MalcolmM

Just paying homage to a gorgeous little scope that I have had a lot of fun with recently, observing Venus . The Extender-Q gives it a bit of extra punch without the slightly extra hassle of fitting the CQ 1.7x Extender. The addition of an MEF3 micro focuser makes it even more of a pleasure to use. Malcolm

Thanks for the heads up @Stu. I'm keeping an eye out for a break in the clouds. Great pics, very sharp. Malcolm

That's brilliant news! Very pleased you got it working smoothly. I put the tiniest drop of loctite on the grub screws after I adjusted them in order to keep them secure. I am embarrassingly biased towards Taks and I feel more attached to a scope after I have done a small tweak like that! But as I've said before, that probably says more about me than it does the scope! Malcolm

Totally agree and what's lovely about this time of year with Venus is you can observe it while sitting in the sun I got Venus yesterday at 18.00, the earliest I have seen it yet. Here's a sketch with the usual caveats of exaggerated markings and questions as to whether I was seeing detail or have an over active imagination FS60CB plus Extender-Q plus TOE 3.3 and 4. The 4 gave the best view. Once I knew where to look, I could actually see Venus with the naked eye at 18.00. Malcolm

If you bought it through FLO it would be worth emailing them. I have always found them very helpful and very keen to fix any problems. The DC focuser assembly can be tweaked easily, though I'm sure it would be more advisable to let FLO do it. The stiffness of the draw tube is very sensitive to the 3 grub screws on the focuser assembly. If they are tweaked, a tiny amount should be all that's needed and each should be adjusted equally. The rack and pinion tension can also be adjusted, but I have never done this. In my experience, the Tak focuser is very smooth. I adjusted the 3 grub screws ever so slightly on my 60CB to get it 'just so'. Whatever you do, I hope you get it sorted to your satisfaction. It should be a pleasure to use; admittedly I have no experience with FTs or many other scopes. Good Luck Malcolm

I put binoviewers on the above setup. Very unbalanced, actually could not move the scope/cradle forward enough to achieve balance. Extender-Q plus Maxbrights plus 2.6 GPC plus 12.5 Abbe eyepieces. I reckon the magnification was near enough the equivalent of a TOE3.3, about x170, maybe more. The scope vibrated for a couple of seconds after being disturbed. I think I would really have struggled to focus easily with the stock focuser. With the MEF it was easy! Malcolm

I really struggle with point 11. Not that I blame you ... really 🙂 Malcolm

Great list, many of which resonate with me, particularly (3) and (5). Regarding binoviewing, often I stick with cyclops viewing due to the ease of setup, but the nice thing is I get a 'wow' moment every time when I do reach for the Binoviewers. And then I say to myself I should use Binoviewers all the time! But I never do! Malcolm

That's another nice looking scope. I'm glad I caught Takitis early on before knowing about all these other premium scopes; I struggle with too much choice sometimes Malcolm

I think I read somewhere that you said you had several of them. That did help sway me Malcolm

I had been considering getting one of these for a year or so now. Mixed reviews, particularly on other forums, plus liking very much the stock focuser, made me hold back. Fast forward to now and I bit the bullet! I think it's brilliant! Very easy to install, 5 or 10 minutes did the job. And it's very smooth, very accurate, a pleasure to use. I might now be buying a couple more of them 🙂 Now in the interest of fairness, I have never seen or used other options (More Blue, FT etc) so I can't make any comparisons. I also like keeping my scope totally Tak if I can. I am also unashamedly Tak biased I have also only used it the once, this evening on Venus. It is installed on an FS60CB and I had the Extender-Q attached with a 4mm Tak Abbe; a magnification of x140. It was on a Gitzo Traveler tripod with the center column fully raised, not the most stable of configurations. The stock focuser can deal with this fine, no problems, but with the MEF3 it was exceptionally easy and quick to get a very sharp Venus. A definite improvement over the already very good stock focuser. From my perspective I can thoroughly recommend the MEF3. I found I was able to spend more time observing and less time trying to achieve the best possible focus! Malcolm

At the risk of dragging on a bit, here's this evenings observation. FS60CB plus Extender-Q plus Tak Abbe 4mm at 19.00 BST Venus was very sharp and very bright. The cloud detail seemed to come and go such that I was in my usual quandary as to whether I was seeing true cloud detail or optical artifacts! If I had to summarise, I would say definite darker areas North and South with a brighter patch in the middle! Malcolm

