mikeDnight

I managed about 20 minutes before it clouded over and the rains began, but it was well worth taking a look. I love this time of year for the moon, and its going to get even better placed for observation in the evening from now until May. Warmer nights on the way, gardens springing back to life, birds singing and the quiet tick tick tick of an RA motor - its all good!

I'd probably go for a SW 6" F8 if I were going for a Newtonian. They are excellent! Or, I'd seriously consider one of these from FLO

I just have so many happy memories of your happy smiling face when you had your Tak FC100DL Paul. BUT NOW LOOK AT YOU. All that extra aperture has taken its toll.

You'd need a mighty large telescope to be dazzled by Jupiter Paul. And the seeing was good and both scopes were cool. Jupiter's belts did indeed appear 3D in the Tak, almost as if theyed been braided around the planet. The 120ED definitely didn't have an enhanced view despite its greater aperture, that's why i sold it to you. It's been a while since you observed with the Tak, so now that the warmer nights are almost upon us along with a high spring moon, you should come round with your 120ED and refresh your memory. If it gets too warm, you can always use your scope to hang your coat on while you observe with mine.

I'd forgot about the 115ED Vixen. If its lighter than the 120ED as Martin believes, I think I'd be tempted to keep hold of it. It will give better rich field views of star fields than a C6 and if it ticks the lunar and planetary box, then why let it go. And "it looks good," it's a win win or at least that's how it seems. Is the Vixen 115S lens made by Canon Optron like the old fluorites were, and the modern Tak fluorites are? If so, I'd definitely think twice about selling it.

And I was just about to send you my £1 donation towards your Tak fund.

There's a beautiful FC100DF for sale on AB&S right now, at a great price too. Or may be a brand new FC100DZ would be an option. It's only money after all - Martin's money - so I don't mind helping him spend it. Here's another thought while I'm on a roll: There's the Practical Astronomy Show at Kettering on March 21, there were loads of refractors there last year and it would be an ideal opportunity to get to grips with a brand new Tak.

I share your enthusiasm for Takahashi, although I feel a like for like comparison i.e. doublet vs doublet might have more meaning. Having said that, I have little doubt the end result will be the same. I had a beautiful SW120ED Equinox and it really was a wonderful scope. It would generally leave other scopes standing in terms of contrast and definition. But, after I bought myself a Takahashi FC100DC in March 2015, and viewing Jupiter through both scopes side by side - the eyepieces were Pentax XW's - the smaller Tak literally took my breath away and left the 120ED lagging behind in no uncertain terms. What i once thought to be good in my Equinox, was lacklustre compared to the Takahashi FC100D. The seeing conditions on the night were very good, so it might be expected the 120ED would at least keep up with the smaller Tak, but they were worlds apart, with the equatorial and temperate belts, that were packed with detail, almost jumping out in 3D.

