TV-60 or Tak FS-60Q?

[iPeace]

Update for the faithful: the FC-76DC has yet to surface. Have agreed with supplier to wait until Monday on which day my order will be changed. If the Tak is not available by then, it's going to be the TV-60!

Let providence do it's bit. I am ready.

[iPeace]

Puts me in mind of this story by Ed Ting.

http://www.scopereviews.com/page1aj.html

Also a Tak 76. Can it be a coincidence?

[iPeace]

So, the TV-60 it is. Incoming also are the Panoptic 24mm (shoot-out with the ES 24/68) and the Vixen HR 2.4mm (gives 150x which is the max power recommended by Mr. Nagler - will compare with the Nagler Zoom 2-4mm). Finally two filters from Lumicon, O-III and UHC.

To be continued.

[Racey]

11 minutes ago, iPeace said:

Finally two filters from Lumicon, O-III and UHC.

Agh... If I'd known I'd have added one more of each to a recent order a pal from California brought over for me. I managed to purchase each from Lumicon directly for $90 and avoided delivery and duty issues by Jeffrey popping them in his briefcase...

I need to improve my mind reading skills. Apologies...

[iPeace]

3 minutes ago, Racey said:

Agh... If I'd known I'd have added one more of each to a recent order a pal from California brought over for me. I managed to purchase each from Lumicon directly for $90 and avoided delivery and duty issues by Jeffrey popping them in his briefcase...

I need to improve my mind reading skills. Apologies...

Aim high.

Very much appreciated. I got a pretty good deal on the filters as it is.

[Racey]

2 hours ago, iPeace said:

Aim high.

Very much appreciated. I got a pretty good deal on the filters as it is.

Excellent. I have people going back and forth regularly...

Next bargain is a double stack Etalon for our solar scope. £1,200 here. £740 there !!

[iPeace]

[moriniboy]

Happy days

[GavStar]

On ‎25‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 08:16, iPeace said:

So, the TV-60 it is. Incoming also are the Panoptic 24mm (shoot-out with the ES 24/68) and the Vixen HR 2.4mm (gives 150x which is the max power recommended by Mr. Nagler - will compare with the Nagler Zoom 2-4mm). Finally two filters from Lumicon, O-III and UHC.

To be continued.

Nice scope! I'm interested on how you find the 2.4mm with this scope, that's quite a small exit pupil? I've got a tv60 and stay below 100x, but my eyes do have several 'floaters'!

[iPeace]

2 minutes ago, Gavster said:

Nice scope! I'm interested on how you find the 2.4mm with this scope, that's quite a small exit pupil? I've got a tv60 and stay below 100x, but my eyes do have several 'floaters'!

The Vixen HR 2.4mm is the last bit yet to be delivered, should be within a week. We will have to see whether we can make good on Mr. Nagler's recommendation of 150x for max magnification. I do have the recommendation of Piero to rely upon, that's good enough for me to take a punt.

[Piero]

Congratulations for your new little scope!   Mine is just "slightly older": 1001642.

 

1 hour ago, Gavster said:

Nice scope! I'm interested on how you find the 2.4mm with this scope, that's quite a small exit pupil? I've got a tv60 and stay below 100x, but my eyes do have several 'floaters'!

Hi Gavster, the Vixen HR 2.4mm is a great eyepiece in my opinion. You are right about the small exit pupil, but for some reason (I can only think of a higher light transmission), the image is still bright and sharp. I barlowed that little thing reaching insane magnifications for this telescope and it gave me a hard time to start seeing soft lunar features. Even so, the features were still there, there was no aberration or distortion in the view. On CN a few people compared it favourably against the Pentax XO 2.5mm. I would love to see a 3.5mm and a 5mm for this line. 

On the TV60, it is terrific on the Moon and I bet also on Saturn although I haven't tried it on the latter yet. Jupiter is a bit fussy at high magnification in any scope. Still, I managed to see the GRS at 150x without much effort, and this is quite a lot because the GRS is generally washed out at these mags on the TV60. The HR 2.4mm is also strong at splitting double stars. It is the only eyepiece that showed me a little black line for the double pair, Izar (Boo). I don't have issues with floaters.

There are rumours that Takahashi is replacing their 3.6mm and 2.4mm LE-HI with something at the level of the Vixen HR. 

