Travels with the Takahashi 76

[Cjg]

Been meaning to write this for a few weeks, but work has got in the way. I've had the scope long enough to have had a few observing sessions now, under dark skies at Brecon and Seething.

The scope lives in a Tamrac 5793 backpack that I picked up for £110; the case is reputedly "carry on" size for most airlines, but have yet to test that. It offers excellent protection with a thick base reinforced with plastic.

At the Brecon star party in September, I managed to see M15, M2 and M72, but could not see M73 or the Saturn Nebula (7009) - sky glow and a less than excellent Southern Horizon, plus only my second attempt at trying.

Herschel's Garnet Star found in the 25mm and viewed through an 8mm TV plossl, lovely, though straight up, so not so easy on the back / neck / legs - must get a chair!

Kemble's cascade is stunning in the 40mm Televue plossl, easily saw 7789 (Caroline's Rose) and with a borrowed Televue Nebulosity filter, the Veil; have only looked at the Veil twice in this scope and with a 25mm plossl, so yet to recognise the various elements.

After the Brecon star party, I purchased at the IAS a 24mm Panoptic and WOW - these two are made for each other. 

From Seething, the usual suspects of Andromeda, M13 and the Double Cluster with the Tak and the Pan 24 are magnificent, the TV Plossl is pretty good, but the Panoptic view has the "wow" factor, noticed more with M27, The Dumbell Nebula; I don't think that there's extra "crispness" to the view, but the background is darker and so the stars / objects appear that little brighter.

The Ring Nebula is tiny, easily found and seen, but even in the 8mm plossl, small. Likewise the Little Dumbell, tiny, just a smudge, but definitely seen.

With experienced observers I've seen the little Cat's eye nebula in Draco - it's tougher for me to find, but definitely bluer and fuzzier than the star close by. We also spent ages looking for NGC 891 - am told it's a edge on galaxy, but even though both of the experienced observers were sure we were pointing in the spot, 891 was either / and too small, too faint with a 3inch scope.

Given up with the 6x30 finder, for now; nothing wrong with it, but the red dot is just easier for me; I had a local engineering shop modify the universal base of an Altair Astro Starwave finder for £10, and that fits nicely into the backpack. I asked Baader if their universal base fitted and their reply was "we do not know"!

Using a Vixen Porta II mount; love the mount, less so the tripod, but it's lightweight enough and the support from Opticron in the UK is superb. Matthew (Dirk Steele) and Stu (BigSumorian) have an elegant, more portable, though costlier solution with a photo tripod.

What targets to go for next? Well the Winter objects will soon be high enough at a reasonable hour and having moved from a GoTo to this, am still finding my way around the skies, the Pocket Sky Atlas is getting good use and starting to look used.

Thanks,

Chris

[Stu]

Great stuff Chris, they are lovely scopes and under a dark sky it's surprising just how much you can see. Just wait for the summer Milky Way with a good southern horizon next year.

I often find that I just don't need a finder when I'm using the 24 Panoptic, lovely wide field [emoji3]

[laudropb]

Lovely looking set up and a very nice report. Thanks for posting.

[Ruud]

That's a nice little telescope!

[Scooot]

Nice to read Chris, by coincidence I was just reading about the upgrade module from the fs60 to this, just for future reference of course

[Cjg]

Thank you. Am looking forward to the winter with this scope. Think with a Pentax 10mm, I could travel with just two eyepieces. Would very much like to take this to Greece, (Samos was superb) or the Canary Islands to see some of the lower placed objects. Stu, your report from Samos is a great read. Am wary as the bag is 'just' cabin sized, and I saw how the hold luggage gets treated at Skiathos this year...

Chris

[samgray128a]

Great report Chris. Lovely to clearly see you are thrilled with new scope....and who wouldn't be! Well done for seeing M76. Tried and tried and still haven't found it in my TV 85 and definitely looking in the right place. Fingers crossed for some clear skies soon (?!?!) so can try again.

Great report.

Sam :-)

[Rainmaker]

Nice report Chris,  Lovely scope especially for travels !!!

I had the FS60CSV so bought the FC76D objective and added a few bits to make a very portable kit.

I found that 'tan.14' in HongKong could supply the Porta II head only with an adapter to fit a 3/8" Photo tripod so

I teamed the head with the very light and stable Manfrotto 055CX3 carbon tripod. Easy one handed carry all assembled and packs down small.

Look forward to your next report !

[Cjg]

Great report Chris. Lovely to clearly see you are thrilled with new scope....and who wouldn't be! Well done for seeing M76. Tried and tried and still haven't found it in my TV 85 and definitely looking in the right place. Fingers crossed for some clear skies soon (?!?!) so can try again.

Great report.

Sam :-)

Thanks Sam,

I had Dave P and TJ with me, so with their guidance; reminds me more of M1, was just a small smudge in the eyepiece, the clouds are frustrating as I'm keen to try and find again.

[Cjg]

Nice report Chris,  Lovely scope especially for travels !!!

I had the FS60CSV so bought the FC76D objective and added a few bits to make a very portable kit.

I found that 'tan.14' in HongKong could supply the Porta II head only with an adapter to fit a 3/8" Photo tripod so

I teamed the head with the very light and stable Manfrotto 055CX3 carbon tripod. Easy one handed carry all assembled and packs down small.

Look forward to your next report !