I've never lost my love for a touch of old Vixen green. Something about the sight of a Vixen green anything causes a rise in blood pressure even today. It must stem from my early days in astronomy when anything Vixen was way out of my financial reach, but it didn't stop me from lusting all the same. Today however, with the advances in electronics and a seeming preference towards all white mounts, Vixen green may seem dated and unfashionable. Yet their value in terms of reliability, durability, serious strength and longevity are undeniable, and there are many seasoned amateurs who are still as proud as punch to have an old Vixen mount in their armoury. Just over a week ago I noticed an advert for an old green Vixen GPDX that was way past its best. The images in the advert showed what appeared to be a scarred, dusty and a little dismembered DX who's internal Dec shaft had rusted over after being open to the elements, and who's counterweight arm was covered in flaking chrome, barely clinging on. There was no counterweight and only one short slow motion knob. It had duel electronic drives but no hand controller or power pack. It's RA motor cover was missing and so we're both the top and bottom polar scope covers. It had a HAL tripod that was reluctant to close and in need of a good clean, but nothing insurmountable. I was so pleased that its owner had decided to advertise it for parts, although I had no intention of using it for such. I imagined I could strip it down, clean away the rust etc and somehow bring it back to a meaningful existence. I did dismantle the mount, cleaned off the rust, which was only surface rust, and put the counterweight arm in a bath of sulphuric acid which removed the flaking chrome. The shaft itself is steel and I'm in two minds as to whether I should have it chromed again, or simply have it buffed up to a high polish? Either way it even now looks much better than it did. I still need to acquire a couple of short slow motion control knobs, the polar scope covers and RA motor cover, then source a green Vixen counterweight. As it currently stands however, this Vixen DX is gradually coming back to life, and is operational. I may in time put the DX in my observatory where my GP currently sits atop a steel pier, and use the GP as my grab and go equatorial, as it's much lighter. I don't have the original photo's showing the condition of the GPDX when I bought it, but attached are some pic's of its progress. Not bad for £50. I removed the Dec motor as I had a Vixen RA motor drive and controller, so I can now leave RA tracking while observing. The body of the mount, while originally looking scared and battered, has cleaned up nicely. To my delight, after I'd tightened up a tiny screw on the on/off dial, the polar illuminator works perfectly. The flaking counter arm after having the chrome removed and before polishing or rechroming. Then of course there's the Vixen HAL tripod, which after being thoroughly cleaned off with duraglit, shows very little evidence of the paint, scuff marks and what appeared to be blood that came with it. It's a work in progress, but over time I hope to bring this jewel of a mount as close as I can to its original glory.

A small short focal length apochromat can make a great deep sky imaging instrument, and will also give very pleasing views of star fields, clusters and brighter nebulae. For planets, it is often better to use an apo of longer focal length which enables higher magnification views and an increased image scale, which is something difficult to achieve with short focal length scopes. Apochromatic refractors are superb visual instruments for planets but are generally not the usual first choice for planetary imaging, as larger apertures and much longer focal lengths are often preferred. This doesn't mean however, that you can't effectively image the planet's using a good apochromatic refractor. There was quite a debate a couple of years ago on the Cloudy Nights astronomy forum, where many doubted an apo could perform planetary imaging effectively. That doubt was soon quashed after an imager using a Takahashi FS102 posted images and video footage of Jupiter taken through his telescope. Those images were spectacular! If its an apochromatic refractor you really want, then for Deep sky you would probably get great results with an 80mm F5 apo, but for planets at least a 100mm F7 or higher would be needed.

Stepping up to a C8 isn't going to do your ribs any good. Also, as superb as Vixen refractors are, and they are, they are hefty beasts for their aperture. I'm just thinking out loud here so to speak, but if you were to stay with a top class 4", but one with a lighter tube, you'd retain that high quality refractor punch. You could perhapse consider selling the Vixen and picking up a FC100DC or DF as a replacement.

After 19 replies It's looking like there's nobody home!

Are you going all Baader on us Chris? I must say the 95 mm certainly looks a very nice scope, and 6 - 9 months is nothing really, when you consider what you'll have at the end of it.

The AZ5 might be ideal for an ETX 125 as its a short scope, and the slow motion controls would be of real benefit at higher powers. You may need to fine tune the slow motion controls by adjusting the tension on the worms using the adjustable grub screws, as they are a bit jerky and tight directly from the factory.

