TS 72mm dovetail

[Stu]

I really like this little scope, but one annoyance has been having to bolt a second dovetail on to allow it to be mounted far enough forward without clashing with the focuser.

The Altair version comes with spacers, so I did a bit of DIY and used some square bolts to create similar spacers between the dovetail and the rings. This works very well, looks neater and is still rock solid. I gave them a wrap of tape to help them blend in a little. I'll keep searching for something more elegant but this does the trick for now.

[Rob Sellent]

Nice bit of DIY, Stu and should work better in terms of balancing on an azimuth mount. Performance wise, how do you rate something like the TS Photo Line , Altair, Lunt, William Optics (modified Kummings/Sharpstar?) scopes? Do you think they hold up well to the other fracs you've owned (TeleVue, Takahashi...Vixen) or do the more premium brands (US/Japanese) still have something more to offer?

[Stu]

Ooh, now there's a question Rob!

I think this scope is very good actually, colour correction is excellent; it's an fpl-53 doublet. It's been a while since I had my Televue 76 and 85, so I can only comment from memory, not side by side comparisons in most cases. I suspect the TS is on a par with the Televues optically.

My WO ZS SD66mm was a lovely compact little scope, but I would say was behind the Tak FS-60c in terms of colour correction and contrast. The FC-76DC was definitely sharper than the Televue 76 and the FC100 has bested any other scope I've used up to 4", and generally I found that the 120ED didn't offer enough extra to justify the additional size and mounting requirements though clearly they are excellent scopes.

I'm not a blind worshipper of all things Tak. My biggest mistake in terms of purchases was a Tak Sky 90, which I sold my lovely FC-76DC to buy. It was ok at high power but very disappointing for widefield which was one of the reasons I got it. It went quickly at a loss.

In general, in general I think Tak, TEC, LZOS and Astrophysics are optically a step ahead optically of the others and the Vixen Fluorites will be up there too.

Not sure if that helps?

[Paz]

That's a nice custom update and I imagine it saves a lot of weight getting rid of the extra bar.

[nightfisher]

Nice and simple, sometimes the best way to do things

[robbymain]

I'm looking seriously at a TS Photo line 72 so will no doubt apply a similar engineering solution!

Edited November 6, 2019 by robbymain