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On 08/06/2021 at 12:37, garryblueboy said:

This week’s choice if a clear night appears 

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Love that tripod and can I ask how do you like the 150 evostar 150ED I read it had a few teething problems when it came out.

Paul

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1 minute ago, wookie1965 said:

Love that tripod and can I ask how do you like the 150 evostar 150ED I read it had a few teething problems when it came out.

Paul

Hi Paul yes it had a few bad reviews but mainly due to poor packaging which has been addressed overall I’m very pleased with my example as are a few other owners it really is a very good optically and would push some premium scopes to there limits I’d say it’s slightly better than my Vixen Atlux 150 was and a tad behind the Takahashi TOA 150 so for the price I’d say it punches well above its weight .

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On 26/06/2021 at 17:36, F15Rules said:

I was having a "me" day today after some busy days lately, so I decided to partially strip down my Carton Japan 60mm Comet Seeker achromat mount..

It's about 35 years old and there was a bit of "stickshun" in the mounts' movement, due I suspected to hardening of the original grease used for lubrication.

I'm not a very handy person to be honest, but the mount seemed simple enough in its build, and so it proved. I did take a few pictures of each step though, just in case I couldn't recall which bit went where!

As I thought, the original grease was very sticky, so I soaked the parts in white spirit to remove the old stuff, and then dried each component carefully with a clean cloth. I then applied some Lithium grease, which I've always found to be really effective as a light form of lubrication, and put everything back together carefully.

There is still a little play in the RA axis, but I'm not fussed enough to get into disassembly territory that I'm not confident I could sort myself. The main thing is that the motions on both axes are very smooth and light, and the mount really suits this little scope.

The mount is unusual in that it can operate in both equatorial and altazimuth modes - a feature that used to be found on other vintage mounts such as the Vixen Super Polaris. It's a shame you don't often see this design these days, as I feel sure that an altaz facility could easily be added to modern eq mounts for relatively little additional cost?

The scope itself is a simple achromatic doublet with single Mfg coatings typical of the 1980s. With a focal length of 710mm and 60mm aperture it operates at just under F12: as such, CA is well controlled, and the scope happily takes 100x on most targets, and up to 150-160x on the Moon. It was marketed at the time of Halley's Comet in the mid 1980s as a "Comet Seeker", and as such would have given nice views of the comet to astro newbies.

The scope came with a very useful camera counterweight which you can see just behind the objective end of the tube. It was originally meant to provide a balance to the included camera mount to allow the tube to stay in balance..as I've adapted the scope to take modern, heavier 1.25" eyepieces such as Morpheus, and this balancing ring really helps with the balance of the OTA.

I've had this scope for around 7 months now, but have yet to have a really good, dark session with it, although the double star views I have seen are very nice.

Optically I'd rate this scope as good to very good, definitely better than a Unitron Polarex 114, but definitely not quite as good as a Zeiss Telementor, mainly due to the Zeiss's better coatings and polish I suspect.

All in all a lovely, nicely made vintage refractor which many oldies like myself cut our teeth on in our younger days!😊

The pics show the scope after reassembly this afternoon, in both EQ and Altaz modes.

Dave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very nice! You can do a lot with a nice 60mm achro! Just wondering, that finder-scope mount.... a home modification, or is that the original bracket with a modern RA 6x30 on it?

Ant

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Hi Ant,

It's the original holder into which I've fitted a SW 6x30 Raci finder.

The original 6x30 straight through finder is very nice, but the RACI is perfect for this scope and so comfortable to use😊👍.

Dave

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1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

It's the original holder 

Dave

Now you’re getting Carried away, Dave. Gotta hand it to you: You might be trying to throw me of the scent, but I’ll pick it up again soon.

🤣

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26 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Now you’re getting Carried away, Dave. Gotta hand it to you: You might be trying to throw me of the scent, but I’ll pick it up again soon.

🤣

...and while you're at it, pick up that missing "f" from the "trying to throw me of the scent" sentence...:rolleyes2::)

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My just recieved Tasco 99vr (right) beside my 9vr waitin for the first shoot out. My first views through it in less than stellar skys seems to show as good a views as the 9vr, time will tell.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ramping up astro-operations again and I'm back with another ST(umpy)120, this time the Orion version. I've finally accepted there's no one scope for all, so this is to be my widefield/DSO scope and I plan to add something more planetary specific in time. Maybe an F11 ED frac or a 150 Mak. My previous ST120 always impressed me on DSO's very much a sweet spot with respect to reach vs size & weight.

I already had the dual speed crayford and TS CNC tube rings from a previous scope so this made a nice little package with the addition of a Stellamira Losmandy dovetail bar.

Realising (once again) the AZ4 was too limiting, I added an Orion SVP mount (EQ5) to the 2" CG5 tripod and ATLAS pillar along with an ADM dual saddle.

I'm quite the Orion fan boy now it seems, but to be fair their stock availability has been good and prices now seem more aligned to, or even better than SW equivalents in some cases.

 

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Edited by parallaxerr
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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

As it was raining I decided to swap mounts in my observatory. It was just a temporary thing but after doing it I rather like the feel of this Tak Teegul altaz now it's on my pier. I haven't had chance to use it in anger yet but its got me excited. All i need are some clear skies.

 

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29 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

As it was raining I decided to swap mounts in my observatory. It was just a temporary thing but after doing it I rather like the feel of this Tak Teegul altaz now it's on my pier. I haven't had chance to use it in anger yet but its got me excited. All i need are some clear skies.

 

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It like its understated simplicity, Mike.

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1 hour ago, Dave1 said:

This little beauty turned up the other day, Takahashi FS78.

