mikeDnight

It sounds like you both had one of those memorable nights that will stay with you forever. A great read! ☺️ You're probably right when you say you thought you saw structure in M33. Smaller aperture scopes can still pick out variations in surface brightness and some unevenness around the edge of the galaxy. One arm in particular tends to appear subtly brighter than the rest of the surface and it may be that that you saw.

These really are beautiful! Despite being nutty for refractors, I'm sure I'd enjoy observing with such gorgeous scopes.

Nice sketch Jose. I suspect the 20° altitude and haze was to blame for a Cassini no show. I normally consider anything less than 30° altitude less than ideal from my own site, but above that things dramatically improve. Your scope will definitely show Cassini's Division well when conditions allow. Looking forward to your next sketch!

For doubles and Messier objects the 102mm F7 has obvious advantages in terms of resolution and light grasp. It's only relatively recently that telescope manufacturers have started stating the glass types, and before that everyone was just happy to have a 4" refractor, never concerning themselves too much with the why's & wherefore's. I've used numerous ED refractors around 102mm F7 from the period before the great glass type debate kicked off and they have been superb. I'd grab the 102mm and count myself lucky to have one. As an example, the Japanese company Vixen produced some great pre FPL53 ED's that would give any FPL53 or true Fluorite apo a run for their money. They were so good that I'm not even sure I could honestly tell the difference between an old Vixen or AstroTec and a modern FPL53 version visually.

What kind of diagonal are you using? If its a 90° mirror or prism you should get perfect views, but if it's a 45° or 90° erecting prism you will get a fine difraction spike on brighter objects due to the joint between prisms.

You may have a telegraph wire crossing your light path somewhere in the distance, or perhaps the eye lens has oil on its surface from your eyelashes? Or it could be there's something within the eyepiece, possibly on the field lens that needs cleaning off.

What scope do you have and what is your field of interest if any?

How many have you got now Nigella, enough for a tea party? Congratulations and well deserved! 🙂

Vixen mounts are being advertised by Rother Valley Optics here in the UK. I have no real experience of the latest Vixen mounts, but the older Polaris, Super Polaris, Great Polaris (GP) and GPDX are superb. I love the older mounts because they are high quality and have manual controls which most modern mounts don't, and rely completely on electronics.

The Tak dovetail bar is slightly narrower than the standard Vixen/Skywatcher version, so if the locking screws are on the short side they may not securely hold the dovetail bar. I found the small secondary locking screw on my GP mount was too short to reach the bar, so I replaced it with a longer one. I'm sure some have used the Skywatcher or Vixen dovetail bars instead of the Tak Mewlon dovetail. They're much cheaper too!

That really is a gorgeous old scope. I really wish modern manufacturers would create things as beautiful as that. My first 4" refractor was made following a similar design. It had a beautiful 1.25" brass drawtube and a similar altazimuth head though not as well made as yours. It also came with a mahogany tripod. The F10 lens was uncoated but it gave me some of my first really detailed views of many Messiers as well as solar system objects. For the princely sum of £99 it was a very good buy, and looked great standing in the corner of my living room. I wish i still had it!

I've bought several Tak refractors over the years, all but one has been delivered by courier. I've had no real issues, and the scopes were very securely packaged deep within the triple boxing. As far as the tube clamps are concerned, I have heard it implied that the Tak clamp isn't as rigid as rings, but it really is. So over all I wouldn't worry too much about either issue.

£320 seems a lot for a SW 62mm ED, but it may be that I'm a skinflint. For that kind of money I'm sure you'll be able to find something with a bit more aperture second hand. It might be an idea to keep an eye on UK Astro Buy & Sell.