You can find other comments about the HR 2.4mm here: 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, iPeace said:

The Vixen HR 2.4mm is the last bit yet to be delivered, should be within a week. We will have to see whether we can make good on Mr. Nagler's recommendation of 150x for max magnification. I do have the recommendation of Piero to rely upon, that's good enough for me to take a punt.

wow, I am honoured!  

I wish you good seeing and a lot of fun with it. The Moon is impressive to me.

[iPeace]

2 minutes ago, Piero said:

Congratulations for your new little scope!   Mine is just "slightly older": 1001642.

 

Hi Gavster, the Vixen HR 2.4mm is a great eyepiece in my opinion. You are right about the small exit pupil, but for some reason (I can only think of a higher light transmission), the image is still bright and sharp. I barlowed that little thing reaching insane magnifications for this telescope and it gave me a hard time to start seeing soft lunar features. Even though the features were still there, there was no aberration or distortion in the view. On CN a few people compared it favourably against the Pentax XO 2.5mm. I would love to see a 3.5mm and a 5mm for this line. 

On the TV60, it is terrific on the Moon and I bet on Saturn although I haven't tried it on the latter yet. Jupiter is a bit fussy at high magnification in any scope. Still, I managed to see the GRS at 150x without much effort, and this is quite a lot because the GRS is generally washed out at this mags on the TV60. The HR 2.4mm is also strong at nicely splitting double stars. It is the only eyepiece that showed me a little black line for Izar. I don't have issues with floaters.

There are rumours that Takahashi is replacing their 3.6mm and 2.4mm LE-HI with something at the level of the Vixen HR. 

You can find other comments about the HR 2.4mm here: 

 

 

 

wow, I am honoured!  

I wish you good seeing and a lot of fun with it. The Moon is impressive to me.

You've really blazed the trail for pushing this scope as far as it can go, thanks for sharing all your experience and wisdom. I am happy and proud to follow.

[iPeace]

It's such a nifty little thing; I got a Gitzo tripod head for it - designed for birding, very solid and smooth yet practically weightless - and just need to decide on which carbon fiber tripod for travel.

[Piero]

lovely! are you trying it out tonight?

[iPeace]

3 minutes ago, Piero said:

lovely! are you trying it out tonight?

It's not looking good... but soon enough!

[Chris]

Congratulations! Looking forward to your thoughts on it. A very neat looking setup  

[moriniboy]

Here's mine, currently out with a Powermate 2.5 and 6mm on the TV Nagler zoom 150x

Had it on 3mm with Powermate for a while but floater city at 300x

Bit windy as well but as its small its do-able.

[Highburymark]

Congratulations Mike. A travel scope par excellence. And irresistibly cute too.

Some of the Manfrotto carbon fibre tripods are very good.

[Piero]

Better stick a photo of my SN too then! 

[moriniboy]

9 hours ago, moriniboy said:

Here's mine, currently out with a Powermate 2.5 and 6mm on the TV Nagler zoom 150x

Had it on 3mm with Powermate for a while but floater city at 300x

Bit windy as well but as its small its do-able.

Just checked the set up I was using last night, thought I had grabbed the 2.5x Powermate when I had got the 5x

So magnifications were 300x with 6mm and 600x with 3mm, no wonder there were floaters with the 3mm

 

[iPeace]

Not the best of conditions for first light, but good enough to determine that Moose (I'll explain later) and I are going to get along fine.

 

[Chris]

Moose? is it because the RDF is at the top like antlers? Or was the first thing you saw with it an actual Moose? 

[iPeace]

18 minutes ago, Chris Lock said:

Moose? is it because the RDF is at the top like antlers? Or was the first thing you saw with it an actual Moose? 

Not bad, but not too close either.

[iPeace]

2 hours ago, Chris Lock said:

Moose? is it because the RDF is at the top like antlers? Or was the first thing you saw with it an actual Moose? 

Big name for a small scope. Amuses me.

However, consistent with my TV-85 being named Stanley due to the toolbox it is stored in, my choice of backpack in which Moose will travel is the ultimate reason.

[moriniboy]

Bit of a work in progress to fit a shoe for the RDF, tried mounting it on the dew shield and it functioned well but looked wrong.

Its now mounted to the top face of the vixen style dovetail.

Going to get a longer vixen dovetail to push it a bit further forward away from the tightening clamp, at the moment you just put the RDF on after fastening the scope on.