Moon and M42, Tak FC76DC.

[Stu]

I had a very quick session looking at the crescent Moon this evening, one of the benefits of a setup which can be plonked out in the garden in about 30 seconds, and pulled back in again as quickly. I would not have bothered to put any other scope out tonight as it was cloudy a lot of the time.

This was with the CQ Extender equipped FC76DC using a 24mm Panoptic, Fonemate adapter and iPhone 11Pro. Captured using ProCam 8 and processed using PS Express.

[mikeDnight]

What wonderful images Stu. Not a hint of colour along the lunar limb which is definitely better than my SW72ED, but the images of M42 and the Trapezium are awesome. 🏆

[Sunshine]

Impressive! sort of lends credence to the term "your best scope is the one you use most" as you mentioned you wouldn't have "plonked" 😄 any other scope out given the circumstances.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Sunshine

[MalcolmM]

Great pictures. I especially love the one of the moon, the contrast and crescent shape make it one of the best I've seen! I'm off now to check out Fonemate adapters

Malcolm

[MalcolmM]

@Stu, will the Fonemate work with eyepieces other than Televue? Most of my eyepieces are Tak.

Malcolm

[paulastro]

10 hours ago, Stu said:

I had a very quick session looking at the crescent Moon this evening, one of the benefits of a setup which can be plonked out in the garden in about 30 seconds, and pulled back in again as quickly. I would not have bothered to put any other scope out tonight as it was cloudy a lot of the time.

This was with the CQ Extender equipped FC76DC using a 24mm Panoptic, Fonemate adapter and iPhone 11Pro. Captured using ProCam 8 and processed using PS Express.

Thanks for posting Stu.  Love it, I'm a great enthusiast for using a grab and go scope so that any opportunity of clear sky can be taken advantage of. 

My Tecnosky 102 ED is usable this way, but I have to say since I've had the Altair 80 ED-R it has taken over the role from the 102.  It's even quicker to get out and I can more easily walk up the road with it if I need a better W horizon.  As you do I use the Scopetech Zero Mount, its ideal for this. 

I was out yesterday evening too.  I had a 21 minute gap before it started to snow again!  The pic below was a single frame with the Olympus taken at 4.19pm, not long after sunset.

 

 

 

[JeremyS]

Nice job @Stu 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[Nicola Fletcher]

Fantastic Stu - great to see that you can get such nice images with the iPhone 😊

Do you think the CQ Extender is a worthwhile investment for the FC76-DCU? I’m still undecided about whether to get one.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

Fantastic Stu - great to see that you can get such nice images with the iPhone 😊

Do you think the CQ Extender is a worthwhile investment for the FC76-DCU? I’m still undecided about whether to get one.

I haven’t had enough time with it to know if it genuinely gives a benefit. It makes higher power easier because of the longer focal length, but I don’t know if I would get the same results just with shorter focal length eyepiece. I’ll give it a go when I next get a chance. Looks great though 🤣

From what I’ve read, the biggest impact is with the FS60C.

[HollyHound]

10 minutes ago, Stu said:

I haven’t had enough time with it to know if it genuinely gives a benefit. It makes higher power easier because of the longer focal length, but I don’t know if I would get the same results just with shorter focal length eyepiece. I’ll give it a go when I next get a chance. Looks great though 🤣

From what I’ve read, the biggest impact is with the FS60C.

I've yet to try my Extender on the FC-76DCU, so your reports are really useful Stu, thank you 👍

I've read various reviews that indicate a small benefit for a flatter field, but not not necessarily anything else visually that can't be gained with shorter focal length eyepieces. My main concern is that I love what the base FC-76DCU gives me as a superb grab and go "all rounder" and having to screw/unscrew this on and off again, goes against that ease of use (and may make the scope more ungainly). However, I'm fortunate to have other Taks that cover the other focal lengths, so I can see that if one was building a single versatile scope "system", especially one that is easily transportable, then this does indeed add value 😀

The Extender does indeed turn the FS-60CB into an FS-60Q, which is a lovely little scope, but again here I've already started missing the super wide field of the base FS-60CB in my primary use case as a second "finder" scope, so have now removed the Extender from that too. Likely hang on to it though, for the reasons already given (versatility and travel options).

Given how inexpensive (in Tak accessory terms 🤣) the Extender is, then I think it's a useful addition for anyone with these scopes though... 

Edited January 8, 2022 by HollyHound

[HollyHound]

It's a superb looking setup @Stu... despite my reservations in the post above, there's a lot to love about a long focal length, but small (ish) refractor 😁

[JeremyS]

36 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

It's a superb looking setup @Stu... despite my reservations in the post above, there's a lot to love about a long focal length, but small (ish) refractor 😁

Spot on Gary 👍🏻

[Stu]

4 hours ago, HollyHound said:

It's a superb looking setup @Stu... despite my reservations in the post above, there's a lot to love about a long focal length, but small (ish) refractor 😁

Honest opinions are what matters Gary, not just loving things because they have Tak on the box! I agree, unscrewing and screwing things to change them over can be a bit of a pain.

