mikeDnight

I'd be very surprised if there's any difference between the glass types in these refractors if they are in the same price bracket. My friend paulastro recently bought a Technosky 102ED and is very happy with it. I must say that although I haven't used his scope yet because of the lockdown restrictions, it looks a very impressive telescope. I can't imagine the manufacturer making an FPL53 & Lanthanum objective for one brand and an FPL53 using a different type of mating element for another brand, it wouldn't make economic sense. I strongly suspect the only difference, if any, will be purely mechanical. I recently watched a Utube video by Ed Ting, where he compared one of the 115mm Technosky or similar brand ED with a Takahashi FS102. He said he had to keep checking which scope he was looking through. He also said that "in focus" the Technosky star test was almost indistinguishable from that of the Tak.

When I first take my eyepice box outside, I generally leave it open to the air for a while so as to allow the warmth trapped inside to escape. After ten or fifteen minutes or so i will then close the lid to prevent the eyepieces from becoming excessively cold, and to prevent moisture forming on any metal or glass and becoming accidentally trapped within the box. A warm eyepiece will kill fine definition when you're looking at intricate or subtle planetary detail, so it's a fine balancing act on particularly cold nights, and if it does that with the planet's, it dose it with everything. At the other extreme, after an eyepiece gets so cold that it wants to fog over, I will hold it in my hand, with my hand in my pocket, to allow it to warm up; but not so much that it interferes with the fine detail. I can't say that I've ever really noticed much of a difference in heat retention between simple and more complex eyepiece designs, as it only ever takes just a few minutes for the heat in an eyepiece to escape. Prisms or mirror diagonals cool rapidly, but because their optical components are not exposed to the outside air, they don't fog over, and don't hinder the view in any way. Dew heater strips can be used to prevent eyepieces from dewing over, but that's just another gadget to contend with.

That's strange. If he's told you its a common problem, its the first I've heard of it. If SGL can't shed any light on the issue, you might try Cloudy Nights where there's a massive Tak following. They will almost certainly be able to advise you.

But do they come with a strap to hang them around your neck? That could be a deal breaker if they didn't.

That's a shame about your rod breaking Paul, and the lack of interest from your metalwork teacher, though I'm not surprised. Still, if your interest had grown so that you were drooling over Fullerscopes, & Charles Frank ad's then I suppose your little 60mm had worked its magic. And you're still enthused by it all four decades on. ☺

It does look flimsy doesn't it. Yet it's surprisingly solid. The tripod is made of steel and doesn't flex, and the altitude locking rod holds the tube really steady. The weak spot is the neck of the Altaz fork where it connects to the tripod. When the locking nut is loosened there's some minor wobble, but nothing drastic. At the end of the day its just a nice vintage refractor thats a bit of fun.

I noticed you seem to be having a lot of fun with your Telementor Stu. It's a beautiful looking scope! I was informed tonight that the lens for this model of Tasco was made by Towa Optics. I've no real idea how good Towa were, but the lens looks brand new. You never know, I might end up selling my Tak now. 😂

The rod thingy acts a little like a Hargreaves strut I suppose, but it also has a slow motion altitude adjustment on it, so very posh! I might take it to Kelling to show what a real scope can do. 😄

Thanks for your responses everyone. It seems like these scopes might have a lot to answer for. More may be revealed as others join in.☺

Well I couldn't resist it for £40. It's a blast from the past that really is quite a nice scope - really! The tripod is quite heavy and solid despite it looking flimsy, but best of all is the telescope itself. As far back as I go in astronomy, Tasco has taken some stick for producing less than good quality telescopes, but my first look at tree branches and roof tops in the distance, reveal the objective to be very nice, showing no immediate colour fringing. The two HM eyepieces, 20mm & 12.5mm, that came with the scope produce pleasing views too, but I had a 20mm 0.96 Kellner lying around which is great in this scope. When I started out in astronomy over 40 years ago, I saved hard and bought a 60mm Astral refractor on an equatorial mount. It really was a beautiful scope. But then I learned from good old Patrick, that anything below 3" for a refractor and 6" for a reflector, was pretty near useless. It bothered me back then to read such statements, and I imagined that if i had just that 3/4" more id be a real astronomer. Of course Patrick's often repeated claim is complete bunkham. It's all down to cognitive load - if someone tells you black is white often enough, you just accept it without thinking it through. So, I wonder just how many enthusiasts on SGL had their initial spark of enthusiasm fanned into a full blown flame by such scopes as a humble 60mm refractor or 4.5" reflector? Below is my 1960's Tasco refractor that arrived today. As i was opening it I imagined the excitement on the face the lucky little boy or girl who opened this for the first time on Christmas day morning some fifty to sixty years ago.

Televue's are nice in the longer focal lengths, and that's probably an important point. I use a binoviewer with a barlow for lunar and planetary observing, so there's good eye relief with 25mm to 10mm. The 18mm is my most used focal length. For star fields and nebulae the 35 to 20 are beautiful, though the mental block of 50° might plague some. Plus I don't wear glasses for observing, so long eye relief isn't essential for me. I think if I were to return to wider field eyepieces I'd go for the Baader Morpheus range, and perhaps a 30mm XW or 31mm Nagler as my lowest power. It might also be worth remembering that just because the word Super may appear on a plossl, it doesn't necessarily make it a "super" plossl.