Thanks Matt, that looks a great travel friendly combo and the Manfrotto 055CX3  is not too costly over here, wonder if Opticron make the adaptor. How stable is it in use? Thank you.

Chris

[Rainmaker]

Thanks Matt, that looks a great travel friendly combo and the Manfrotto 055CX3  is not too costly over here, wonder if Opticron make the adaptor. How stable is it in use? Thank you.

Chris

The tripod is more than adequate for this purpose, I think it would carry even 4"F8s with ease.  I will take a close up pic of the mount base and post it later if you like.

[Cjg]

Yes please Matt, there is an adaptor made for just this job, FLO can supply for £35. The Aluminium version just £139 at the moment as it's being discontinued.  Would the tripod fit inside a "carry on" bag do you think?

Also what happened to your 106? It's grown into something much larger?

Thank you.

Chris

[nicoscy]

Chris, 

Can you supply a link to the FLO adaptor please?

[Cjg]

Hi Nicos,

Sorry, no, I emailed in and asked if one was available, they asked the distributor and replied within an hour that it was Vixen part no 73942, £35 and allow up to 5 days for delivery. I don't think it's listed on their site.

Good luck,

Chris

[nicoscy]

Chris,

That's perfect, thank you! I do happen to have a Vixen Porta II head on a Berlebach tripod, but I also happen to have the same Manfrotto tripod for photography.

Could be an interesting setup to try, although to be honest, I don't think it will top my Manfrotto 475B with a soon-to-arrive AYO Traveller mount. That geared center post is simply awesome and the tripod is sufficiently sturdy for me to raise and lower the post with no appreciable vibration issues.

[Rainmaker]

Here is the base of my Porta II

My 106 was sold but another is on hold !!!

[Cjg]

Chris,

That's perfect, thank you! I do happen to have a Vixen Porta II head on a Berlebach tripod, but I also happen to have the same Manfrotto tripod for photography.

Thanks Nicos, am looking at something I could carry on; possibly by buying a seat for the ota backpack and then putting the mount (&clothes) in carry on; the joys of flying Ryan Air!

Chris

[Cjg]

Thanks Matt,

Looks great, have you travelled by air with that combo, taking it as hand luggage?

Also you've devised a cunning way of attaching the Tak tube holder to the mount; what adaptor is that please? Another weight saver too.

Cheers

Chris

[nicoscy]

Chris,

The Vixen Porta II is quite big. I have used the Desert Sky Astro DSV-M with my Tak and if you balance it right it is quite good. Something to consider as it is pretty light yet very robust.

This is definitely carry-on by the way and I have this mated with the DSV-M and a small pillar for quick grab n' go.

Never flown Ryan Air. It sounds challenging ... having to buy an extra seat for the scope to take an extra carry-on. I assume there is no fee option just to pay for an extra carry on?

[Cjg]

Thank you that's another option for sure to consider, I'll look those two products up tonight. 

Yes, Ryan Air a challenge, but also when booked in advance, cheap - in this instance, the only airline that I can find that flies to Limoges from the UK.

[nicoscy]

The benefit of the wooden tripod is that it is both compact and very stable. The extension column is also available from Desert Sky Astro.

I will snap a couple of photos tonight of the setup and post here.

[Rainmaker]

Thanks Matt,

Looks great, have you travelled by air with that combo, taking it as hand luggage?

Also you've devised a cunning way of attaching the Tak tube holder to the mount; what adaptor is that please? Another weight saver too.

Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris, I only take binoculars when flying.  The Tak tube holder is simply bolted to the Porta II head after removal of the Porta II saddle.  Same 35mm bolt spacing.

[nicoscy]

Chris,

• The tripod compacted is 48cm and fully extended 89cm
• The extension is 20.5cm
• The DSV-M is 14cm

So, total height is 123.5cm or 49.4 inches. See attached photos and also if you can find yourself one of those stools I have in the photo, everything fits in a carry-on bag.

Telescope is balanced with a 2" diagonal and a Nagler 26mm, a red dot finder (the new Celestron Starsense is awesome - like a telrad, not a Red Dot Finder but quite big) and a 50mm finderscope.

Obviously the 2" arrangement makes balancing a bit more difficult and I need to add a lot of tension if viewing close to zenith. But with a 1.25" diagonal and eyepieces (my travel set is 24mm Panoptic, 13mm Nagler, 7.5mm Tak LE and Nagler Zoom 3-6mm + Baader Prism diagonal), it is very easy to balance with very little tension.

Head weights 1 kilogram, the extension about half of that and the tripod according to Berlebach is 1.9kgs for a total weight of 3.4 kilograms so no issues re carry on.

[Cjg]

Just an update, thanks to Nicos and Matt, for their suggestions, I now have an airline portable'ish mount.

The £38 pound Vixen adaptor mated with the aluminium version of the Manfrotto tripod mentioned ( was on offer for £109) and it's good to go. 

I'll need to test on the next clear night, but feels stable enough indoors.

Chris

[cs1cjc]

I have a Porta Mini that I have cut down so it fits in carry on luggage, though in practice it is more often checked in. I have taken it away with the 70ED over dozen times now, with three eyepieces, a diagonal, atlas, etc.  It has been queried twice, one security officer wanted to know what it was and another wanted details of what I had been observing.  The 70ED is not colour free so I hanker after something better, like your Takahashi or perhaps a Borg 71FL or 76ED.