GlassQueen

Wow these are awesome. Thank you so much for the images. They are very helpful! Great to know the Tak bracket holds other scopes, contrary to all the descriptions I've come across that infer that only a Tak finder scope would ever fit.

John, thank you. It is good to know that you have a non-Tak scope mounted in a Tak mount -and it works. I will check that out as an option for my Orion.

Thank you all for the kind welcome!

Hello all, Question - can a third party finder (or any non-OEM attachment for that matter) be used on Takahashi refractors? I have a new FC-100DC without a finder and I do have a 50mm Orion Guide Scope. Is it possible to use this on the Tak? Thanks in advance.

Refractors (not cheap ones) have great resolution and less issue with light bouncing around because they have a simple lens system, unlike camera lenses. However, I have been able to successfully image Andromeda with a 70-200mm lens (without the tracker - I have the SA2i). This was done with a full frame Nikon D780 and Nikkor 70-200mm - 216 images stacked with 50 dark frames. The tracker would have decreased the number of frames and ISO required but I didn't have it on hand. A full frame 200mm lens on your crop sensor camera (depending if it is a Nikon or Canon) would have resulted in a focal length of 300mm or 320mm respectively. See if you can find a fast used lens (f/2.8 or faster). Photographing planets are (very) difficult with a camera lens but deep sky objects and moon work great.

Thank you! Oh, I think it has definitely intensified the cloud quantity already. 🙄

Hello everyone, After many (many...) years, I am diving back into astronomy. I started off with a 4" Meade SCT 2045, which I still have and recently picked up a Takahashi refractor (Merry Christmas to ME) and am also working on getting a LX200GPS 10" to function. The hope is to have the LX200GPS set up outside in a fixed location (this sucker is mighty heavy for me to move by myself) and the Tak for portability. The Tak is my first ever refractor and I am learning how to use it. After much fumbling on Dec 21st, I managed to capture Jupiter and Saturn using my DSLR. Seeing Saturn come into focus on my camera's LCD was incredible. This pretty much added fuel to my already frenzied astrophotography mania. My #1 quest is to do imaging, both planetary and nebula with both telescopes. So, here I am to learn what I can to best use them. I have a ZWO camera and Nikon DSLR. As I do not have a finder scope for my Tak (it's a FC-100DC) does anyone know if third party finders can be attached? I have an Orion 50mm and would like to know if it can be used on it? Clear skies