There is something else at play here too. The diffraction pattern in both scopes is different. In the refractor the diffraction pattern of a Star is caused by the lens cell, and shows as concentric rings around the Airy disc that get fainter as they move out from the star. In a Newtonian, the edge of the secondary obstruction adds a further diffraction effect, causing the first diffraction ring to be noticeably brighter than that of the refractor. In scopes of equal aperture the Airy disc should be of equal brightness, but because of the first diffraction ring in the reflector being brighter, the Airy disc is fainter. This is so small a difference that its not immediately obvious, but when stellar point sources are at the limit of visibility, it can mean the difference between seeing a faint star or not seeing it. Add to that the diffraction pattern caused by the spider veins and the faintest stars can be lost because of the light spread. A similar thing can be seen when observing extended objects such as the planet's. If you imagine a planetary disc as seen through a telescope to be constructed of thousands of tiny Airy discs, the smearing effects of diffraction can soften the view in an obstructed telescope and so definition at the limit of visibility can suffer. Having said all the above, I've seen a 4.5" F11 Newtonian out perform a 4" Vixen Fluorite while viewing Saturn. Bottom line is, the better the optics the better the telescope. A reflector mirror has to be at least four times more accurately figured than any one of the, at least four surfaces on a refractor, which makes reflector much more difficult to make to a high standard. So the average off the shelf cheap reflector is highly unlikely to deliver refractor like performance.

Hi John. Yes its a Hercules. I was too tired last night to do a write-up for each mount, but I've edited the post now giving a description of each mount.

Below are some of the AZ mounts I've owned over the years. This first one wasn't very good when looking skyward. It was made by a local firm, along with the F10 achromat mounted on it, called Cosmotron. The tripod was made from mahogany and the focuse was all brass. It cost me £99 in 1982ish. Here is the only photo I have of my home made binocular tripod and Altaz fork. It was copied from a design in sky&telescope and carried my 12X60mm binoculars. The pivot on the altitude axis was set at my temple position, so that as I moved my head, my eyes remained in line with the arc made by the eyepieces. It was an excellent bino mount. The Hercules Helix mount below was a superb true altazimuth fork which was seriously solid. It had an 8" separation and could easily carry a heavy top end 6" F8 refractor. It was as smooth as butter. Sorry I let it go, as they are nolonger made. The common or garden AZ4. This one has had a little internal clean up and a cosmetic make over. It is mounted on a very solid and very tall old Vixen tripod. Despite it being a cheap mount, it handles my 100mm Tak very well and allows me to use very high powers despite having no slow motion controls. My AZ5 (little squealer), as when i got it from RVO it sqealed like a stuck pig. RVO couldnt have cared less, so I dismantled it to find there was no grease on any of the parts that needed it. After greasing the necessary parts the mount worked fine. Not as good as an AZ4 by a long way! A close up look at the amazing Hercules Helix mount head. An AZ3 carrying a Sky 90 - just!

Perhapse I should Paul. Then at least I wouldn't have to cart that unwieldy 100mm out. 😊

I think we all feel like that sometimes Mark, but after forcing yourself out under the stars you find you really enjoyed it. I found a small scope like an 80ED or a good pair of binoculars can be an antidote to astrohybernation syndrome. Five mins with a small scope often turns into an hour or more. ☺ This was one of my favourite small scopes.

