Sunshine

Amazing images, the detail!

While looking through images on my phone just now, I ran into images of my two Nephews looking through my scope and thought it would make for a great thread subject. Most of us find ourselves out there in the dead of night all by ourselves but surely we have shared our love of the heavens with others, below is Noah, my 8yr old nephew being wowed by his first look at the moon. Have any images of friends, family, or even curious bystanders looking through your scopes? Post them here!.

Now that’s an intro! Welcome!

12 hours ago, RobertI said:

Actually this reminded me, I think the Portaball is a very attractive looking scope:

Those portaball telescopes are certainly unique.

Welcome! I have never had the Skymax 127 but I’m sure many here have, you can do some very basic photography of the moon with inexpensive items such as a phone adapter and your phone with really nice results. I’m sure you’ll find many ideas and helpful hints within this forum, enjoy your stay!.

17 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Got Trinity the Tak FS128 out tonight as skies were unexpectedly clear (6pm)..

I've just cut 100mm off my fixed height hardwood tripod legs, to make seated observing more comfortable with my Nadira observing chair..it's now at an ideal height for most parts of the sky, I simply adjust the height of the chair as needed depending on the elevation of my target object.

Sadly the clear sky didn't last (3rd time in a week!), but I did get a nice 10 minute view of Jupiter with the binoviewers. Seeing wasn't great but 3 belts very prominent and all 4 main moons shown as nice little disks.

Just need a "proper" session now!

Dave

What a beauty, one day I will run across one of these fabled FS-128’s If it isn’t for sale I’ll have to make an offer they can’t refuse, even if it gets me I’m the dog house for a year. 

19 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

Does this count as a telescope? The Dragonfly Telephoto Array:

Amazing, I’m puzzled by how they managed to keep such a large cluster of lenses steady and aligned together when anchored at just one point being the mount head, looks so cool!

🤣  NP127 for 5lbs, schillings, stones, either way a steal!

Beautiful is right, a beautiful image!

12 hours ago, DaveS said:

And a lot of posts showing off all the telescopes people own, which isn't the point.

Well I wouldn't say anyone is showing off their scopes, this entire forum is a place where we all post pictures of our scopes to begin with.

Looks awesome! i love it!

Welcome!

Who says Tak’s are ugly? maybe a little surgical but then again, telescopes are instruments designed for a practical purpose with visual appeal being of least concern, I think my sample is very pretty, actually.

18 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Couple of other pretty telescopes i’ve come across on the interwebs:

from a French artist Jacques Civetta a beautiful futuristic bino-dob:

And from a Swiss artist the Spherae “dob” https://www.spherae.ch/english in walnut laminate:

Mark

Both of these are nice!

25 minutes ago, niallk said:

Could see this scope design being unmercifully ripped to shreds over on CN 😂😂

Lack of provision for rear cooling, that focusser (yuk!), secondary collimation, looks like vibration suppression would be a nightmare, no provision for a shroud for body heat elimination from light path, etc... It would want to come with a Zambuto 🤣

Give me a SW 250px anyday!

 

Agreed!

3 hours ago, Steve Ward said:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/this-beautiful-art-nouveau-telescope-can-be-yours

Oh! here I was thinking maybe one day I’ll get one of those, NOT!! I’m stunned at the price, can’t understand it or justify it and in US dollars! insanity.

6 minutes ago, paulastro said:

Sorry Sunshine and bosun21, when you read this I'd only written the first two lines and pressed the post button by mistake.  At least you now know why I'm shouting at you 🤣

No no! it was funny, I felt like a child again when my mom would yell at me to clean my room 😅

I tried!! but its cloudy here! don't yell at me! 🤣

8 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Good question. I couldn't find a price either which puzzled me, hence "If you have to ask how much..."

If I were a billionaire my wife would still insist I ask how much.

11 minutes ago, DaveS said:

If I had the funds I would buy a Porter Garden Telescope, I wouldn't even bother to ask "how much". As they say, "if you have to ask how much...".

It’s a stunning work of art! but is it for sale? I was on their site and didn’t notice a price or even if it is for sale.