From my reading, I expect the biggest gain to be on the FS60C which will still give a 4.3 degree field with a 31mm Nagler, or 3.2 with a 24mm Panoptic, quite decent.

It may well be one of those extra, slightly unnecessary indulgences but as has been said, in the grand scheme of Tak pricing it’s a comparative bargain!

I will attempt to do some comparison star tests between the two setups when possible.

[Stu]

One other thought I had was to compare the FS60Q with my Telementor. 60mm f10 (not f12.75 as I posted initially, that’s the 76mm) fluorite apo vs 63mm f13.3 Zeiss achro. I’m sure the little Tak will win but could be a bit of fun. Just the kind of thing I enjoy.

[Surfer Chris]

Nice shots of the moon in the posts above! I also had a go with my i-phone 7 simply held over the eyepiece of the new FS-60 (in CB mode) on Saturday night. I didn't think the shot was too bad actually, considering I wasn't using a phone holder, and the wind was buffeting me around a bit. Not quite on par with the moon shots above though. That was taken using a 5mm BST Starguider (which seemed to be easier to use with the i-phone compared to the Delite or Morpheus eyepieces).

 

[Stu]

On 08/01/2022 at 09:47, MalcolmM said:

@Stu, will the Fonemate work with eyepieces other than Televue? Most of my eyepieces are Tak.

Malcolm

Sorry Malcolm, I think I missed this one somehow. The Fonemate only works with Televue eyepieces which are compatible without their Dioptrix option. They are listed here in the right hand column….

https://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?id=214
 

Note that the 24mm Panoptic is not compatible out of the box, but you can add an adaptor which makes it work with the Dioptrix, and this also means it will accept the Fonemate. It’s generally a good system and makes a very solid connection. One problem with the 24mm Pan is that if you are barlowing then the mount can end up too close to the eyepiece (because the eye relief has extended) so you have to pad it out a little to keep the phone far enough away. I don’t often do that though, so it generally works well.

https://www.astroshop.eu/eyepieces/televue-dioptrx-adapter-for-24mm-and-19mm-panoptic-eyepieces-and-20mm-nagler-type-5-eyepiece/p,16884

I love the comment in here about possibly encountering ‘nose relief’ problems when using this adaptor with binoviewers 🤣

 

[MalcolmM]

Thanks @Stu, having looked at the Televue website I suspected that might be the case. A pity, as it looks much nicer than the other phone adapters that are available, but I have invested too much in Tak eyepieces to go on a Televue spending spree  And the couple of TV I have are not compatible!

Some day I'll maybe try one of the other adapters. 

Keep posting your pics please, I enjoy very much seeing what can be done with a phone at the eyepiece!

Malcolm

[Stu]

12 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

Thanks @Stu, having looked at the Televue website I suspected that might be the case. A pity, as it looks much nicer than the other phone adapters that are available, but I have invested too much in Tak eyepieces to go on a Televue spending spree  And the couple of TV I have are not compatible!

Some day I'll maybe try one of the other adapters. 

Keep posting your pics please, I enjoy very much seeing what can be done with a phone at the eyepiece!

Malcolm

Yep, understood, and I only ever use the Fonemate with my Panoptic so it has limited use for me, but I still find it very easy to use so I do use it whenever I’m using the Panoptic.

One other option is the Orion SteadyPix EZ adaptor which uses the same phone holding mechanism with a self centring clamping system for the eyepiece. I find this works well with straight sided eyepieces like orthos and probably the Taks?

The Celestron NeXYZ is also good, but not without flaws. It has excellent XYZ adjustment, but doesn’t always hold position very well. It’s quite heavy, and finally the phone isn’t always held square on to the eyepiece so you can get some out of focus parts to the image. Most of these are resolvable and having the Z axis adjustment is really useful.

Ironically, the really cheap holders in some ways work best. They are very light and even clamp onto the top rim of the 2” eyepieces which is a bonus. I did a bit of a write up of the various options on my old club website here:

http://www.waltonastrogroup.co.uk/equipment-reviews.html

I’ll keep posting up images as I take them 👍👍

[MalcolmM]

Blast you @Stu, just when I thought there was nothing else I could possibly buy ...

Found the Orion one on Amazon, I like the look of it and you give it a pretty good review

Much easier than messing around with a DSLR I'm hoping. It looks like it should be fine with the Tak eyepieces.

Many Thanks for the recommendation,

Malcolm