Ags

To be fair, I think many Taks seem to be bought as retirement gifts, special birthday presents or as a “final scope”. It’s not surprising people post about them.

I have seen definite color on two occasions over the past 20 years, both unforgettable experiences. The first time felt like I was looking at one of those 'color moon' images you see on the internet. I was using a Hyperion 17mm and 102 mm f13 Maksutov. I give most credit to the eyepiece, as Hyperions and their excellent coatings perform admirably at f13. I think the exit pupil of just over 1mm and the unknown sky transparency were very important too, as was the fact I was viewing a full disk. The moon was gibbous waxing.

My evaluation of this scope is overwhelmingly positive. For balance, here is an alternate view:

I must try a side by side with my ZS66 and LP90 with y NLV 9 and 12's.

Is that two scopes, or a scope and a finderscope? 🤣

Great capture of Aristarchus. I didn't realize I captured it earlier - I associate Aristarchus with incandescent brightness, but in this early light it looks quite muted. Your 8" picks up a lot more detail than my 6".

Still trying to get the focus perfect with the C6. For some reason 50% of my frames tonight were dropped??? Copernicus: Kepler Gassendi

If you want to go to a nearby park for observing, I think a dob would be too bulky. Also, if you want to branch into casual imaging, the dob would be unsuitable. You would however be surprised by how much a small frac can show you. I live in Bortle 8-9 and have done a lot of observing with a Zenithstar 66. Typically I use star hopping with a 50 mm finder scope, it’s not hard I have generated a range of star hopping charts for double stars and DSOs - you can download these as PDFs from the link in my signature and have a look. They are optimized for mucky urban skies. FLO sell the same scope I have by the way. it’s great fun for looking at brighter clusters, double stars and brighter nebulae. Unlike @Elp’s experience it shows the Hercules cluster well, just a ball of fuzz though, and brighter plametaries are easily visible. The Moon looks great and I preferred the rendition of Jupiter in the ZS66 to my C6. For more aperture than the ZS66, consider a Skymax 127 or C6, although these are less suitable for astrophotography. I’d mount them on an AZGTI and a sturdy carbon fiber tripod.

One of the markers of higher intelligence is a greater level of doubt about one's core beliefs. Whereas society tends to elevate those who are "passionate" about their beliefs. At least, that's what I tell myself. I can't make up my mind about anything! 🤣

Apollo 16 flew over this region.

A lava tube that has collapsed and surface material has funneled in along its length? I recall reading that lava tube diameter is inversely related to surface gravity. On Earth a lava tube can get a radius of 10m at most, on Mars 100m and on the Moon 1km.

Yes, JMARS now labels it as Rima Birt after searching by name...

Shot this last night with my C6. Most of the session was spent hunting for a new battery for my RDF. I didn't just leave it on last time, I turned it to maxmum brightness too. I feel I should be getting more from the C6, possibly worth trying with a barlow? I see there is a little rille to the left (West???) of the straight wall, I must look it up. Here is the LROC data for the same area, no name for the rille. And closer:

Anyone?

That’s really delightful.

The laws of physics were developed centuries before Takahashi made their first telescopes, so they clearly don’t apply 🙂

Yes NT6 13 would be ideal, but far out of my budget sadly. Realistically, I think it will be the OVL Nirvana 13 as FLO have such a good price. I'll do a comparison to the Speers WALER 13.4 and decide which I want to keep. If I can pick up a second-hand ES 14mm then I might go that route instead. The goal is this widefield progression: Nirvana 4mm >>> ES 6.7mm >>> Nirvana 13mm >>> ES 68 20mm. I don't have the Nirvana 4 yet either, I might get the ES 4.7 instead. I don't go above 20mm in the progression because of local light pollution ruining the views at exit pupils above 3mm. For dark sky trips I might add an ES 62 26mm however.

The mountains of the Moon... [C6, ASI485MC, IR]

Tycho emerging from the shadows... [C6, ASI485MC, IR]

Optically the Speers WALERs are great. Just very long and awkward. I prefer the ergonomics of the 6.7.

I find the eye relief on the 6.7 just right for me, nice and snug but not too close. I have heard that from several people, but I have owned the Nirvana 16 and while it gave many enjoyable views, particularly of the Moon, I ultimately found its edge correction, curvature and astigmatism unbearable. My sources tell me those issues do not affect the Nirvana 13 however!

I have the ES 20 and previously the ES 24, and both are excellent.

I'm looking for an eyepiece to slot inbetween my ES 82° 6.7mm and ES 68° 20mm. I'm looking at either the Nirvana 82° 13mm or the ES 68° 16mm. I hear the ES 16 is very good, but the Nirvana 13 is a better spacing (not to mention the atractive price!). I'd like to try the eyepiece in my f4 finderscope giving a 5.1° field with either eyepiece, but it would mostly be used on DSOs in my f5.6 refractor.

Pictures please!

Great comparison. Both scopes are close to the optimum performance of a 4" refractor, there's not a lot of room for the Tak to pull ahead. I do wonder if it might best the Starfield on Jupiter and Mars however... planetary detail is so marginal a little improvement from the Tak might make a noticeable difference.