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They do have a habit of just turning up unexpectedly, or as has happened, been the winning prize to a £1 raffle ticket, which can for one time only appease the wrath of our better halves.

Hope you have some good hiking boots Dave, as the terrain gets slippery from here on. Seriously nice scope though! :thumbsup:

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@mikeDnight thanks, in part the sketches you've  done over the years with the various Takahashi's that you've owned did influence my decision to buy my Tak FS78. 

3" class refractors are my favourite size of telescope, so it made sense to get a premium refractor in that class. 

I hope I don't get Takitis 😄 I'd love a 4" though.

Waiting on my 95mm More Blue telescope tube rings to turn up from Flo, so that I can mount them to my EQ3-2 mount. Can't wait 🙂

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My apologies if I’ve added this here before, don’t think I have you never know. I’m sure you know it, Tak FC-76Q, though bought as a DCU and have added the CQ module. It also has the Feathertouch from my FC100DC on it at the moment. Another on its way but will likely be quite a few months yet.

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38 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

Can we have a new forum rule please.  Stop showing your Taks.  Only because I am desperately trying to avoid temptation and every time I see one the want becomes just a little stronger...

Resistance is futile ⛩️🀄

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Here's the latest edition to the arsenal, a Genesis SDF F5.4.  

As it happened the sky was clear as the Sun set and as the stars started to show, I played around arming my way around this scope, and what it can and can't do. The night was cold and misty, which meant steady seeing but with plenty of moisture condensing on the tube, in fact water was pouring down the tube. The objective remained unaffected. After an hour or so I decided to bring the tube back into the house to dry it off and let it warm up, ready for a second session later.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the CA. Despite being a fluorite quad, this is no Apochromat. Much of that first impression of the CA was amplified by the mist. However i wasnt too bothered, as the magic of this scope is its wide, rich starfields. Nearer midnight i took the SDF out for its second session. This time the Moon had moved away and didn't dominate the sky anymore. Sweeping through Auriga and Orion with the 31mm Nagler was a joy to behold. With the 17.5mm Morpheus in the diagonal, I swung the scope over to view Sirius. I thought there's no point in messing around, let's try and kill it on its first night out with me. To my surprise, the CA I saw earlier was nolonger nearly as evident, and Sirius stood almost motionless due to the steady seeing.  There was no evidence of spherical abberation and diffraction rings were virtually identical on both sides of focus. I was very pleased. What thrilled me most of all however, was that the Pup was kissing the first diffraction ring. I don't remember ever seeing Sirius as steady as it was last night.

As a wide field sweeping instrument the Genesis SDF is superb, and fills the gap left by the sale of my NP101IS from 14 years ago. 

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32 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

Here's the latest edition to the arsenal, a Genesis SDF F5.4.  

As it happened the sky was clear as the Sun set and as the stars started to show, I played around arming my way around this scope, and what it can and can't do. The night was cold and misty, which meant steady seeing but with plenty of moisture condensing on the tube, in fact water was pouring down the tube. The objective remained unaffected. After an hour or so I decided to bring the tube back into the house to dry it off and let it warm up, ready for a second session later.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the CA. Despite being a fluorite quad, this is no Apochromat. Much of that first impression of the CA was amplified by the mist. However i wasnt too bothered, as the magic of this scope is its wide, rich starfields. Nearer midnight i took the SDF out for its second session. This time the Moon had moved away and didn't dominate the sky anymore. Sweeping through Auriga and Orion with the 31mm Nagler was a joy to behold. With the 17.5mm Morpheus in the diagonal, I swung the scope over to view Sirius. I thought there's no point in messing around, let's try and kill it on its first night out with me. To my surprise, the CA I saw earlier was nolonger nearly as evident, and Sirius stood almost motionless due to the steady seeing.  There was no evidence of spherical abberation and diffraction rings were virtually identical on both sides of focus. I was very pleased. What thrilled me most of all however, was that the Pup was kissing the first diffraction ring. I don't remember ever seeing Sirius as steady as it was last night.

As a wide field sweeping instrument the Genesis SDF is superb, and fills the gap left by the sale of my NP101IS from 14 years ago. 

758042875_2022-01-1212_51_45.thumb.jpg.685d9b2ae783b711e467b5e5c860fbba.jpgIMG_20220111_155546.thumb.jpg.619acbcbbeb48d208d1980856e85b05b.jpgIMG_20220111_155741.thumb.jpg.c3452b3b8aa048172adc28c37fe8f0f6.jpg

Very nice Mike! As you know I have a Genesis f5, and think it’s a great scope. No apo (worse than the sdf of course), but lovely flat widefield views and surprisingly capable at high power. Enjoy! I wondered where that one would end up 😉

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3 hours ago, Stu said:

Very nice Mike! As you know I have a Genesis f5, and think it’s a great scope. No apo (worse than the sdf of course), but lovely flat widefield views and surprisingly capable at high power. Enjoy! I wondered where that one would end up 😉

Thanks Stu.

I saw the ad and didn't respond until the next day, as normally after a short while thinking about a purchase I think better of it. But it was the first thing on my mind when I woke the day after, and as it was a seller near to me I could drive over and collect. I did like my NP101 that I had for only a year some 14 years ago, but only for its wide field ability. It was ok in other respects but that's all, and it wasn't worth the extreme high price I paid, even less worth today's astronomical price. The Genesis SDF however was well worth the price asked. I think the SDF and the DZ will get along nicely, as there's no need for any competition between them. I'm still stunned by the view of Sirius! 

I'm not certain how old the GSDF is but I think it may be from the 90's. May be someone could enlighten me?

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Edited by mikeDnight
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