For the Solar Eclipse of 1999 I was planning to stay home and observe it as a partial eclipse from Lancashire with my family. However, the friend I mentioned in my previous post, the one who needed physically removing from the Vixen refractor, called round at around 6.15pm without any prior warning. I invited him in and he told me he was about to drive south to observe the total eclipse, and to ask "would you like to come too?" I immediately said "no!" He replied "I've made sandwiches!" I was still unmoved by his suggestion. However, while I was making everyone a brew in the kitchen my wife Chrissy came and said "you can't let him go all that way on his own." "Yes I can" said I, but she kindly persuaded me that going with him was the right thing to do. The next thing I remember was that we were hurtling along the M62 then the M5 with my friend driving, hitting every cats eye along the way, I kid you not. His initial intention was to drive to Cornwall, but on seeing the signs to Plymouth I said "lets go to Plymouth instead, think of the fuel you'll save." We slept in the car over night, which was a bit weird, but as my head was stuck out of the window I remember looking up at a pristine starry sky. The Sun rose in a blue sky and all looked well for the eclipse. So there we were in Plymouth waiting for this mega event. I saw the moon bite into the Sun, but then a blanket of cloud covered the scene untill the event was well and truly over. The thing I remember most of all about the experience of sudden night time being thrust upon us wasn't the equally sudden plummet in temperature or the beautiful rippling wave patterns in the clouds that I've never seen before, it was the birds. While everyone else was looking up, I was amazed by the way the seagulls and pigeons plummeted to earth, coming in to roost as daylight was turned off. It is now my firm belief that birds are solar powered and no one will ever convince me otherwise. The same friend had an equally bright idea of us both travelling by steam train from Todmorden train station to Bath. He'd bought the tickets! His plan was to visit the William Herschel Museum, which did on the face of it seem quite appealing. And I like steam trains, so what could possibly go wrong? I decided to take my younger son out of school (this was 12 years ago, so he'd be 14), as this would be a memorable and educational experience for him. I wasn't wrong! I drove us to Todmorden train station for 7am and the train arrived on time. We boarded and took our seats which were facing eachother and which had a table between. My son and I sat together while my friend sat opposite, then a man appeared and sat next to my friend and directly opposite me. It soon became apparent he was nuts about steam trains, and all I got for the entire length of the journey, was a relentless one sided discussion about steam trains. But just to add to the annoyance, he ended every statement with "isn't it?" My friend, my son and I walked to the Herschel Museum and my son found £20 blowing down the street, so not all bad. We had a great time looking round the museum and standing in the garden where William discovered Uranus; although the garde isn't as long today as it was in Williams day, so we couldn't stand in the area he observed from. We wandered around Bath and I bought some coasters and a fridge magnet, just to make the trip worth while. Then back to the train. We sat together again of course and thought we'd lost our travelling companion, so we were all quite relieved. Then, after the train had set off, he suddenly appeared and took his position opposite me. The three of us pretended to be asleep for well over an hour just so we didn't have to converse with our odd companion. It wasn't that we wanted to be mean or unfriendly, but he was driving us all mad. Anyhow, the fake self imposed sleep was abruptly ended when a steward pushing a trolley down the isle drove over my friends foot. Gosh that was a Grand Day Out, but for all the wrong reasons.

It's very difficult to choose one memory out of four decades of observing, but I suppose this one is close to the top of the spectacular list. I've always had a yearning for a good refractor and although I've owned and used many different telescopes over the years, my refractor fetish has never left me. When I started out in astronomy I bought a book called Astronomy Through The Telescope, and in that book was a picture of an elderly gentleman stood alongside his 4" refractor. From the moment I saw that photo a 4" refractor is all I ever really wanted. The trouble was that I was a poor apprentice and refractors were, relatively speaking, very expensive back in 1980 and not that easy to come across. I'm going to jump to 2003 now. I had of course owned some nice refractors, a fabulous Vixen 102mm F13 was one of my favourites, eventually ending with a 6" F8 achromat which was as large a scope as I ever really wanted. On January 3rd 2003 I experienced a real life changing moment when three refractors were lined up outside the main observatory of my local astronomy club. For someone who loves refractors, to see these three scopes on the hill side with a blue darkening blue sky behind them and stars just beginning to show, was a heart pounding moment. Other scope designs never quite give me the same level of excitement as a refractor does. The refractors in the line-up were a 6" F8 Helios achromat, (I owned one of these myself and was very familiar with its wonderful rich field/deep sky and comet seeking capabilities, as well as its decent lunar and planetary performance ). The second scope was a 4" Russian TAL F10 achromat, which I was also very familiar with, and they are now much sought after by refractor lovers giving testimony to their optical excellence. And the third refractor was something totally new to me as this was a scope out of the financial reach for most people I knew - a spectacular looking Vixen 4" F9 Fluorite, mounted on a motor driven Vixen GP with pier stand and a set of Vixen LV eyepieces. Momentarily heart stopping to put it mildly! This telescope had been donated to the club that week. Saturn was the target and while the planet was still relatively low in the east, all three scopes were just about equal in performance. It's common knowledge that "aperture is king", as its repeated at infinitum, so I was confident that as the sky darkened and Saturn got higher in the sky, the 6" Helios would win out due to its greater resolution. Nothing could have been further from the truth! Everyone, myself included, were in awe at the absolute power of the Vixen fluorite, as it presented Saturn with its rings wide, more akin to a Voyager image. The other two refractors paled by comparison, as in fact did the larger aperture Newtonians and SCT's. Nothing on the field that night displayed Saturn with the same level of sharpness and definition as the Vixen fluorite. My friends and I spent the best part of six hours following Saturn as it crossed the sky. We had to almost physically remove one of my friends as he was so reluctant to step away from the eyepiece of the Vixen. He must have hogged that eyepiece for the best part of one and a half hours without moving, as he was so impressed. Driving home that night, all i could think about was "where on earth am I going to find the £2,250.00 needed to buy a Vixen FL102 and GP mount?" Three months later I'd saved enough for the scope, mount and eyepieces, but sadly back then Orion Optics were the sole Vixen importer to the UK, and they were useless. My friend and I placed our orders and even paid an extra £80 each for faster delivery. But after two months there was no sign of our scopes. So, we both cancelled our orders and turned to Takahashi. My scope arrived the following day.

