Peter Drew

I've had several Russian binoculars over the years including the 8x30, the 12x40 and the later "Tento" range, all have been of excellent quality and had a nice leather case with distinctive aroma. Good find for £10.

It depends a lot on what sort of performance you want. Double stacking enhanses the contrast considerably at the cost of a much dimmer image calling for a cover over the head to enjoy satisfactorily visually. DS is very good for imaging, particularly for full solar disc images. I prefer the larger high resolution single stack aperture the same amount of outlay will provide. YMMV.

Hello Markus, welcome to this forum. What you ask certainly can be done, I got close to finishing a similar project using an 18" F3.6 mirror. However, during a period of doing other things I read enough negative comments about this procedure that the project is now on hold pending a rethink. The main problems stated were the mounting of the camera, the effects of cabling, potential difficulties with focusing and heat from the camera. I was proposing to use an integrating video camera for near real time imaging to a monitor, it has a very small footprint and small CCD chip so off axis image distortion would have been minimal. The main advantage of the system seems to be not having to invest in a secodary mirror.

It seems to take a lot of aftermarket help to operate one of these Taks satisfactorily.

You get a choice between a 114 Newtonian and the 90mm Maksutov. I chose the 114 as I already had a few 90mm Maks. The 114 is a very capable little telescope particularly for wide field use. The mount is probably one of the best table top variety, it's much more stable than most and its defining plus is that both axes can be overidden manually without upsetting the drive.

I remember it as being the first time I was really pleased to see the eventual rain, I ran outside just to feel it again. Visitors from arid countries often envy our rainfall.

Scorpio?, you'll only find that in the tabloids.

Smoothe surfaces give smoothe movements, you just have to get the tension right.

I've spent most of my life and money on astronomy. I've seen so many wonderful things and met so many wonderful people that I feel that every minute and penny have been well spent.

The cheapest, easiest instant fix is to use a couple of rubber bands, one end fitted to the eyepiece locking screw and the other to a fixed part of the focuser. using the correct tension will keep the focusing action firm yet balanced.

For an opening post asking a few questions about a 4" Tak, this thread certainly has "legs". Perhaps time for a Tak users section?

Worthwhile project. Good luck!

Looks like a work in progress to me. Not long until March 31st !

Anyone seriously tempted to buy one would do well to leave it until after next Christmas.

I cant't add much to the pros and cons already posted but as an outreach specialist and provider I can say that visitors, children specially, overwhelmingly prefer to look through a telescope rather than an object on the screen. The only time we employ a camera and a large screen is when we let the children drive the telescope with the controller whilst they pan up and down the close up image of the Moon. The "new" telescope, interesting though it is, seems to have a lot of components that could go wrong, I wonder how the "smartphoners" would get on with problem solving.

Just one of the symptoms of small refractor syndrome.

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree, the title is no good, the general thrust of the article must give food for thought to those who are not refractor diehards. I can't remember when I last used my 8.5" refractor whereas my 8" SCT was just yesterday.

Excellent buy I would say. The OTA when last available new was £250.

It's a variant of the catadioptric (lenses and mirrors to form the prime image) class of optical design. It has a primary mirror and a sub aperture corrector between the primary and secondary mirrors. A bit like a Maksutov but without a full aperture corrector. The system is "open" like a Newtonian and has a secondary support spider.

I currently have 6 SCT's ranging from 8" to 16", optically they are all better than "good enough".

Straight through will be necessary considering the low altitude of Mars.

Not surprising as they are both one-off self builds. The mount is a simplified version of the TTS Panther.

They can't. They climb up the pylons and then tightrope along the wires for fun. One lurking to the left of the first photo.

"Dust bunny".

Ready for Mars!. 5" F15 triplet APO.