Some vintage Japanese glass on a budget

[F15Rules]

As part of my fundraising to buy my new to me Tak FS128, I had to let some really nice eyepieces go...Pentax, Morpheus, Vixen LVW etc..

As much of a wrench as this was, I have no regrets as I have wanted an FS128 for a long time, and I might be able to replace some of the eyepieces in the future?.

In the meantime, I had the two Tak LE's which came with the scope (7.5mm and 18mm) and a 10.5mm Pentax XL which I didn't sell as it has a small sliver of material inside the lens which occasionally attached to the lens...it shakes off easily enough and doesn't affect the excellent views it offers, so I decided to keep it rather than let it go for not a lot.. Finally, I had a nice Tal Gen II 25mm plossl which gives very nice views.

Anyway, I thought I would slowly acquire the odd eyepiece here and there to fill the gaps, bit an opportunity came up to buy a "job lot" of unwanted eyepieces at a good price, so I took the plunge and these new to me ones comprise of:

Vixen Japan LV 4mm- ideal for odd really good nights, giving x260

(Next will be the Tak LE 7.5mm I already have).

Meade China 4000 plossl 9.7mm. I don't need this so will give it to my son in law as he doesn't have many EP's.

Here will sit the Pentax XL10.5mm, a real favourite mid power EP giving x104 in the FS128.

Meade 4000 Japan 13.8mm wide angle - a nice classic widefield eyepiece to sit above my Pentax 10.5mm, similar FOV (68deg), will be interesting to see how the edge correction holds up. The Tak is F8.1, so shouldn't be too bad.

Meade 4000 Japan 15mm plossl. A nice eyepiece but a bit close to the 13.8mm, so again I'll give it to my son in law.

Here will be the Tak 18mm LE, a lovely sharp eyepiece.

Meade 4000 Japan 26mm. I had one of these in the past and really liked it. I'll compare it to the Tak Gen II, keep the one I like best, and give the other to my son in law (he's doing ok out of this lark!?).

Finally, a lovely, like new, Vixen Japan 40mm LV. This will give just x26 in the Tak for nice low power views.

So, it's a bit of a mix, but I now have covered most bases in terms of focal length. All these EP's should lack is width of field, but most of them are 50 degrees or more and very sharp on axis: the LV4 mm at 44 degrees is for planets and doubles so that's fine.

Just need some clear sky to test them all now???.

Dave

[John]

Nice stuff, Japanese glass

You might get more use from your 4mm LV than you think Dave. I've found my 2mm-4mm Nagler zoom very useful surprisingly often in my Tak FC-100 F/9 especially on double stars. I used 3.5mm (Pentax XW) in the LZOS 130 F/9.2 on Neptune last year and managed to spot Titan at 343x.

These great objectives soak up power like nobodys business

I'll be interesting to hear how the Meade 13.8mm SWA does. I lashed out on a new one of those back in the late 1990's from Telescope House. It cost a princely £150 which was a lot of dosh to me back then. I was rather dissapointed in it, for that money, in all honesty. I believed the blurb about being sharp to the edge .....

Looking forward to your Tak 128 observing reports in due course

[F15Rules]

Interesting John, and I hope you are right about the 4mm.. the Tak manual states quite clearly that on steady nights the scope's objective can deliver x100 per inch (!), so x260 is only about half that.

I must say that on a quick look (from under cover in the garage while it was pouring with rain) at the local church tower, the LVs were very sharp, as indeed were the Meades.

I'll report back when the skies clear again, maybe at the weekend with a bit of luck☺.

Dave

[nightfisher]

Good luck with the new ep`s dave