Your drawing mirrors very much what I have often observed recently. The shading is so subtle that it's easy to think you are imagining it! Malcolm Malcolm

Another thing I've noticed when observing Venus against a bright sky is that it looks a slightly dirty yellow colour. Is this correct? It is a lovely sight too when seen as a tiny little crescent in a wide angle eyepiece! Malcolm

I wonder is the big aperture of the 120 collecting too much light? Is it possible to have too much light? Malcolm

That's brilliant thanks @Kon. I'm genuinely never really sure with Venus, but your image here, and another one from a couple of weeks ago, seem to show enough correlation with what I thought I saw that I think I saw something 🙂 That and some nice corroboration too from @IB20, many thanks! Thanks again for putting in the time and effort and taking that image - really appreciate it. Malcolm

I hope it's not bad etiquette @mikeDnight to post my own observation here! I got it tonight at 7.30 with the help of binoculars and a wide angle eyepiece. I think I saw cloud detail - I'd love to compare my sketches with another of @Kon's excellent images! It may have been an optical illusion but I thought I saw a couple of dark bands in the clouds using the 4mm TOE. Definite shape to what I was seeing (or thought I was seeing ) with the 4 and the 2.5. I have exaggerated the shading slightly. Broken wrist is limiting me to a small scope but my new Extender-Q (thanks for the encouragement @JeremyS and @mikeDnight) is giving the FS60CB a bit of extra punch without having to put the Ext CQ in. Malcolm

'Daylight' for me was 20.00 a couple of weeks ago and Venus took quite a bit of tracking down, so to catch it at 18.20 I reckon is pretty impressive. @mikeDnight, I really enjoy your posts. For me, they are the 'gold' standard of what is possible in an amateur scope. They help validate my own observations. For example, the bright edge round the limb in your sketch; I have seen that on a number of occasions. My only issue is you've upped your aperture beyond any of my refractors 🙂so your gold standard is now beyond my reach Thanks for posting, Malcolm

I have never heard of these before. Looked them up and they look fabulous scopes. It'll go very nicely with the FOA. You will have lots of great viewing with that combination. Congratulations! Malcolm

That @JeremyS has a lot to answer for! And I'm not letting you @DirkSteele and your website off. @HollyHound and @Stu are also culpable! I used to be very happy with, and very much enjoy my Skywatcher ST102. Then all of the above ganged up, twisted my arm, polluted my head and now I have a whole family of Taks and their respective bits and pieces! God bless you all Malcolm

When I got a 100DC I thought it was huge! The standout for me is the 128. It must be enormous! I'd love to see one in the flesh! Malcolm

I compared the Linear with the Williams Optics binoviewers somewhere on this forum! I found the view through the WO better. I also find the view through the Maxbrights better than the WO. So in my experience, the Maxbrights are much better visually than the Linear. I really only use the Linear in my Lunt because I cannot get the WO or the Maxbrights to come to focus in the Lunt 50. But you make me think I should do a comparison between all three, particularly now I have got a bit more experience using the Linears! Malcolm

This mirrors my experience exactly! Tricky to achieve best focus and the image is softer than with mono viewing. I found the same effects with lunar viewing and they do not tighten well in the Tak prism diagonal. Like you, definitely not the game changer the Maxbrights were for me. That being said, I persevered with them and it does become easier to get a decent image through them with practice. And it's much more relaxing to use binoviewers than mono. Malcolm

In a bid to minimise the glare of Venus, I thought I'd give it a go at 20.00 tonight. Not a mission of seeing it naked eye, it's basically daylight. So I scanned with the binoculars to get an approximate location. Moved to the FS60CB + 28mm Erfle (~4.7° FOV) and centeted it. Then to the finder on the FOA-60Q, centered it again and finally some lovely views with a 6mm Abbe (0.3° FOV) Malcolm

Just compared my observations with @Kon's excellent image from last night. His image shows banding, brightening at the poles, darkening at the terminator, possible explanation for my 'dark nick' but no horns unfortunately. Though possibly why I might have thought I saw horns; a sort of optical illusion? But all in all, I'm very pleased with the observation. Malcolm