The Tak was better than the Dob

[Scooot]

I was outside between 2 & 5.30 watching the eclipse. I had the baby tak mounted on the 10" standing on the EQ platform. In the tak was either a 24mm panoptic or my camera and in the dob my 17.3mm Delos. My bins were also to hand for when I needed to give my legs a rest.

I spent a lot of time switching views etc but it was obvious throughout the night that the view was better through the tak. The colours were more pronounced, the surface detail was crystal clear, and the Fov was wider, showing our neighbour suspended amongst the stars. It really was a 3D effect. The dob was much brighter, and certainly no slouch, the surface detail was clear, but it didn't seem as sharp, particularly when the light levels dropped during totality, and the colours not so vivid. I'm not knocking the Dob, it's a great scope but on this target it was second best, which I'm sure is no surprise to ardent Frac fans.

It was great to have both to hand however. It was a fabulous event, the first Luna eclipse I've seen, and remarkable that it stayed clear throughout. I've really enjoyed reading everyone's comments/write ups about it and as always there's been some marvellous images. It's been great fun.

[Stu]

That doesn't surprise me Richard, especially for this particular event. I chose the Tak last night because I wanted to be able to use a nice wide field to set the moon in context, same as you. For me it wasn't about high mag and picking out details, it was about the overall scene. John seems to have done the same, using his Vixen, I guess for similar reasons.

[Moonshane]

And me. Even as a die hard dobbist I chose my 80mm APO for the same reasons. It was truly lovely at about 20x & 30x nestled in a mass of stars.

[Stu]

And me. Even as a die hard dobbist I chose my 80mm APO for the same reasons. It was truly lovely at about 20x & 30x nestled in a mass of stars.

We need to be careful Shane, we might just work out a reason for having all the little blighters if we carry on like this

[Starlight 1]

i was using the tak 106ed and it was just brilliant with the 16 mm wide angle lens, it was nice and crisp.

[Scooot]

i was using the tak 106ed and it was just brilliant with the 16 mm wide angle lens, it was nice and crisp.

Noo, don't tell me about it, I've spent enough lately

[Peter Drew]

My best views were with a WW2  German 10x80 aircraft identification binocular, 3D sums the view up.