Show us your Tak

[JeremyS]

Two blue boxes

[MalcolmM]

I'll be really interested to hear what you think of these @JeremyS. On Cloudy Nights they seem to get good to superlative reports! 

I've already more  eyepieces than I need so part of me would be very relieved if your verdict was 'good' rather than 'exceptional'!

I'm also drawn to the new 53° Masuyama MOPs; I love their 85° brothers. There's lots of great eyepieces out there at the moment!

Malcolm 

[DirkSteele]

Had a long weekend away and my prayers to the cloud gods paid dividends with a 5 hour session though there was some ice on the scope by the end.

 

[DirkSteele]

Oh, and one in the late afternoon after I had aligned the finder.

[mikeDnight]

DZ on APZ 

 

[raadoo]

41 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

DZ on APZ 

 

For a minute there I thought you had two identical setups next to each other 😅

[Stephenstargazer]

On 13/02/2024 at 08:24, DirkSteele said:

Had a long weekend away

Nice bit of travel kit. How is the Sightron?

[mikeDnight]

New to me, an old scared 50mm Tak finder for my DZ.

After sanding and a respray -

And now on its telescope -

[DirkSteele]

10 hours ago, Stephenstargazer said:

Nice bit of travel kit. How is the Sightron?

First time using it. Rather enjoyed it. Balance proved to be the difficult bit. Switching from a 31mm Nagler to small focal length EP would cause the scope to move in altitude even with the axis locked. But only with such extreme changes in weight. Trying only with 1.25” eyepieces was no issue at all.

[jock1958]

10 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

New to me, an old scared 50mm Tak finder for my DZ.

After sanding and a respray -

And now on its telescope -

Very nice finder and paint job Mike and you’ve retained the made in Japan sticker.

What make and shade of white did you use?

Closest match I could find for my Taks is Amalfi White. 

[johnturley]

11 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

New to me, an old scared 50mm Tak finder for my DZ.

After sanding and a respray -

 

And now on its telescope -

 

I think that the scratches are as a result of the secondary set of all metal screws on the Tak finder bracket, I don't know why they don't use plastic ended screws, as with the primary set.

John 

Edited February 18 by johnturley

[mikeDnight]

 

It isn't an exact match Jock. I had a can of spray-on radiator enamel that I bought last year. It cost about £5. The difference is definitely noticeable but not by much, but certainly preferable to the scars and small chips on the original paintwork. I hope the Tak brigade will still speak to me now I've revealed this!

[jock1958]

27 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I hope the Tak brigade will still speak to me now I've revealed this!

Your secrets safe with me Mike!! 😉🤣

[JeremyS]

44 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

 

It isn't an exact match Jock. I had a can of spray-on radiator enamel that I bought last year. It cost about £5. The difference is definitely noticeable but not by much, but certainly preferable to the scars and small chips on the original paintwork. I hope the Tak brigade will still speak to me now I've revealed this!

Aha, the Tak is out of the bag 😊

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

 

It looks like my “Eau de Flourite” by Parfums de Takahashi body spray. Comes in baby blue or hospital green tins.

[dweller25]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

 

It isn't an exact match Jock. I had a can of spray-on radiator enamel that I bought last year. It cost about £5. The difference is definitely noticeable but not by much, but certainly preferable to the scars and small chips on the original paintwork. I hope the Tak brigade will still speak to me now I've revealed this!

I used a tin of Radiator enamel to fill in a couple of tiny marks on the FS - it was a very close match 👍

[mikeDnight]

Rainy day/night pose!

Can't really do this with a Dob and still have a happy wife.

 

Sad isn't it!

Edited February 27 by mikeDnight

[plyscope]

Recently I upgraded the ring set for this FS152 from the original Takahashi double ring with bridge plate to the new K-Astec double ring set. Although I have been the owner of this scope for over three years now it has not seen much use. This is partly due to me being busy and partly due to the inconvenience of setting it up. In order to make amends I have been trying to reduce the weight where possible and also make the mount more convenient to get going. I am also taking an extended break from work . 🙂

 

I am using the second dovetail clamp for an adjustable balance weight. After using this with two 0.5kg weights, I think it I need to experiment with larger weights. With the AZ100 on a pier with wheels it is possible to wheel everything back in to the shed in a minute or so.

Replacing the ring set reduced the lifting weight of the OTA by 1.3kg. I also replaced the manhole lens cover with a thin lightweight one as supplied for the TOA130. other than those two things the only other way to reduce overall weight is to replace the focuser with something lighter. 

Andy

Edited March 7 by plyscope

[josefk]

1 hour ago, plyscope said:

Recently I upgraded the ring set for this FS152 from the original Takahashi double ring with bridge plate to the new K-Astec double ring set. Although I have been the owner of this scope for over three years now it has not seen much use. This is partly due to me being busy and partly due to the inconvenience of setting it up. In order to make amends I have been trying to reduce the weight where possible and also make the mount more convenient to get going. I am also taking an extended break from work . 🙂

 

I am using the second dovetail clamp for an adjustable balance weight. After using this with two 0.5kg weights, I think it I need to experiment with larger weights. With the AZ100 on a pier with wheels it is possible to wheel everything back in to the shed in a minute or so.

Replacing the ring set reduced the lifting weight of the OTA by 1.3kg. I also replaced the manhole lens cover with a thin lightweight one as supplied for the TOA130. other than those two things the only other way to reduce overall weight is to replace the focuser with something lighter. 

Andy

That looks great Andy - i saw those K-Astec rings of yours in the other thread and they look lovely.

I also use an AZ100 with a heavy refractor. I got balance dialled in following the route you have with weights on the offside on their own losmandy plate. I also moved my finder to the offside and have a power source for a dew band that side too. I can't remember how much weight it comes too but its a few kg and can be moved for and aft for eye piece/binoviewer balancing and its also below the pivot of the mount. Works a treat.

[josefk]

@plyscope i still have a picture - the dew band power source with about 2kg of additional weight is in the Molle bag and there is 1kg hanging off the front and below the pivot as well.

[plyscope]

That is a great idea to add a finder to the other plate @josefk. Thanks for sharing the picture. 👍

[josefk]

10 hours ago, plyscope said:

That is a great idea to add a finder to the other plate @josefk. Thanks for sharing the picture. 👍

this pic shows one on both sides but actually with this scope now I only use the RDF mounted on the offside. Saves me banging my head on a scope mounted finder.  🤣

[Nicola Fletcher]

My new Mewlon 180C double mounted with an FC100DZ on an AZ-EQ5. I’m still not sure if I like this mount. I’ve started using it in tracking only mode rather than GoTo which is better. The very quick session with the Mewlon was fantastic though - barely first light as the clouds rolled in but M42 and the Pleiades looked fantastic, and the double cluster with the 41mm Panoptic was the best view I’ve ever had of this target. I’m looking forward to getting to know this beautiful scope a lot better!

[JeremyS]

4 hours ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

My new Mewlon 180C double mounted with an FC100DZ on an AZ-EQ5. I’m still not sure if I like this mount. I’ve started using it in tracking only mode rather than GoTo which is better. The very quick session with the Mewlon was fantastic though - barely first light as the clouds rolled in but M42 and the Pleiades looked fantastic, and the double cluster with the 41mm Panoptic was the best view I’ve ever had of this target. I’m looking forward to getting to know this beautiful scope a lot better!

That is a wonderful set up Nicola 👍🏻

[dweller25]

Yes, great setup Nicola, but I would say that as I have the same two scopes 🤣