JeremyS

‘Fraid so! On Cloudy Nights it’s called Takitis No cure.

Excellent 👍🏻

How interesting! Not come across the Teegul 60 before. Presume it’s a package with a Teegul mount. Love the rolled edge on the dew cap. I presume you bought from a used dealer in Tokyo? Enjoy!

Stunning!!

Now THAT is a thing of beauty, Gary! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Here’s a 500 Sec image I took last night with my Tak FS 60 and SXVF-H9 CCD. I was using a V filter as I was doing photometry (it was mag V = 8.0). M52 at top and you can just make out the Bubble Nebula on the right hand side (nit helped by the light attenuation from the filter)

Will go nicely with the Tak FC 76 DCU 👍🏻 I find them a great combo

Great to hear this Magnus 👍🏻

I've placed a short article about the nova on the BAA website here Includes a spectrum of the nova.

At their brightest a few days or a couple of weeks. But can take weeks or many months to fade back to quiescence. The precursor is thought to be mag 13.5.

There’s a pic of the nova and M52 by the BAA’s Nick James: https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20210319_220341_0251041a729b7935

Wise decision Ade. See how you get on with the Uni. I’m sure it’ll be fine. But you can always get a Planet later

Did you get paid much for modelling in those cartoons Mike?

That’s excellent. Well done 👍🏻 I was thinking that rhombus might be a good indicator

The loveliest phrase in the English language: “ new Tak “ 🤣 I wonder what it is in Japanese 🤔

I’m amazed how long it remained in the window considering the attractive price and the shortage of quality scopes in the market atm For a moment I entertained the idea of a bino-scope. Glad that temptation has gone 🤣

Latest data I’ve seen have it at mag 7.9 Looks like Sunday might be my first chance.

Excellent news! This is such a lovely G&G and travel scope. And that was a real bargain price. It will sit beautifully on your ScopeTech Zero mount!

Simple way as @Waddensky says: just S of M52. The way to locate is to use the variable star chart link I sent. When that displays there is a link that says Plot Another Chart. You can then choose the scale you prefer. If you chose chart scale A you get this 15 deg view. You can compare that chart with a star atlas and see that the brightest star (marked 23, i.e. mag 2.3) is beta Cas, and star 35 (mag 3.5) is iota Cep.

Yesterday a nova was discovered in Cas. It’s currently a mag 8 binocular object. More details here: https://britastro.org/node/25814

Actually it was only a year ago Dave. Did Sky & Telescope charge for handling? 🤣

Yes, it’s same focuser in the two models. Here’s a pic of the FC 76 DCU configured as I normally use it

That made me laugh. I also wondered if this was the first reference to cro-magnon man on SGL. Turns out there are 3 others. I always find the words enchantingly pithy.

My basic set up with my FS 60 CB is indeed the top line in the chart. The pic I included the other day in a thread is with the Q extender and I needed to change the back a little to reach focus. The FS 60 focuser doesn’t have a lot of travel, so can be critical with some diagonals. The Tak diagonal has an unusually short light path so eats less back focus. The are multiple ways to accommodate different back accessories. As Mike says, FLO (specifically Ian King - he’s put me right several times) can advise.

Well, technically it’s not my equipment. We gave this SW 150 dob to our younger daughter for her 8th birthday. She’s now a hospital Dr and we’ve not seen her since Christmas, so thought it would be nice to get it out to reminisce. I never cease to be amazed at how good this instrument is.