Beginner looking to invest into a Tak setup (hear me out)..

[MalcolmM]

6 hours ago, moonsafari said:

@Nicola Fletcher@SthBohemia@Stu@dweller25@badhex@HollyHound@MalcolmM @JeremyS@BGazing

Hey all,

Given that I'm starting off with the following rig, does anyone have any recommendations in regards to a Barlow or the Tak extender for my FC-100DF, or would it be worthwhile just adding one more high powered eyepiece to my rig below?

– 1.25" Tak prism diagonal
– Pentax XW 10mm and 20mm
– TeleVue Nagler 13mm Type 6
– 1.25" Celestron variable polarising filter

Thanks so much, you've all been incredibly helpful. Still waiting to finalise my tripod and mount setup this week, but was able to grab a sneaky look at Jupiter last night!

I nearly replied earlier to say you might want to consider a high power eyepiece but I thought you had a lot going on already

The scope will take x180 easily. I regularly use (when seeing conditions permit) a Tak TOE 4mm on planets/lunar. I think it's a great eyepiece and if you do a bit of searching I think you'll find a lot of positive comments about it.

I'm not keen on barlows, no good reason why! I have no experience with the extender. I like the high powered eyepiece route as it's simple. Take the old one out and put the new one in

Malcolm 

[Stu]

7 hours ago, moonsafari said:

@Nicola Fletcher@SthBohemia@Stu@dweller25@badhex@HollyHound@MalcolmM @JeremyS@BGazing

Hey all,

Given that I'm starting off with the following rig, does anyone have any recommendations in regards to a Barlow or the Tak extender for my FC-100DF, or would it be worthwhile just adding one more high powered eyepiece to my rig below?

– 1.25" Tak prism diagonal
– Pentax XW 10mm and 20mm
– TeleVue Nagler 13mm Type 6
– 1.25" Celestron variable polarising filter

Thanks so much, you've all been incredibly helpful. Still waiting to finalise my tripod and mount setup this week, but was able to grab a sneaky look at Jupiter last night!

You are certainly leaving a lot of power on the table with x74 as your max. The scope will cope with x200 and more on good nights, but as a starter I would make sure I had x150 and x180 covered as they will be useable quite frequently. 

Adding the Tak extender (which is x1.6 I believe) would give you x118 with the 10mm. I would probably aim for something around 4 or 5mm. A 5mm XW would give you x148 and say a 4mm TOE would be x185, great for Jupiter and Saturn. You will find that us planetary junkies tend to stack the focal lengths in at the shorter end so you have plenty of options to match the seeing.

Thinking about it, another option at the moment might be a x2.5 Powermate. These are optically excellent and would give you x185 with the 10mm and x92.5 with the 20mm. If you added a 7mm XW you would then have x105 and x264 which would be useful for close doubles on good nights.

So, either a 5mm XW and 4mm TOE or a 7mm XW and x2.5 Powermate.

These are just suggestions obviously, but some food for thought amongst the other ideas.

[Sunshine]

On 24/08/2022 at 03:08, moonsafari said:

@Nicola Fletcher@SthBohemia@Stu@dweller25@badhex@HollyHound@MalcolmM @JeremyS@BGazing

Hey all,

Given that I'm starting off with the following rig, does anyone have any recommendations in regards to a Barlow or the Tak extender for my FC-100DF, or would it be worthwhile just adding one more high powered eyepiece to my rig below?

– 1.25" Tak prism diagonal
– Pentax XW 10mm and 20mm
– TeleVue Nagler 13mm Type 6
– 1.25" Celestron variable polarising filter

Thanks so much, you've all been incredibly helpful. Still waiting to finalise my tripod and mount setup this week, but was able to grab a sneaky look at Jupiter last night!

My eyepieces are also Pentax, I have the 2.5x powermate Jeremy mentioned but I rarely use it preferring higher powered eyepieces instead as the Pentax eyepieces with the powermate are awful long together making it

unwieldy when turning the diagonal. As for 75x being your upper end magnification? try not to insult your Tak so early on in your relationship 🤣

Edited August 25, 2022 by Sunshine

[moonsafari]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

You are certainly leaving a lot of power on the table with x74 as your max. The scope will cope with x200 and more on good nights, but as a starter I would make sure I had x150 and x180 covered as they will be useable quite frequently. 

Adding the Tak extender (which is x1.6 I believe) would give you x118 with the 10mm. I would probably aim for something around 4 or 5mm. A 5mm XW would give you x148 and say a 4mm TOE would be x185, great for Jupiter and Saturn. You will find that us planetary junkies tend to stack the focal lengths in at the shorter end so you have plenty of options to match the seeing.

Thinking about it, another option at the moment might be a x2.5 Powermate. These are optically excellent and would give you x185 with the 10mm and x92.5 with the 20mm. If you added a 7mm XW you would then have x105 and x264 which would be useful for close doubles on good nights.

So, either a 5mm XW and 4mm TOE or a 7mm XW and x2.5 Powermate.

These are just suggestions obviously, but some food for thought amongst the other ideas.

This is awesome. Thanks so much, Stu.

[moonsafari]

Thanks, everyone. This is all super helpful!

I ordered the AZ75 and Uni 28 today as well.

Edited August 24, 2022 by moonsafari

[Stu]

27 minutes ago, moonsafari said:

Thanks, everyone. This is all super helpful!

I ordered the AZ75 and Uni 28 today as well.

Should be an awesome setup when you’ve got everything 👍

[moonsafari]

Just now, Stu said:

Should be an awesome setup when you’ve got everything 👍

So excited and pumped! I ended up getting the Nexus II as well, so I'm in for some super fun times ahead.