7 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Here are 3 scopes that I've owned in the past, and always felt were drop dead gorgeous..

In order of earliest one owned first:

1) - Ylena 150mm Maksutov F14. I just love the plain industrial black paint finish, and the beautifully purple tinted front corrector plate (if it were an objective lens Jeremy would describe it as "lickable"🤦😂).

A stupendously good scope optically, it would give my FS128 a really good run for it's money.

I owned this in 2010 for c 3 years, should never have sold it.. and it had a built in handle!

2 ) - Classic D&G USA 5" F15 Achromat Refractor: IMHO a truly beautiful scope, in classic white, with unique wooden rings, dewshield that seamlessly blended into the main tube - which measured 2 metres in length.

I owned this beauty for c 4 years from 2012, and had it modified by Mark Turner of Moonraker Telescopes, London. Mark cut c5" off the tube to allow native binoviewing  with no OCS. He also fitted an excellent bespoke Moonlite focuser in polished aluminium. I named the scope "Andromeda", and again, the performance of this scope truly rivalled my current Tak: textbook stellar images and superb planetary and lunar views on nights of good seeing.

Andromeda was a beast to mount, and having had a double hernia operation I sadly had to accept that I needed a more practical scope in terms of size and handling. Andromeda went to another SGL member and friend who mounted her properly, on a pier mounted EQ6 as shown below:

3 ) - Vixen ED103s F7.7 Apochromat. I think Vixens are very underrated both here in the UK and the USA, but I find them beautiful to look at and to look through.

They are well built, classic in looks, and extremely lightweight. The Vixen ED103s has an oversized 114mm tube which tbh makes the 4" Taks look like a peashooter by comparison.. (I now own a similarly oversized 5" Tak FS128 which looks more like a 6" scope..as far as I know the FS range were the only ones to have oversized tubes - I stand to be corrected on that though).

The ED103 was the successor to the legendary Vixen FL102s fluorite apo, which itself had "to die for" classic scope looks.

I've owned two ED103s scopes and was thrilled with them both. If a 5" Vixen apo had been available I would have bought one in a heartbeat (Vixen did offer an ED130SS some years ago, but they are rare as hens teeth).

I was fortunate enough to find my FS128 back in 2016/17, while the memories of my ED103s (which I had to sell, along with most of my entire kit, to fund the Tak purchase) were still fresh in my mind. The FS128 images were brighter (which you would expect, with a 5" lens catching c 56% more light than a 4"), but in absolute optical quality terms, there was very little, if any, difference to my eyes.

So I will always consider the Vixen ED103s an absolutely top class, beautiful and underrated scope: if you see one come up used, and would like a 4" Tak but can't afford one..get the Vixen, I guarantee you'll be smiling for a very long time!👍☺️.

 

Dave

 

These are just beautiful specimens here! especially that Vixen, what a vixen!! 

Jeremy has been known to sniff tripods, your optics are safe. 🤣

27 minutes ago, Lee_P said:

I always thought that my kitted out Askar FRA400 looked pretty badass, and I had it sitting on a shelf by my desk when not in use. Now my Askar 130PHQ has the astrophotography kit, but is too heavy for the shelf!

 

They look amazing but especially the image of the 130 is beautifully composed and exposed! would be great if this thread suddenly morphed into a "show us your best image of your scope" thread, your 130 shot would be a finalist, I would say.

4 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

It certainly is, looks like it belongs in a hospital 😀

Alan

Indeed it does, right next to all the other precision, carefully crafted instruments you’ll find in a hospital.

7 minutes ago, allworlds said:

That Great Weatherell Refractor @Steve Ward posted, that's a good look. As far as modern stuff goes, yeah I think Vixen fracs just have a certain something about them.

I dig Explorer Scientific's BT series too. Similar aesthetics to the Vixens but two tubes is twice as good right ?

+1 about the Vixen fracs, I love the look of those.

49 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

Sacrilege! I've a Tak in every room just to look at. My partner even clobbered me once for looking lasciviously at the one in the bedroom (60CB)

Malcolm 

Lol, it’s ok I caress mine, yeah the creep factor is off the scale, I know.