F15Rules

41 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

Be interested to see who goes for it, the seller is accepting offers 🤔

Well, I can say that I definitely  won't be..🙂🙃😂

Dave

Nah, that's not a proper FS128..it's lens has flour in it...🥴🤦...

Dave

Sirius and the Pup?

Dave

23 hours ago, bosun21 said:

I’ve often considered buying a Berlebach tripod, but the farthest I’ve gotten is a Berlebach charon  observing seat. What exactly are the benefits over a standard stainless steel tripod? I presume weight for starters.

Everything that Alan said, IMHO a wooden tripod beats a steel one every time for "ordinary sized" refractors👍👍

Dave

5 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Spotted these and thought them  ideal for my Obsy.  Both  2" and 1.25" holders, within easy reach at best positions.  I have a cabinet in there on wheels, with eye piece holders , but I try avoid moving it as much as possible and these 6 extra holders dotted about are just the job.

Hi Steve..that looks ideal..and if I'm not mistaken that's a rather nice Pentax XL7mm that's moved in...??😂👍

Dave

2 hours ago, JeremyS said:

And the Oklop handles are well made 👍🏻

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Both the ROC case and Oklop holdalls are excellent IMO.

I went for the Oklop holdall for my FS128 as the OTA is not far off 120cms long, so a suitable ROC hard case would be very bulky to store.

The Oklop holdall can be folded down to c 1/3 of it's in-use size when not needed. Also, the construction of the Oklop holdall is top notch and incredibly robust..and the zips do a great job of keeping dust and bugs out!

Dave

On 07/04/2023 at 20:17, Dave scutt said:

Not the postman this time.

It was my silver wedding anniversary last week and my birthday today, my lovely wife brought me this.

That is fabulous Dave, what a great gift!

Many congratulations and here's  to the next 25 years👍

Dave

8 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

 My FS128 only had the writing on the Dew Shield. I think Dave's example must be faulty. I mean who would want to blatantly advertise their scope is a Takahashi by having the name both on the Dew Shield and the tube? 

...and on the Focuser..

Me.

On 02/04/2023 at 15:56, dweller25 said:

Hello @mikeDnight, good joke,

BUT lets get real  - a Tak 5” Fluorite 😈😈

 

David,

Does your FS128 have a decal on the tube, the dewshield, or both?

Dave

Does that mean mine is worth £10k then??🙂😇😂🤣

Dave

Hi Jeremy,

Yes, I believe it is. I'm only the 2nd owner and the first owner hardly used the scope . He stored it unused for  c12 years and it was literally like new when I collected it back in 2017.

I've never actually seen another FS128 "in the flesh" so to speak, and it never occured to me that mine might be unusual in any way (apart from being rare in the UK). Why do you ask?

Dave

I should also have mentioned that since the scope photos I've  fitted a Tak Micro Edge Focuser (MEF3) 3 7:1 microfocuser which I found in great used condition.

These are still available for some current Takahashi refractors at £247.

They need adjusting every so often but mine works very well, particularly for high power fine focusing.

I know some observers like the Feathertouch focuser for Taks but at over £1k for a complete FT replacement  focuser for the FS128 I'm quite happy with the original👍

Dave

On 02/04/2023 at 17:53, Highburymark said:

Thanks Mike - wow, quite a bit more than I thought. So probably around £3.5k without accessories. How much would that be today? At least £4.5k - significantly more than the £4k TSA-120. Sadly I think the FC-125 will remain a dream.

Hi Mark,

I have the original receipt for my FS128, dated March 1999. Also bought from Tru Tek.

It included:

FS128 OTA, cradle, 50mm finder, EM2 equatorial  mount with RA Drive, Tak SL90 tripod, illuminated polar finderscope with reticule, Vari-Extender,(adjustable  barlow) and 2 LE eyepieces.

Total cost was £5295 less £95 discount.

The individual items weren't broken down by cost, but I think a likely individual cost of OTA, finder and cradle would have been around £3.5k as suggested by Mike.

The tripod shown is not the Tak one, which I replaced with this more stable one, and I replaced the excellent original finder with a RACI one to save my neck!

HTH,

Dave

20 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

I think part of the perceived problem is that Takahashi owners on SGL are not just among the most passionate advocates of their scopes, but they also post more. A lot more. Considering the number of - say - Celestron SCT or Skywatcher ED owners there must be on this site, they must dwarf the Takahashi Ultras!

Good point, Mark..but it then begs the question..where are the SCT and ED owners' threads?

Probably almost 10 years ago I owned a several ED 100s - by both Celestron and Skywatcher. They were all excellent optically (only let down a bit by budget build and focusers etc) and I along with others enthused about them. 

I aspired to a premium refractor for the future (by premium I meant at the time Tec/Lzos/Tak/Vixen ED etc), but that didn't stop me posting about what I could afford then.. and I was never made to feel in any way inferior or lacking because of any scope I posted about.

So I say, if you have a scope you love, share it on SGL, tell others why you feel that way, and share photos..I predict that you will get lots of encouragement, advice if asked for, and be more, not less, motivated as a result.😉

Dave

11 minutes ago, John said:

And super achromats apparently - much debate elsewhere on what constitutes one of those, as you can imagine !

 

Here's a "Super Achromat", John..

