MalcolmM

45 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Well there’s more to worry about, @MalcolmM.
I hesitate to raise this spectre, but I saw on a US website a photo someone posted of their new TPLs, but it seems Tak has changed the design of their EP boxes. Instead of a liftoff lid, it’s a flap. 
I’m not sure I can take this change.

Naturally, we will have to wait until @Highburymark takes delivery of his 3 TPLs (or was it 6 for binoview?) to see if the UK is subjected to this change.

But at least the boxes are still blue, with the lovely Tak writing.

Flapping heck, that sounds like a major drop in standards. You can't beat a nice blue lid!

Malcolm 

9 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Well, based on my own Tak Abbe 12.5mm orthos, I can't see how the outer 50% of the FOV could be any better to my eyes..

That's my worry! I think the Tak Abbe's must be incredibly hard to best! But here's hoping 🙂

Malcolm 

Just wondering if anyone is going to get one of these,  or even better, already used one?

Does anyone know if the outer 50% of the FOV is likely to be similar/better/worse than the Abbes or LEs?

Malcolm 

Egged on by members here (not intentionally I should add) I usually end up buying more equipment when I can't use what I have. Currently I'm trying very hard to resist looking for a Tak Abbe 32 after an innocuous  comment from @JeremyS has been worming away in my head!

On a more serious note, it's been weeks since I've observed, but I'm trying to remember and appreciate the 2 or 3 lovely weeks observing Venus in daytime under blue skies and evening sunshine. 

Malcolm 

51 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

I wonder if all Takahashi's own branded eyepieces all come to focus with their scopes? If not, that would be a bit naughty...

If they will, fair enough..most of us use a plethora of various brands and types, so it's not surprising if some of those don't come to perfect focus in a Tak focuser that almost certainly was designed only with Takahashi branded eyepieces in mind.

I confess that when I acquired my FS128, one of the first things I did was to replace the original back end focuser adapters.

This was initially as I wanted to use 2" eyepieces, and the original FS128 back end focuser was set up for 1.25" eyepieces only, and a genuine Tak 2" adapter for the Tak focuser was very expensive.

So it was Baader to the rescue, and I used a combination of their Tak specific adapters to allow me to bring all my 2" and 1.25" eyepieces to focus, and also to get native focus in binoviewers for most of my then 1.25" binoviewing eyepiece pairs.

Since then I have also switched to Baader 1.25" prism diagonals, which use up less of the optical path. 

Nicola, I hope you manage to sort out the focusing on your own Tak. Once you have, I know you will enjoy the superb views presented by your scope, knowing that the optics in your scope match or beat most other scopes commercially available today..😊

Dave

 

I have the DC variant and even though it has a very small focus range, I have never had any problems focusing, and I have quite a variety of eyepieces. Admittedly, I only use 1.25" eyepieces in the DC, so maybe I would run into problems with 2" eyepieces. I must give it a try sometime. Now Binoviewers ... that's a totally different ball game 🙂

Malcolm 

Great idea, I'll try and contribute. It'll encourage me to log my observations. And if that pic of your FOA does not convert people to the beauty of a 60mm scope,  nothing will 🙂Gorgeous!

Malcolm 

55 minutes ago, Saganite said:

They're not Malcolm, I am only 4' and 8 stone...

If I ever do get one and my partner complains, I'm going to show her the pic, quote you and direct her wrath firmly in your direction

Malcolm 

@F15Rules , that Vixen looks fab but the 128 is utterly sublime

That's a great picture of Trinity with Steve. I had no idea they were quite that big. You just don't appreciate the size of them in photographs of them on their mounts in isolation. Very envious

Malcolm 

Eyepieces are a very personal choice as I have found out from the many posts in this forum!

I have a few premium eyepieces from different manufacturers but I always prefer my Tak Abbes (I think they are orthos?).

For me, they are sharper, brighter and more contrasty than anything else I have, and that is more important to me than a wider field of view. They are also very light. If I want a wider FOV I first try a longer focal length of Abbe before going for a wide FOV eyepiece. 

No nostalgia on my part, I'm very recently into this game!

Malcolm 

I really really like the Abbe range. If these were a visible improvement I'd be very tempted, though I suspect my eyes would not be up to seeing a small difference. I do like the ergonomics and weight of these.

Malcolm 

The big advantage of the Tak cradle from my point of view is the ease with which you can loosen the clamp a bit and slide the scope so easily to achieve balance. Great for swapping between mono and binoviewers. Looks great too in my opinion. I use them in all my Taks (Mewlon excepted)

Malcolm 

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 

4 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Found the three grub screws. They were sealed in with something though - once I dug that out I was able to adjust the screws. That was it, the focusser is now a lot more free and the micro focusser doesn't bounce.

Shame such an expensive scope leaves the factory that badly adjusted. 

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 

52 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Venus is a great challenge to test you observing skills and it’s fun stepping up to that challenge.

I love observing cloud, well other planets clouds anyway.

Being seated, spending plenty of time at the eyepiece and being prepared to try various filters has worked for me.

As others have said, not easy. 
In my view that’s the whole point.

Oh and doubting what you are seeing is the biggest challenge of all at the start.

 

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 

On 23/06/2023 at 17:21, Mr Spock said:

No, it's stiff with or without. As I said above, it's stiff with mechanism removed entirely. 

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 

12 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Super list. I like point 11, especially 

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 

29 minutes ago, garryblueboy said:

I’ve owned several Mewlons a 250 and a couple of 210 over the years they are excellent scopes but the intes 715 deluxe beats them hands down in my opinion 

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 

58 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Glad you like the MEF 3, Malcolm. I have one on several of my Taks. Though expensive, they work well.
 

I also love the way they come in a plain manila box, completely understated and so typical of Tak 😊

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 

1 hour ago, Paz said:

That sketch is very useful to see, I did a first ever sketch of Venus a few weeks ago and although the patterns were different the look of it is very similar, but exaggerated just like your sketch. The actual contrast in the features was much less than I sketched, and on the boundaries of what was detectable to me, so my sketch was more schematic than realistic.

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