Some targets just look great in a wide field eyepiece, where as narrower fields just don't frame it right at the same magnification. A good number of years ago now, I was observing the planets with a friend but only had my 20mm Pentax XW with me as a wide field eyepiece. My friend offered me the use of a five element Meade 4000 26mm super plossl. I was a bit insulted as I was a Pentax snob and had an aversion to anything Meade. I reluctantly put the 26mm into my FC100DC and was stunned by the instant clarity. Also, the 52° field was essentially the same real field visually as my 20mm 70° Pentax, and as sharp if not sharper towards the edge. Also, the five element super plossl, a pseudo masuyama design, was sharper on axis than the Pentax. Today I have only one wide angle eyepiece and its an 85° 16mm five element Masuyama, which is not great at the edge, but is impressively transparent on dso's. With the exception of my Vixen High Resolution set of eyepieces, my single 16mm 85° Masuyama and a pair of 16.8mm orthoscopics, all my other eyepieces are 52° pseudo Masuyama pairs, from 35mm down to 5mm. I love their sharp, transparent orthoscopic view and their lightweight design. And if I need to examine a large extended object, I move my scope a fraction rather than have the discomfort of rolling my eye to examine a field that's too large for natural human vision.

"Need" is such a strong word! The answer of course is no, but that might not make any difference.☺

You could try blocking out surrounding lights from entering your eye from the side. If you can make yourself comfortable and shield yourself from stray light that prevents dark adaption, you may find things may appear brighter. It takes about 20 minutes for your eyes to really become sensitive to faint objects, so don't be afraid to spend some time observing each object, and don't be tempted to rush on to the next. First Light Optics sell a binocular eye shield that you might find really helpful. ☺

I bought a second hand pair of 12X60 binoculars way back in 1981. They were absolutely fantastic and with them I managed to not only learn my way around the sky well, but also see virtually every Messier object that dared to rise above my local horizon. So if you have a dark transparent sky, the Messier objects are within your grasp. Sadly, my skies have deteriorated since then, but binoculars are easy to take out of town and set up in the countryside, and in some ways are better than a telescope. Whatever size of binocular you have, you'll massively improve the view, and consequently see much more, if they are mounted on a solid tripod. One of the most beautiful things you can look at, and that often gets overlooked, are the stars themselves. You'll have great fun observing the many contrasting colours in the brighter double stars as you examine each constellations major occupants. Tracking and observing brighter comets is another fascinating avenue of study, as you can watch the tail and coma change from night to night as the comet moves across star fields. Then you could observe variable stars, which can become quite a passion if you're not careful. But don't forget the Moon, which is awesome when viewed through binoculars, and Jupiter and its Moons. Saturn and Titan, and the phases of Venus. With proper solar filters securely attached to the front objective lenses you'll see Sun spots too, but its best not to spend too long observing the Sun, as you can end up looking like a Panda in negative.

Hmm, Tak Europe are difficult to get a reply from for some reason. It might be best to email Takahashi in Japan. Although they may not reply straight away, they may still be quicker than Tak Europe. There may be a charge to cover postage costs, but I doubt it will cost a fortune

It almost certainly is possible! From discussions on CN, Takahashi apparently have records of every scope they've made, so if you know the serial number of your scope they could potentially send you a replacement certificate.

That telescope will keep you awake at night Nicola. You'll be so tempted just to nip out for a quick five minute look at the Moon or something before bed, and find yourself still glued to the eyepiece an hour later. Then you'll lie awake for hours afterward trying to work out how such a small scope can possibly give such great views. I'm particularly impressed with your certificate of inspection. Mine's in Japanese so it's all Greek to me, but now after looking at your's, I've some idea as to what it says. ☺

But the Tak is for life, so not really expensive after all. Just saying, but don't let me influence you. 😈

Skinflint! Anything to save a few grand!! If Nicola buys a Tak mount she won't need to worry about dovetails or screws. Just trying to be helpful! ☺

I gave the Sissy Hass book away not long ago. If I tell you who I gave it to you could go and mug him! An Anthology of Visual Double Stars isn't as good as I thought it might be and i find it a bit disappointing, but I find the Cambridge Double Star Atlas quite valuable as an observing aid.

That DL in the shadows is almost an erotic tease. Perhaps im revealing too much about myself and my love of Takahashi! 💖

If solely for imaging, and if its a life-long scope. I'd get the Takahashi FSQ 106..

I've not used the AP but as its a replacement for Vixen's superb GP mount, I'd imagine the AP would have no problem carrying the Mewlon 180. The old GP could carry a 5" triplet with ease. The weakness, if any, will be in your choice of tripod.

Absolutely! And to finish the evening off I had a beautiful view of the Beehive through my 35mm Ultima (gorgeous), and a really nice view of shrinking Mars through my binoviewer. At first glance Mars looked like a tiny gibbous, with a dark smudge in the centre of its disc. But after only a few minutes, that dark smudge began to show subtle variations in darkness, and had narrow dark arms extending from it, the longest of which I imagine may have been sinus Sabaeus. Syrtis M was likely off centre at around 22.15UT, but I haven't checked the LCM, and didn't make a sketch.