F15Rules

In 2017 I was in the happy position, at the age of 61, to acquire my dream scope, an immaculate 1999 Takahashi FS128 Fluorite Apo complete with Takahashi equatorial mount, tripod and a few Tak accessories. It was to be my "lifetime scope", and my wife fully supported the purchase. I owned the setup for 7 years but in the last 2-3 years began to have to accept that my deteriorating eyesight would prevent me from getting the best from the FS128 going forward. Also, the FS128 is a large, bulky scope for it's aperture (although not too heavy), and with our poor climate for astro, I reluctantly decided to slightly downsize the scope but to keep the Tak mount. Here is where I think the point I want to make kicks in. When I sold the Tak in February, it was a 24 year old scope, albeit in superb condition. I had 3 firm offers to buy it at the asking price within 3 hours of offering it for sale: I managed to get back very close to what I paid for it in 2017, and with the proceeds I was able to buy a mint 1 year old Vixen SD115S apo (itself a superb scope), and a set of 6 high quality Vixen LVW eyepieces, with some change left over. So the Tak depreciated very little, and I doubt that any reflector would hold it's value in the same way (although the reflector would of course cost far less to begin with). I actually feel that your stated plan to end up with ED 80mm and120mm to 128mm refractors and an 8" reflector would give you an ideal spread of scopes that would cover all your needs for the rest of your observing life. On different objects and in different conditions, a 5" refractor and a 8" reflector can show a fantastic, wide range of objects really well, and are different enough to justify owning both if you are able to. I hope your future work and eye health circumstances allow you to achieve this. All I would say finally, is if/when the opportunity arises, seize it!..your eyesight will likely never be better than it is now, nor your physical strength for lugging equipment around. I have never regretted buying the Tak, and am fortunate to have found a worthy, if slightly less powerful replacement. Good luck with achieving your astro goals. Dave

..and there is a fantastic Vixen ED103swt apo refractor on the for sale forums right now! Right up there with Takahashi and a bargain at under £700.. Dave

That's an ingenious solution Mike!👍 I almost bought one of those finders some years back for just £85 I think it was.. but I couldn't figure out how I'd fit it to my FS128 at the time.. Great job. Dave

Cracking finder Mike, it should be a nice low power scope in its own right! I saw that for sale, it had an odd looking connection "stem"..how did you make it fit on your scope setup? Dave

Lovely mount Neal, and it looks great in the black painted version. What scope will you be mounting on it? I have a lovely old Vixen 80mm F15 (1200mm) focal length refractor which would have come on a mount like yours.. I don't have an SP mount at the moment but I am storing one long term for my son in law, so am using his, in the traditional Vixen "Hammerite Green"..and a Skywatcher EQ5 tripod.. Enjoy!👍 Dave

I'd look for a used Takahashi 1.25" prism or Baader T2 prism diagonal, both come up fairly often for c.£70 used. Both optically excellent, but the latter is more robustly built. HTH, Dave

You'll see, Tim!!😜🤣

Is that yours, Paul? Are you coming back to your senses, er, I mean, to the dark side of refractors?? It looks great, one of the few frac finishes other than white that I can stomach!😜🤣 Seriously, congratulations, and enjoy that lightweight beauty!👍 Dave

An entirely Logical response, Mr.Spock.. - thank you, and live long and prosper! 🖖🖖🖖

Thanks to my good friend Steve (@Saganite) (and Tim, @Franklinof course), my recently acquired Vixen LVW set is now complete.. The new to me 3.5mm will give me 254x in my Vixen SD115S, and with the 1.6x barlow, 406x. Here's the full set.. (L-R, back to front) - 3.5mm, 5mm, 8mm, 13mm, 17mm, 22mm, 42mm.. Plus decloaked 2" Axiom LX 23mm & 31mm 84 deg UWAs at bottom right.. Scope and Cyclops Eyepiece wise, I'm now done!! 😂 Dave

Of course, I was being tongue in cheek (being myself the owner of an Apo wich costs almost £3k new), but it does beg the question.. ...and it does also remind us that even the most humble, cheap scope available today is far superior to the tools that early astro explorers such as Galileo could dream of..we are very fortunate! If only we had their levels of dark skies!😊

A sketch like that, showing an image from a 4.75" cheap achromat worth perhaps £150 versus a Japanese hi end 4" apochromat costing c £2k does beg the question..why pay out the £2k??🤔🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️ Dave

..with a strong handle?🙃😊

Just spent a very enjoyable hour and a half with Superfox, my lovely new to me Vixen SD115s, observing Tegmine and Theta Aurigae. I found that the seeing did improve over the 90 minutes, and it was fascinating to try different permutations of eyepieces and barlows. My findings were as follows; (all at F7.7, 890mm Focal length). 1. Vixen LVW 5mm at 178x - Split and Resolved intermittently..this was when the seeing was at its most unsteady earlier on. Contrast was good. Edge sharpness was good across virtually the whole 65 degree field. No false colour noted. I'm so pleased now to own almost the full set of these fine classic eyepieces. 2. Tak Abbe ortho 12.5mm with stacked Baader zoom 2.25x barlow and short WO 1.6x barlow to give c263x. This was the first and most consistent split. I could see little or no visible image deterioration from the stacked barlows , no false colour and excellent sharpness across the fov (admittedly only a modest 44 degrees, but using an eq mount with RA drive the image hardly moves anyway!). These Tak Abbes have wonderful contrast and my 12.5mm pair are supremely comfortable for binoviewing. 3. Pentax XL Zoom 8-24mm with Baader 2.25x zoom threaded in to give a high power zoom from 3.55mm (250x in my scope) to 10.66mm (83x). This eyepiece wouldn't be my first choice for high power on close doubles, but it gave an early session resolved view at 250x on Tegmine..I suspect it would have done even better later in the session but I didnt get time to try it again. The Pentax really comes into it's own on short sessions of changeable skies and seeing, where I can simply dial in the best power for the conditions..on such nights, or short sessions, I can often manage with the Baader 2.25 barlow, the Pentax zoom, and my Axiom LX 23mm 84 degree UWA for low power wide field. For the last part of my session I spent some time on Theta Aurigae, an old favourite of mine..as a lad in the 70s I used to struggle to split this unequal pair..at mags 2.7 and 7.2 and just a 3" split, my little 60mm refractor rarely, if ever, split them. But in a modern 80-100mm scope the pair is a delightful sight, with the tiny, faint companion twinkling next to its very bright prime star close by. The Vixen made short work of this pair and I easily split it at 70x. If you haven't looked at this lately do check it out while it is still very well placed high up in our skies.. It was SO good to be out again at last tonight, and thanks to John for pointing to Tegmine, a real jewel of a double!👍😀. Dave Orion, Sirius and Procyon slowly sinking west over our house twilight turns to night.. Superfox ready for some tight doubles action!

Superb looking setup Steve 🫡🫡. I'll be fascinated to get your thoughts in due course regarding a comparison between your Superfox 115mm and the big APM 150mm.. I suspect they will both complement each other in different ways...but if only one survives longer term..my money is on the Vixen!😁😁 Dave