp. I've never seen it like that. Also, this penumbra region did not appear homogeneous in colour, but to my eye appeared with different shades of brightness from the outer to the inner borders. Really interesting. The black spot was certainly not a spot, but a surface with defined zig-zag perimenter. It reminded me of the shape of an insect. Eylashes were really intriguing too at every magnification, and at high power. At least for the Sun and to my eye, there was no image breakdown with the couple Tak+HR (0.3mm e.p.). Beautiful. Really beautiful.