Pondering done; Decision made; Tak arrived!

[A McEwan]

Further to my earlier pondering, I made a decision and placed the order.

The choice was between the Tak FOA-60Q or the FS60Q.  Thanks to the many people who replied with advice and thoughts on their own 60mm Takahashis, I went the way of versatility and ordered.... 

The Takahashi FS60Q !  I love the fact that it will give me f5.9 and f10 straight out of the box, and with the addition of my 1.6x Extender f16 as well!

Naturally the sky is completely cloudy now, so I've spent some time unboxing it and attaching the More Blue finder base and the Tak ring. At the moment it's sitting on my modified AZ-3 mount, but I also tried it on a cheapo photo tripod and.... it could be made to work with some improvements! 

I'm very impressed with the super light weight! Looking forward to finding a suitable travel case for it and getting some first light viewing soon.

Thanks too to FLO for fast delivery and for having exactly the accessories I wanted for it.   

Please excuse terrible pictures - lighting is awful! 

[JeremyS]

Great choice. You will enjoy this
And congratulations!

[Alan White]

Very nice indeed, congratulations.

I await your first light report.

[Stu]

Nice one , sure you will have a lot of fun with that. I’ve yet to use my FS60C, but will give it a go soon.

[A McEwan]

I suppose I could add my Extender-Q 1.6x too for f16.....  

Ant

[JeremyS]

34 minutes ago, A McEwan said:

I suppose I could add my Extender-Q 1.6x too for f16.....  

Ant

Worth a try. There’s a guy on CN that regularly uses two CQ 1.7 extenders on an FC76 DCU

[A McEwan]

A question for fellow FS60Q owners.

THe scope came new, boxed and assembled, with lens cap for the objective and for the eyepiece holder. When I unscrew/remove the Extender portion of the scope - I have no caps to protect the front and rear.  Can I buy them seperately or should they be included in the package?  

Ant

[HollyHound]

14 minutes ago, A McEwan said:

A question for fellow FS60Q owners.

THe scope came new, boxed and assembled, with lens cap for the objective and for the eyepiece holder. When I unscrew/remove the Extender portion of the scope - I have no caps to protect the front and rear.  Can I buy them seperately or should they be included in the package?  

Ant

Not sure whether Takahashi routinely include these either... I have converted my FS-60CB to Q by buying the Extender separately and the seller did include some end caps. However, looking at my FC-76DCU (given that that is designed to be taken apart to pack for travel) that has no end caps either for the two separate parts 

Hopefully an FS-60Q owner can confirm 

Edited January 8 by HollyHound

[A McEwan]

4 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Not sure whether Takahashi routinely include these either... I have converted my FS-60CB to Q by buying the Extender separately and the seller did include some end caps. However, looking at my FC-76DCU (given that that is designed to be taken apart to pack for travel) that has no end caps either for the two separate parts 

Hopefully an FS-60Q owner can confirm 

It's possible (likely?) that Takahashi sell these exquisitely precision engineered (EXPENSIVE) end caps as optional extras. I expect they're on a "system chart" somewhere....  

 

[HollyHound]

54 minutes ago, A McEwan said:

It's possible (likely?) that Takahashi sell these exquisitely precision engineered (EXPENSIVE) end caps as optional extras. I expect they're on a "system chart" somewhere....  

 

Ha ha, you've already discovered the wonderful and expensive world of Takahashi accessories 

[A McEwan]

25 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Ha ha, you've already discovered the wonderful and expensive world of Takahashi accessories 

Oh yes.     Hoping for proper first light tonight now...!  

[A McEwan]

Have had some views! Last night and tonight I observed the Moon. Found I needed to use a shorter eyepiece holder to achieve focus with my eyepieces, but when I replaced it with a shorter one (saving 15mm of light path) all began to work well!

I've only used it in f10 mode for now, and the Moon has been a blessing and a curse.

Lunsr views are lovely with this scope. I really enjoy lunar viewing with small refractors, so this will fit perfectly for me. Razor sharp, super contrast. No flaring or scatter. Extremely minimal CA off the limb, and even that was only because I was specifically looking for it. The detail within Copernicus tonight was outstanding, and I had the best views with a 5mm Ortho (120x) 
 

The first cluster I looked at was the Pleiades, and it was radiant in the 24mm ES 68-degree eyepiece. The Nebulosity Was Obvious! Really Obvious! I've seen it in a 60mm scope before, but that was under a moonless sky, so I was surprised and pleased at how great the view was.

M42 was next, and again a superb view, but I recently viewed it in 100mm and the difference was noticeable. Trap was split into four easily enough at 48x (12.5mm Ortho) and although I looked long and hard, no hint of E star. Upping the power to 120x didn't show it either but the seeing wasn't "perfect".

I looked for various other DSOs in the region, and this is where the Moon became a curse. M78 was not seeable. No hint of the Flame. So I reverted to clusters and caught M35, M36, M37 and swung over for M1 the Crab Nebula too. It was easy enough to see, which did surprise me, but again the Moon drained the view of contrast.

M81 and M82 were ok, but ....same problem again....

So I really need to get this scope out again after the Moon wanes to see what it's really capable of.

I had two other frustrations too! 1) the centre spreader bar detached from one leg of my tripod as I was setting up! Not a big problem - I'll just fill the wood and redrill; an easy fix.

2) I could NOT get my Skysurfer III to align properly with the OTA. I had similar problems using it with my Tak FC100Df too. They both have More Blue finder attachment feet. I wonder if there's a link.... It feels like there isn't enough movement in the adjustment wheels. I will have to test in daylight again and maybe make a shim or something to make up the necessary adjustment distance.

All in all a night of great fun and great frustration!  The fun was the fault of the Tak. The frustration was the fault of everything else!   

Edit: fixed the finder issue by tsting n daylight and shimming the finder foot base. Perfect now.

Edited January 9 by A McEwan