A Tak Surprise

[Scooot]

I had my 26mm Nagler in the 16" dob focuser and the 10mm Delos in the baby Tak when I wondered over to look at NGC 457 last night. A 1° FOV and mag of 80 in the dob Versus about 2° and 35x in the Tak.

Looking through the dob the owl stood out well with many stars, the contrast wasn't as good as the ethos view the night before, but it was still quite a stunning view. Then I looked through the Tak, wow what a difference, a stark black background, pinpoint stars, the owl looming in the centre of the view very nicely framed amongst a field of jewels around the edge. Lovely!

The Tak view was much better in my opinion, and quite a surprise.

[John]

16" dob beaten by a 60mm refractor on a DSO ?

I'd not have expected that !

I can barely see M97 with my 102mm refractor most of the time and need an O-III filter to make it pop into view. The nearby galaxy M108 becomes invisible with the filter though so it's "swings and roundabouts". My 12" dob beats any of my fracs on this pair overall though.

[Scooot]

16" dob beaten by a 60mm refractor on a DSO ?

I'd not have expected that !

I can barely see M97 with my 102mm refractor most of the time and need an O-III filter to make it pop into view. The nearby galaxy M108 becomes invisible with the filter though so it's "swings and roundabouts". My 12" dob beats any of my fracs on this pair overall though.

You didn't misread me did you I said NGC 457 the owl cluster, I've got no chance with galaxies with the 60mm.

Yes I much preferred the view with the Tak. The owl stood out well, quite small but large enough to be good. I couldn't see so many stars in it of course but all the main ones. It was the contrast that made the difference, if I'd increased the mag on the dob I'd have said the quality of the view would be the same but just different. But with these two eyepieces the blackness of the view through the Tak versus a more washed out view with the dob did it for me.

[cotterless45]

Contrast is the key to most of our observing. It's a lovely little owl to show newbies.

Phi 1 and 2 head a cluster of many thousand stars here,

Nick.

[MarsG76]

Wow, there you go, it just goes to show that a collection of different scopes is needed since different scopes will be better then other for a particular object.... It will be my excuse to get more telescopes and create my own "telescope farm"...

[John]

You didn't misread me did you I said NGC 457 the owl cluster, I've got no chance with galaxies with the 60mm.

Yes I much preferred the view with the Tak. The owl stood out well, quite small but large enough to be good. I couldn't see so many stars in it of course but all the main ones. It was the contrast that made the difference, if I'd increased the mag on the dob I'd have said the quality of the view would be the same but just different. But with these two eyepieces the blackness of the view through the Tak versus a more washed out view with the dob did it for me.

Sorry, I saw "the Owl" and automatically thought of the Owl Nebula, M97. I'd forgotten that NGC 457 also bears that nickname

I agree that refractors can show open clusters extremely well.

[Scooot]

Sorry, I saw "the Owl" and automatically thought of the Owl Nebula, M97. I'd forgotten that NGC 457 also bears that nickname

I agree that refractors can show open clusters extremely well.

No probs, I looked up m97 after my reply and realised it was the owl nebula you were referring to. I'm going to have a look for that planetary next time I'm out, I don't remember seeing it before. ( I should make notes really).

I don't think they'll be many direct comparisons of dso's that will look better in the 60mm, I've bought it for the vistas mainly, but it's great to compare whilst it's attached to the dob. Looking forward to viewing m45 and the beehive with it.

[swamp thing]

The lesson here is....
Sell the 26mm Nagler and get an Ethos 21mm, pretty much the same FOV with improved contrast and image scale. Job done.

[Scooot]

The lesson here is....

Sell the 26mm Nagler and get an Ethos 21mm, pretty much the same FOV with improved contrast and image scale. Job done.

Not sure about the eye relief with the 21mm, I know it says it's the same but that doesn't always prove to be the case in practice. One thing that was a bit of a nuisance with the ethos and Nagler last night, was because I have to have the eyeguard down, the heat from my eye kept misting up the glass, ( I thought it was thin cloud at first) whereas with the Delos I had the eyeguard up, and my glasses on with the panoptic, so they were ok. I might be looking for another delite full eyepiece for the tak, maybe an 18mm, if I can think of anything suitable, something lightweight my 17.3mm Delos is fine but I'm often using that as a 2" in the dob.

I have been wondering about how often I'll use the 26mm now, it's still very good & I'm sure it'd be excellent at a dark site, although it still won't get the wide view of the little frac

[RikM]

I use the little Pronto as an open cluster scope. Refractor stars just seem so much nicer than Newtonian stars. Can't beat a Dob for faint fuzzies though. It's nice to have both options available.

[damnut]

That's a super brief report. And a great setup for quick viewing, and huge dob to compare it with.

[ollypenrice]

I use the little Pronto as an open cluster scope. Refractor stars just seem so much nicer than Newtonian stars. Can't beat a Dob for faint fuzzies though. It's nice to have both options available.

Exactly. For the fuzzies you need aperture. For the stars you need a refractor. For the fuzzies and the stars you need a REFRACTOR and you ain't going to be getting one!

 lly

Edit, I often express some doubts about the FS60, especially regarding its price and indeifferent imaging performance, but it is a super little visual gem.

[Scooot]

Exactly. For the fuzzies you need aperture. For the stars you need a refractor. For the fuzzies and the stars you need a REFRACTOR and you ain't going to be getting one!

 lly

Edit, I often express some doubts about the FS60, especially regarding its price and indeifferent imaging performance, but it is a super little visual gem.

Ah yes a dob size refractor is the answer

Joking aside I get some great views of stars with the dobs where the frac can't reach so to speak. M103 was wonderful in the Dob last night as were many others, so it's much more than a fuzzy hunter to me. I understand however it's the fuzzies they're considered to excel at.

I'm new to frac viewing and I chose this one because it was very light, and I guessed very good for visual, which is what I required to mount it on the dob. If I could mount it easily on the dob I knew I'd use it a lot. Price wise, well I'm probably paying a bit for the name, and from a performance viewpoint there's probably better value, but they were also heavier. Your right it is a lovely little scope, certainly a lot better than my finder