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Mounting excitement in France!


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'Takahashi brings you mounting excitement...' to paraphrase a 1970's Kawasaki advert.

Here is the EM200. It looks, as MartinB said, just like an EQ6 and costs five times as much. It also looks mildly seasick in Takahashi's 'soothing green.' But it is very nice. I like it and hope it will mean very productive imaging runs for all who use it down here.

Since everything chez Tak is an extra I did not go for the 800 euro wooden legs or the Tak pier. Instead I cut down a tall steel pier we were no longer using and welded up a Heath Robinson top for it to hold a Tak tripod head. (I always think the easiest way to make a pier is to use the original tripod head. Okay, it leaves the mount a bit perched up because you need to be able to fit the retaining nut from underneath but it has never been a problem. This setup seems very stiff with everything triangulated. I used 2.5 cm square section steel for most of the top. The old pier is one I made about seven years ago.

The welding looks even worse than my usual dismal standard because my weedy MIG machine wasn't getting things hot enough so I went over the welds with my pal Dave's volcanic equivalent, runnning at the limit of single phase. A fabulous bit of kit.

Next came a finder bracket to attach a SW 9x50 I bought here on SGL. On with the TEC 140, WO66 and Bob's Yer Uncle. How nice it is to see it before the snakepit of cables begin to strangle it all!

This mount has some quirks, like a non phone cable ST4 socket so I am waiting for an adapter before I can try the guiding. I can't wait to try the legendary polar finder, which really does look the biz and is supposed to get you within 2 arcmins in two minutes. I think it might!

It is very slow on the slew (speed is another, extra coming in at about 1000 euros, so I thought I'd save the cash, buy some gin and tonic with it and sip away during slews...) However, since it is PC controlled you can release the clutches, swing to a nearby bright star, hit Synch and then slew from there. It will be nice to have this feature, meaning no need to restart everything when your get clutch slip...

How does it perform? No idea yet because I only finished the pier this morning. I'll let you know ASAP. Ah yes, and we have another bit of optics in the First Light queue as well; a Samyang f1.4 85mm prime lens to use with our CCD camera lens adapter. The thing has enormous aperture! Should be fun. It can, of course, go in visiting modded DSLRs as well but I rarely venture into DSLR. I can't remember how to work all the menus...

Olly

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Question Olly...WHY?

Tec140 - no brainer

This mount ??

EQ6 usibng EQMOD is the most pin point accurate thing I have ever seen, even Losmandy distribututors seeing it in action in Spain were stunned....

No ST4, polar scope on the EQ6 again, pretty fine (according to WCS on mine iit was within a gnats proverbials)

Be interested to know why ...

An AP1200 yes...I can get that load and just sheer beauty/quality...even a DD mount...with the same load as the EQ6...but this?

Forgive me asking...but why?

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It is a good question, Nick. I know four Tak mount owners quite well and the precision of tracking that they enjoy is far and away better than EQ6 or Losmandy G11. I find our EQ6 mounts fine at around 500mm focal length under almost all circumstances.

Going up to the 980mm of the TEC the tracking is not always satisfactory. Five mins is dead reliable, ten not. FIfteen certainly not. It depends on the seeing. The EQ6 needs fast corrections so the guide star does not average out over a three sec exposure. Result, you chase the seeing.

When people come here on holiday they naturally want results from night one. I don't feel the EQ6 at 980mm promises that absolute reliability whereas from what I have seen of Tak mounts down here, this one will. (We'll see!)

Finally if I want to go to a focal length of around 2 metres with a 10 inch RC the EQ6 would be over and out. Not a chance of reliable guiding at that focal length. MartinB was bashing away with his 10 inch Meade ACF on a Tak mount and went to bed leaving it running.

Tak mounts don't have a big reputation in some quarters because not many people buy them but the owners are absolutely certain that they are superb. The EM200 is not rated to carry as much as a G11 but the accuracy is quite another matter. As I say, I will update you all with my own findings.

Olly

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Finally if I want to go to a focal length of around 2 metres with a 10 inch RC

Drool...

Having tinkered with my EQ6 quite a lot I can see where Olly is coming from, I don't think you can really get decent long focal length results "out of the box".

If your up for a bit of accurate tuning and into PEC then I've no doubt it can really perform (I'm working on this at the moment), but if you have the money, want something a bit more reliable and in Olly's case you are trying to attract customers with nice kit....then why not?

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Sure, but against an AP? (which okay is more money, but the load capacity and tracking again is outstanding)...Thanks though Olly, really look forward to your findings

I have a friend with a Tak mount and FSQ scope, and he loves it to bits too

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HehHeh! Olly, I like your style, but substitute the Gin for Jack Daniels, and I would be happy to slew at x2 sidereal rate.:D

I hope the results justify the expenditure. I'm sure they will.

Ron.

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Olly, you'll love the polar scope! - makes alignment very quick and simple for those of us without a permanent set-up....

If you read the reviews (I'm sure you already have!), for and against Taks instead of say the AP900/1200 - for portable set-ups, the Tak is high regarded for it's ease of set up due to the built in bubble level (so you don't need to get the tripod/pillar level), and the cleverly illuminated and accurate polar scope.

As for the 'green', I'd have thought you'd already fallen in love with it due to having the FSQ85ED...!!!!

Clear skies...

Damian

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Cheers Damian,

I would have loved the polar scope a lot more last night if it had worked! Alas the brightness control switch isn't working. Tak warn you to be careful with it so I was, very. However, this also suggests that they know it is too fragile. No idea what to do about it since I don't want it to go back to Japan just for that. I am observatory based so it doesn't really matter but it's a great shame and a bad start!

Olly

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That's the point Olly is observatory based...again, I am somewhat perplexed against say the AP900...but still look forward to the results

Easy; price! The EM200 is about two thousand euros cheaper than the AP Mach1 GoTo, never mind the AP900. (I guess it is about half the price of that.) That's an awful lot of difference and running an astro gite is no way to make a million! I mean, I bought my new Fiat Panda turbo deisel, a stunning little car, for about the difference between the Tak and a large AP.

Olly

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It looks, as MartinB said, just like an EQ6

Hehe i think Takahashi may get a bit upset by that.

Looks a superb bit of kit Olly and from the tiny bit of backdrop i can see, a lovely setting too. Have fun!

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