F15Rules

1 hour ago, Trentend said:

Sod’s law it’s a beautiful clear night here and Saturn and Jupiter have just appeared between the rooftops.  But I can’t attach the Tak directly to the mount as planned as I don’t have any M8 bolts! Will get some on order tomorrow from FLO plus a dovetail and wait for the next clear window. Not sure what folk would recommend in terms of a case/bag for storage and transportation? I think a hard case will be too heavy.  Do you get a snug fitting padded bag or something slightly bigger than the scope and do a manual pad job yourself.

 

 

I'd heartily recommend the Oklop Holdalls available from FLO.

I have one for my Tak FS128 and it's excellent, very robust, well made, but lightweight (about 2kg I think).

Dave

2 hours ago, Gogleddgazer said:

I reckon that I am still searching for my forever 'scope, but even after only 12 months in the game  I have a better idea of what that might look like - and tend to agree with aa6ww above - needs to find that sweet spot between light grab and portability/ease of set up. I am erring towards 4" apo refractor, probably a double rather than triple as i sense imaging is unlikely to be something I will stick with. I love my Photoline 130, but it is damned heavy and in time will become too heavy for my aging frame to lunk outside. My Tak 76 is a joy to use, but I am conscious of its small aperture being a little limiting. Time will tell where I leap, but I probably need to do some side by side comparisons to see what the real differences are with something that sits between the two.

I'm sensing  a drift towards a premium 4" apo here.

A much underrated and yet superb such scope is the Vixen ED103s.. lightweight, great optics and they come up used from time to time for c£600-£800.

Dave

15 hours ago, aa6ww said:

If I could just have one telescope, it would be my Skywatcher 120ED. I've had it now for over 8 years and I've slowly upgraded the focuser, tube rings, dove tail bracket, added a Astrotech Vixen  handle, even added a new tripod to the mix, with a 12" Losmandy pier. Coupled with my Celestron AVx smart mount with Starsense, its a very easy system to use and enjoy.

I've sold a few smaller Takahashi's for this size refractor because its very light weight and the optics are incredible. ( 10.8 pound OTA only ) As a lifetime telescope, I'll have to be able to manage it throughout the rest of my life and this one is light enough with enough aperture to keep me happy for back yard observing.  I have larger APO refractors and some large SCT's, but I think in the end, this is the one that will keep me happy when everything else starts getting too heavy.

The happy backyard astronomer,

...Ralph

Lovely setup you have there, Ralph😊.. and a very tidy back yard (or garden, as we say over here 😊).

As you say, that could easily be a lifetime scope.

Dave

58 minutes ago, John said:

I tried a "lifetime / forever / just one scope" 90mm refractor a few years back. It was a 90mm William Optics Megrez ED doublet. Nice scope but I found that 90mm aperture was just not enough to keep me satisfied for long on either planetary viewing or the deeper sky. Now my smallest scope is 100mm for this reason.

 

I'd tend to agree..unless you are an imager, and therefore want a Triplet specifically for that use, a good used modern doublet of 100 - 120mm will give you largely false colour free observing and show you a good deal more. And it probably won't weigh much more - especially at the front end..and will be less likely to get out of alignment..and will take less time to cool down...and will look more like a "proper" scope..and..and..and..

😊😂👍

Dave

On 25/09/2021 at 12:26, Captain Magenta said:

I wonder is it feasible to put the seat into the top slot?

Yes, you can use literally all of the slots..the lowest will require a bit of contorting to get up off the ground if you are over 40, and the highest two will benefit from a lowish step under your feet, easy to make or use.a couple of firewood logs etc.

I also often reverse the chair "back to front" and sit astride it..sounds odd, but I find it's often very comfortable and stable. I fact I was out last night with my FS128 and spent much of the session observing that way👍

Dave

10 hours ago, MZack said:

I’m delighted to add that a while ago this summer I purchased 001 from Dave complete with the box Richard made. It is in my observatory shown here sitting on an old Irving tripod mounted on an AYO Alt Az with encoders. I have also mounted it on an APM fork mount also with encoders. Needless to say it’s performing really well and I’ve recently replaced the 100mm Skywatcher tube rings it came with, with a pair of 105mm TS Optics CNC rings. 

Congratulations!! 

That's a beautiful looking scope and I'm sure it will perform as well as it looks.

It would be lovely to read a detailed report on the scope's performance once you've had a good session or two with it!

Dave

No sure Pete..

I think it was here in the UK. My son sent it to me.. I'll ask the question 🙂

Dave

On 24/09/2021 at 20:40, johninderby said:

You need one of these then. 😁

 

Is that a handle on top of the dome, John??😇

Dave

"What is wrong with these humans??🤔

Dave

Just look at this picture..quite Erie, I think..

A bit like the "Moon Maiden" phenomenon..

Dave

5 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

I don't think one has arrived this year so far Jeremy....🤨

..not here in Lincolnshire, it hasn't.