It's good to hear you're enjoying time with your 70mm binoculars Ciaran. They are fantastic instruments and I have a lot of very happy memories after spending many hours behind a pair of 70mm binoculars. After becoming interested in astronomy back in 1979/1980, I bought myself a beautiful 60mm Astral refractor as I suppose many on SGL did, but it was binoculars that really opened my eyes to the night sky. Telescopes of meaningful aperture were not as common place or as easy to obtain back then, so binoculars were the way to go for a lot of observers. I became friends with a local astronomer who'd invited me to his observatory, which was really exciting as I'd never been to a real amateur observatory before. It was actually a 7' X 5' garden shed that had a fold back roof. Inside was a 7" concrete pillar with a home made aluminium fork attached to the top, and in the fork was a beautiful pair of Swift 16X70 binoculars. With those binoculars my friend taught me to find my way around the night sky. It was a thoroughly exciting time as he taught me how to observe deep sky objects of all kinds. With those 70mm binoculars I cut my teeth on every Messier object that dared to rise above our local horizon. I also bought myself a pair of 12X60mm binoculars for £12 second hand. They had a broken bridge and I had to fix one eyepice in position with plastercine, but after every session with my friends 70mm's, I'd get home and immediately set my own binoculars up on a home made wooden tripod and fork, and find every object I'd viewed through my friends bigger bino's. If it wasn't for my time with binoculars in those early days, I can't imagine ever learning the night sky as well or as rapidly as I did. George Alcock used binoculars for much of his life and discovered several comets and made thousands of variable star estimates with them. Also, there was a postman called Graham Hosti from Sheffield if I remember rightly, who discovered a nova using half a pair of 50mm binoculars mounted on a camera tripod. Your tour around Auriga rekindled some happy memories of viewing M36,37 & 38 for the first time through binoculars, they really are terrific tools! ☺ The flip top observatory is nolonger, but the concrete pillar that my friends binoculars were once mounted on is still standing 40 years later. Now with a Takahashi Sky 90 mounted on it, and my now elderly friend Derek standing proudly alongside his pride and joy.

Either one would keep me happy for a very long time. Having said that, Dwellers FS128 would keep me very happy too.

If she's a sucker for an exotic Lancashire accent, it could work?? As long as she doesn't find my address I'm brave/daft enough to give it a go.

Myself and a couple of friends went last year and it was excellent. Far better than astro fest IMO. We didn't go to any talks, but spent the day oggling some beautiful kit. I really wanted to play jenga with Rother Valley 's Tak stack, but my mates talked me out of it. There were some great displays and getting to fiddle around with stuff I can't afford was great fun. We drove down from Lancashire, so no small trek, but it was well worth the effort. I also got to meet a few guys from SGL which made things even better. It was so enjoyable in fact, that were almost certain to make the journey a second time for the 2020 event.