[Alan White]

4 minutes ago, moonsafari said:

So excited and pumped! I ended up getting the Nexus II as well, so I'm in for some super fun times ahead.

You should be excited, that will be a fine rig.
I also have Pentax XW's at 10, 7 and 5 and really like them.

 

[moonsafari]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

You are certainly leaving a lot of power on the table with x74 as your max. The scope will cope with x200 and more on good nights, but as a starter I would make sure I had x150 and x180 covered as they will be useable quite frequently. 

Adding the Tak extender (which is x1.6 I believe) would give you x118 with the 10mm. I would probably aim for something around 4 or 5mm. A 5mm XW would give you x148 and say a 4mm TOE would be x185, great for Jupiter and Saturn. You will find that us planetary junkies tend to stack the focal lengths in at the shorter end so you have plenty of options to match the seeing.

Thinking about it, another option at the moment might be a x2.5 Powermate. These are optically excellent and would give you x185 with the 10mm and x92.5 with the 20mm. If you added a 7mm XW you would then have x105 and x264 which would be useful for close doubles on good nights.

So, either a 5mm XW and 4mm TOE or a 7mm XW and x2.5 Powermate.

These are just suggestions obviously, but some food for thought amongst the other ideas.

[moonsafari]

Okay, I'm done now. I've ordered the Tak TOE 4mm to start off with.

Can't wait to show you all the final setup. Appreciate everyone's time, guidance, wisdom and assistance! You've all been absolute legends. Thank you.

[JeremyS]

9 minutes ago, moonsafari said:

Okay, I'm done now. I've ordered the Tak TOE 4mm to start off with.

Can't wait to show you all the final setup. Appreciate everyone's time, guidance, wisdom and assistance! You've all been absolute legends. Thank you.

I think we are nearly as excited as you 👍🏻

[Sunshine]

I tried explaining to my wife that Tak scopes are made by spiritualist dudes in a cave around Mount Fuji and the scopes bring good fortune and prosperity, so I should get a 120, yeah it didn’t work.

[MalcolmM]

1 hour ago, moonsafari said:

Okay, I'm done now.

I remember saying that ... about 15 eyepieces ago

My partner is also convinced Takahashi scopes breed

Malcolm 

[Nicola Fletcher]

I haven’t taken to Barlows either - just as an option, what about some of the Tak TOE eyepieces (I’d LOVE one - and you were looking for ingenious ways to spend money 😂) or I do have the TeleVue 3-6mm Zoom which is fantastic. 
I haven’t tried the Tak extender Q which sounds very interesting.

Really looking forward to hearing how you get on with all this amazing equipment!

Edit: ooh just reading back on all the great advice you’ve received - definitely some stuff to file away for the future!

Edited August 24, 2022 by Nicola Fletcher

[Mr Spock]

9 hours ago, Stu said:

Thinking about it, another option at the moment might be a x2.5 Powermate.

Just this minute ordered one of those!

I like to use my orthos at longer focal lengths with the 102mm f7, but they don't play well with Barlows due to the way Barlows mess with the exit pupil. I've gone for the Powermate at they don't have those problems and I can get x143 with the 12.5mm and x198 with the 9mm.

[moonsafari]

12 hours ago, MalcolmM said:

I remember saying that ... about 15 eyepieces ago

My partner is also convinced Takahashi scopes breed

Malcolm 

I feel you. I already feel the slippery slope and I haven't even got my tripod yet.

[moonsafari]

12 hours ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

I haven’t taken to Barlows either - just as an option, what about some of the Tak TOE eyepieces (I’d LOVE one - and you were looking for ingenious ways to spend money 😂) or I do have the TeleVue 3-6mm Zoom which is fantastic. 
I haven’t tried the Tak extender Q which sounds very interesting.

Really looking forward to hearing how you get on with all this amazing equipment!

Edit: ooh just reading back on all the great advice you’ve received - definitely some stuff to file away for the future!

Yeah, everyone has been amazing. Lots of great info on this thread that I was never expecting. Big ups to @badhex for introducing me to this forum!

[Stu]

14 hours ago, moonsafari said:

Okay, I'm done now. I've ordered the Tak TOE 4mm to start off with.

 

 

13 hours ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

what about some of the Tak TOE eyepieces

I think we managed to persuade him on that one already 😂👍

[badhex]

12 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Just this minute ordered one of those!

I like to use my orthos at longer focal lengths with the 102mm f7, but they don't play well with Barlows due to the way Barlows mess with the exit pupil. I've gone for the Powermate at they don't have those problems and I can get x143 with the 12.5mm and x198 with the 9mm

I can confirm the Powermate works well with orthos - have used my BCOs my 2.5x a few times. 

As mentioned by others the larger EPs like Pentax and Morpheus are a bit unwieldy with a 2.5x Powermate, but I also got a 2x2" for this use case. It does add some weight but feels sturdier, and looks less silly. 2x is also useful as 2.5x is sometimes slightly more than I want. 

Conversely, an ortho in the 2x2" looks ridiculous! 

Edited August 25, 2022 by badhex

[badhex]

2 hours ago, moonsafari said:

Yeah, everyone has been amazing. Lots of great info on this thread that I was never expecting. Big ups to @badhex for introducing me to this forum!

SGL for life 😂

[moonsafari]

The postman brought me a few more goodies this morning 🤩

[RT65CB-SWL]

You're going to enjoy using that TeleVue Nagler 13mm/Type 6...

I know, I do! 

[moonsafari]

Behold. Thank you all very much for your help. It’s been truly appreciated.

 

 

[Mr Spock]

Very nice 👍

[Stu]

Awesomeness! Looks fabulous.

Enjoy!