Ironically Iast night was a decent night (apart from the wretched waning moon, which is getting higher in the sky each night), and I was able to see half a dozen distinct belts etc on Jupiter..but I then saw a post on SGL and in the 10 minutes it took me to reply, looking down at my phone, the sky had completely clouded over - and that was it for the night!

Dave

2 hours ago, John said:

I was using 600x on tight double stars and to spot Triton last night with my LZOS 130. 240x seemed the best for Jupiter and 300x did well on Saturn. Your LZOS (and @Stu's) are very similar optical quality I think. If you get the seeing, pump up the power ! 

That's amazing performance, John! At 600x you must have been almost constantly turning those big slow mo's!😱😂

I can't get above about 468x with my eyepiece/barlow combinations, and tbh I don't think my floaters would allow me to view many objects,  comfortably, much above 300x.

But my FS128 manual encourages owners to go up to 100x per inch of aperture on nights of very good seeing..

I have absolutely no doubt that your Lzos lens is superb..Russian optics are renowned for their quality, and rightly so. I've owned a few Intes/Lomo 6" Maks and each of them was optically wonderful.

Dave

54 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

The Tak FSQ106 is optimised for imaging but the TEC is a better imaging scope, albeit slower. Here is a pure log stretch of Alnitak, cropped, taken with the TEC in 10 minute luminance subs. As you can see, reasonably faint detail is already showing but, critically, Alnitak is cleanly split as a double. I can split it in the FSQ data as well - by layer masking different stretches together - but without fancy processing Alnitak is a big white blob. The TEC gives a clean split straight from the raw data, and note how close to Alnitak we can see structure in the nebulosity. Not many refractors can do this.

Olly.

I freely admit that I'm not an imager and have no interest in imaging at all.

That said, I don't care what scope took that image, of whatever type or brand, it's optically a superb instrument, and I can only look at that image with admiration, both for the scope and the imager.

Great stuff, Olly.

Dave

✅ Tak ↘️🦶 

👍😂

Dave

🦜🦜🦜🐦🐦🐦

Oooaarrr, me lovely, pieces of 8, pieces of 8..😂😂

Dave

2 hours ago, jetstream said:

If seeing limits magnification so much maybe these expensive scopes arent worth the time

I think that's a fair and rational point..the problem is, each time I go outside to observe, I think and hope that the seeing might be one of those 5 or 10 nights in a year when seeing will be excellent..and when I have had such a night, however infrequently, I want to know that my scope can meet the challenge/opportunity presented by such excellent conditions.

I freely admit that that is not necessarily rational, and added to my ageing eyes, that all too often a cheaper, maybe not quite so good scope would have performed very similarly. 

Do I need to see an analyst??🤔🥴😊

Dave

I think that here in the UK and under our Jetstream, the atmospheric conditions will make much more difference to what we can see, than any real optical differences between the scopes mentioned above.

Now, if we lived in the Nevada Desert, it might be different..or not?

Dave

Welcome back Steve👍.. glad you had a great trip to Scotland..a shame you only got one clear night though..did you see a dark sky that one night?

We've just tonight booked a week on the Isle of Mull for next year...the skies there are at least Bortle 2..whether it will be clear is another matter though. 

Nevertheless, I plan to take the FS128 with us...

Dave

26 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Surprisingly the thin high cloud disappeared to leave Tessa under clear skies. At least for a while 

Tessa looks "in the Pink" in that shot, Jeremy?😊

Dave

1 hour ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Lovely telescope. Did it come with a complimentary deer stalker and monacle? 😉

One rather thinks it did, eld chep!!🤣

Dave

...I'll have two please.. (anti - heart failure pills, that is!!) 😱😁

Dave

I think you can see from the above that few, if any, observers have gone totally over to binoviewing, myself included. 

You have some great equipment there, and I see no need to sell much of it to fund a high end binoviewers..I had some of my best binoviewer observing with a modest pair of Revelation binos..as Peter said, collimation is all, and neither do you need expensive eyepieces..often very modest units will be excellent in a well collimated bv.

I also agree that bvs are by far the most effective on Moon and planets (I don't do solar, so can't comment on that), and cyclops is best on close doubles and clusters.

One final point..someone mentioned "squinting" while cyclops viewing..I do agree that is a pain, but I easily solved the problem by buying a black eye patch..I have both eyes open, so no squinting, but simply observe via a single eye. Simples!!😊

Dave

..sorry, couldn't resist..

I too have just one TV eyepiece, and it's a cracker.

Nagler 12mm T2, see front row, the one on the right.

Great in every way, I love it. It's old but to my eyes doesn't give up much , if anything, to the Morpheus range..which is why I have it👍

Dave

Dave 😂

5 minutes ago, UKDiver said:

It's a big place, but sadly on a large industrial estate. The original building has a stream running through, part of the building climate control. I've not been in the extension yet. They support a fair few local groups/professional bodies as part of their social charter. I lost a team member to them a couple of years ago, that'll learn me to encourage a school leaver to get into data science! Some odd characters there too, make stereotypical mad scientist look like cosplay.

He'll fit in like a glove then!😂😂