mikeDnight

Hi John, The lens cell is 77mm from the edge of the dew shield which is not nearly far enough. Having said that, the scope has only dewed over twice in two years. I definitely need to extend it for prolonged sessions! Mike

It certainly is a gem Stu! The 76 was very impressive and revealed some great detail very easily on Jupiter. There were three of us observing last night, myself, paulastro and Roger Vine who writes some excellent reviews. We probably didn't give the 76 the attention it deserved as we were all so focused on trying to detect the difference between the DL and DC. We were not trying to review the scopes but rather just try to notice where the differences lay. On the Moons limb, the two scopes appeared identical. Lunar detail was equally sharp, well defined and with equal contrast in both scopes. We had to wait until late on when jupiter was high enough to give a great view. I felt Jupiter was better in the DL until I noticed that the DC had fogged over slightly, so it brought our session to an end. Next time on a long session I'll add a longer dew shade sooner! Mike

Here are some pics of three little siblings all playing nicely together on the night of 2/4/17. They are a Tak FC76, a FC100DC and a FC100DL. After almost seven hours of very careful scrutiny and comparison between the DC and DL under excellent seeing conditions, while using a range of eyepieces from a TMB Super Monocentric 5mm, Ethos, Naglers, Baader Zoom and ortho loaded binoviewers, we all came to the conclusion that the DL is slightly longer than the DC! The FC76 was simply stunning! Mike

Superb!! If only I lived in Brazil! The views I've had from the UK so far have been very poor due to rapid air currents. Mke

I'd remove the other two rubber thingy's. It looks better without them! Mike

Attached is a map of Mercury by the IAU. The CM at the time of observation I believe was around 248°, so it seems likely the albedo features I thought I was seeing do actually correspond with the features on the IAU map. It might not be much in the greater scheme of things, but it doesn't half give me a buzz when my sketches, however wraith like, correspond to reality! ☺ Mike

Here's a piccy for you, courtesy of Paul! ?

That's funny, as last night I mentioned to Paul, that if someone would invent a vapour trail filter theyed make millions ££££. To be honest John, Mercury looked awful in the murk, and got worse as it descended. Paul and I had both Taks, the DC and the DL alongside eachother, and the views through both were equally bad. A sharp gibbous phase was easily seen in both, as was the hint of a dusky marking in the north, and a less obvious and smaller marking in the south. Both scopes were held back by atmospheric dispersion as the magnification increased. Mike

After being thoroughly clouded out by vapour trails that lingered densely around the Sun, blocking any chance of viewing Venus at 1%, I was treated to a not so good view of Mercury. The seeing, though reasonably steady, was poisoned by a low lying mesh of aircraft vomit. Still, beggars can't be chooser! It's a diagonal view so north is top and preceeding is to the left. Mike

That looks beautiful!

It does! See! Even Lancashire has skies now and then. ⛅?????????

Here's a few frac pics for your amusement. The Sky 90 belongs to Derek who's stood along side it. Derek was I suppose, my mentor nearly 40 years ago now. That's scary! I've walked miles around that pier, following his direction and learning my way around the sky while observing through large binoculars to begin with. Then as time progresses refractors both achromats and apochromats from 3" to 6". He's in his 70's now and is as happy as can be with his 90mm Tak fluorite. There's a lot of contentment in a simple little frac! Derek and his frac.

I'd agree whole heartedly with regard to your comments about the SW achromats Chris. A friend of mine bought a 120 F8.3 brand new and it was grossly overcorrected and had severe spherical aberration. He sent it straight back and got a replacement which was just as bad. The same happened a third time and the vendor said "Well what do you expect for your money?" my friend replied "I expect it to work!" He got his money back! I think whoever produces the achro's for Synta have lost heart. Their ED's though are another story, and can give the best apo's a run for their money, and SW Maksutov's are excellent! Mike

I'd go for the SW Maksutov every time! SkyWatcher as a brand have a very good reputation and Bresser not so good by comparison. I've used numerous SW Maksutov's and I've not yet seen a bad one. Personally I have a real soft spot for the SW 127 Mak as its so light and portable, yet packs a punch when needed. Mike

They are 20mm and 14mm XW's Jeremy! ☺ Mike

Here's my humble bottom tier of my piccy box. Everything I need for grab and go! Mike

Youd need two telrads to make a Tak look good! Actually, my Tak isn't much bigger than a telrad! Actually I don't dislike telrads. I even had one on my 6" achromat about 17years ago and thought it was wonderful.

?Telrad on a beautiful ED refractor? ? It could turn your elegant ED into an EEK! D.??? I think telrads are great finders, but they are as ugly as sin and designed to make Dobs look good!

?Schhhhhmidt cassegrain! ???? "I heard that!" ?

Nice recovery! ?

Me too! I once had one of those mounts back in the 80's. It was amazing! There are probably a few still floating about, not that they ever floated that well. Mike

Step aside tiny Maksutov's! This is a 12" with 5" piggybacked. Mike

You could always use a Barlow lens! I know how some feel about Barlows, but modern Barlow are generally very good and will allow the use of longer focal length eyepieces, there by retaining longer eye relief and comfort. I regularly use a cheap SW delux Barlow screwed to the nose piece of my binoviewer in my 100mm Takahashi and its superb! I even at times double stack Barlows to obtain silly high powers and the images are still wonderfully crisp and contrasty. A great option for high power viewing with a good quality short scope! Mike

Wow, that's gorgeous! I don't know why refractors make me feel funny inside. May be I'm in need of a shrink!