I'd had some pretty large refractors that required a hefty mount, but in 2013 I bought a Skywatcher 80mm Equinox ED just as a quick grab and go scope for short sessions. Honestly Keith, that little scope was awesome. I remember taking it out for a few minutes before bed one night and found myself still sat on a frosty garden bench over an hour later. I'd been looking at the Moon and Jupiter on that night and was so absorbed by the unexpected high level of detail that the 80mm quickly became my first choice on most clear nights. Obviously a larger aperture would be better on brighter deep sky objects, but even the 80mm gave lovely views of star clusters and brighter nebulae. The SW 72ED is another scope worth considering, but even a humble achromat such as the SW 102mm or 120mm StarTravel can give beautiful views of star fields and DSO's, and they don't need a big mount. I'd had a bit of a lull in my enthusiasm towards the end of last year, then one evening I decided to set up my 60mm Carton Comet Seeker on my patio and take a look at Mars. You could have knocked me down with a feather as the globe of the planet hung in almost 3D, and its albedo detail was really impressive considering the aperture. So even a 60mm achromat can rekindle the flame of enthusiasm. This was my 80mm ED80 which was so easy to use and gave great views. Then here's my 72ED which again is quite a performer. And here's the little 60mm Carton that wowed my with its perfect views of Mars.

Sometimes it's just nice to put an eyepiece in a scope and enjoy a tour of a few deep sky lollipops visually, and the most aesthetically pleasing views are most often provided by small refractors. So I recon you need a nice little refractor in your arsenal purely for visual and to top up your mojo.

A beautiful sketch! Thanks for sharing it. ☺️

I love your sketches, but I also love what you said about the whole being greater than the parts, and that you're "having a blast!" That's really what its all about for me and its great to know you feel the same. There's no cure you know!!

I've had a few "best" astro bargains. I suppose the greatest bargain was when I part exchanged my first Takahashi FS128 for a FS152. When I bought my FC100DC from TruTek I was given a sizeable discount, and another sizeable discount when I bought a FC100DZ. But in terms of bang for buck I'd have to say the three SW 120ED's I've owned, two of which were Equinox, have to be the best as each cost significantly less than £1000.

No, its collimation was perfect. It just ran out of steam easily. On its own it could be quite convincing, but when compared alongside other good refractors like Vixen and Takahashi it simply lacked definition. I knew its days were numbered when my friends Vixen 102ED revealed divisions in Saturn's rings akin to the grooves on a vinyl record, while my NP101 gave a soft view showing only A&B rings and Cassini's division - not really a test for a 4" refractor. Saturn was high in the sky and the seeing conditions were excellent. When a Skywatcher ED left the NP in the dust I sold it immediately. Optically its star images were almost identical either side of focus and ronchi lines were straight indicating no SA. May be with the quad design and short F ratio requiring powermates and short fl Nagler's at the time to match the power of the other scopes there was just too much glass in the way?

My worst astronomy purchase was a brand new TV NP101 IS from VentureScopes in 2007. It cost an absolute fortune and yet gave some of the worst planetary performance I've ever had from a refractor, and was outclassed in terms of definition and contrast by a 102mm F6.5 Vixen ED doublet costing a fraction of the price. I kept it for a year then sold it. OK, some might argue a TV NP101 isn't a planetary scope, but Televue claimed otherwise in their spectacular adverts in S&T. It was a sweet RFT though!

I agree with Mr Spock. A 250mm apochromat would be the ultimate observatory set-up. It would have to have a nice observatory building and dome to complement it though! My first choice would be a 250mm Takahashi on a Tak equatorial. and just to give a sense of scale: A close second would be an observatory set-up like this I like Takahashi!!!

I can see colour in the GRS Paul. 😆 For the silly high price I paid for my little 100milli' pointy thing, I'd expect views of planets to be in colour. It's time you came to play, and rekindle your passion for real telescopes, and the little Newt'! 😈

It's comments like "Why does Saturn look so much better in this 4" refractor than through all those big telescopes?" which keeps me smiling.😊 Sorry Peter, I can't help myself!

I'd love to observe with my Carton 60mm alongside a 60mm Tak. I love Takahashi and I have no doubt that the Carton won't outperform the Tak, but I'd be pretty confident it wouldn't be too far behind.

A 127mm Maksutov or a 102mm or 120mm ED refractor would give you a lifetime of enjoyment when it comes to viewing double stars. Smaller apertures in these designs work well too of course, so it depends on what your idea of small is. There's also something beautiful about a refractor star image that other scope designs just can't match. The Maksutov is arguably the closest to a refractor but isn't quite as good. The larger the aperture, the more vivid the colour contrast.