..at 80mm F15 there is precious little CA on the night sky.. great sharpness, depth of focus (it has a dual speed focuser but doesn't need it), and excellent contrast😎

A Vixen 1980s classic!

Dave

3 minutes ago, Stu said:

I believe there is one for Vixen and perhaps others. If someone wants to start a ‘Show us your Starfield’ then no one would have a problem with that. How much attention they get is totally down to members/owners and whether they post up on the threads or not.

Yes, I started a "Show us your Vixen" thread a good while back, and invited contributions for other Vixen equipment such as mounts etc: there were some fascinating posts and photos posted, from a wide variety of SGLers, including many showing no Vixen scope at all..

I was chuffed to see how much Vixen stuff there is in circulation: if Takahashi pioneered Fluorite apos, then Vixen certainly brought quality engineered scope mounts within reach of the masses with their wonderful SP/GP/GPDX mounts, and later their Porta lightweight Altaz mounts as well as more specialised imaging mounts.

Oh, and although they no longer offer Fluorite lenses scopes, their superb ED/SD range perform visually so close to Tak Fluorites that I can't see any difference.

I for one would welcome lots more "Show us" threads for both modern and classic scopes regardless of the price or brand. The same goes for reflectors..I personally don't like them, so probably wouldn't read them, but there are plenty on here who do and would!

If you like the subject, read it and participate in it...if you don't, then don't! 😊

Dave

Having just revisited this thread this evening and reading some of the rather combative and rambling posts which have nothing to do with the original topic, I was sadly reminded of the reasons I rarely visit the "other site" these days..🥴

I do hope this isn't a sign of things to come over here.

Dave

1 hour ago, Moonlit Knight said:

What he said…

If I go above  x 150 the floaters start to take over and ruin the view, so there’s little point really. 
 

Why not try binoviewing to help with the floaters? More comfortable than single eyes viewing, too, for many objects 🙂.

Dave

You have clearly chosen exactly the ideal setup for your needs Paul👍.

I've no idea how the Starsense system works, but it sounds as though it really saves you time and effort in locating targets, and that has to be a good thing!😊

Dave

1 hour ago, paulastro said:

To me a 100mm doublet fluorite image on any planet at much over x250, though still sharp, will be very pale, fairly colourless and being bombarded by numerous floaters.  A good example of 'empty magnification'.

At x250 in my 8inch Dob the image will be as sharp (when the seeing allows), much brighter, far better saturated colours and floater-free.  A good example of 'useful magnification'.

That's a great summary, Paul..

The first paragraph I can totally identify with, even almost to the age (I'm 67)..

I have found that binoviewing really helps reduce the visibility of floaters at higher powers, and in my FS128 on good, steady nights I can get to 300-350x on Lunar, doubles, globular clusters and Mars/Saturn with comfortable and rewarding views. On more normal nights for my location, ( we have a local micro climate due to surrounding low hills creating temperature inversions, especially in earlier evenings) and with Cyclops viewing, it would be more like half that, and in the case of Jupiter it's rare for me to be able to go much above 150x.

Regarding your second paragraph, I can totally accept and respect that that is your experience. For myself, I just don't like reflectors, never have. I find them uncomfortable to view through, ugly to look at and fiddly to maintain. I'd be the first to admit that I didn't persevere with them, as I knew early on that they would never float my boat.

I just prefer the look, comfort and low maintenance of refractors, both apo and long achromat. I accept that a good, larger reflector may well show more, and on occasion significantly so, but my refractors will deliver more of the sharp, high contrast views that I want, more often, on the relatively few clear nights we get in the UK.

If I couldn't have a refractor I'd have a good Maksutov which IMHO can give the most refractor like views of any of the other types of telescope 😊.

Dave

On 28/03/2023 at 16:24, markse68 said:

beautiful new old tripod- hopefully to mount my Tal-200k on a GM8 for “portable” tracking setup

Pretty stable for 4kg

Mark

 

The first pic looks like an alien from Mars in War of the World's..

No wonder they called them Tripods!😱😊

Dave

5 hours ago, 900SL said:

Maybe I just need some counselling by Jeremy 😉

Blimey...you are in a bad way!!😋😂

Dave

I'd be interested to see the above comparison under good darker skies (Bortle 4 or better)..one of a good fluorite optics' key advantages is low levels of scatter, which surely would show best in dark skies with less light pollution and upward artificial spread of light?

Dave

17 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

They were definitely pioneers of Fluorite optics, which even today are "many orders of magnitude over any ED glass".  Tak's claim not mine. I've no idea what that  means in the real world, but it sounds impressive. As far as their focusers go, other than their limited travel and obsession with extension tubes, I've never really had much of an issue with them, but I'm only a visual observer.

There is nothing wrong with Tak stock focusers. They may occasionally need some slight fettling and there are plenty of useful tips and info online to assist in getting the best from them.

The MEF3 microfocuser is also excellent. I have one, and after careful adjustment it works smoothly and seamlessly with no "bounce" or hesitation.

It's just like getting perfect balance with an eq mount..attention to detail to achieve correct fit and adjustment always pays off.

And if a piece of engineered kit is regularly used, especially with modern heavy focuser loads like large 2" diagonals, eyepieces and binoviewers etc, it's not surprising that they may need occasional re-adjustment - just as a car needs servicing.

It's very similar to Vixen focusers. They too are excellent when properly adjusted.

Dave