Posts Made By: Randy Roy

Ed,

Try this:

http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=63&pid=2415&m=35

When I need to know something about Tak I find that the Takahashi Forum on this website is very useful, as well as the Takahashi Yahoo group. Art Ciampi at TNR is also a great resource as is the sales staff at Anacortes Telescope and Wild Bird.

Best wishes,

Hi Joe,

Are you using a separate filtered power supply for your CCD camera or do you have the camera, PC and mount running off the same 12V supply? The reason I ask is that I found it necessary to run my CCD off a separate supply from the PC due to noise created by tying everything together. Even in the field, I used a separate battery for the CCD than the laptop. I did find I could use an inverter and power the PC and laptop using their AC supplies with no problem, but that solution is so inefficient the battery charge would not last nearly as long.

Your problem may not be related to power, but IMO, this is a good place to start.

I don't know anything about them, but if it were me I would at least investigate the new 10"Meade RC OTA for under $2K.

http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=183&pid=10325&m=2

Pow, right in the kisser!

Evan,

I received my TSA-102 a few days ago. I got up at 3 a.m. this morning to view the Summer Milky Way as well as the North American and Veil nebuae. I've owned a few APOs and my sense so far is this scope may be the best I've used visually. My views of the Eagle, the Lagoon, the Trifid, the NA and the Veil were really astounding. I found 233X to be very useful under average conditions last night, though M57 at 163X was spectacular.

My first light was Jupiter and I was very pleased with the view. Like you, I had found no visible chroma on Jupiter (or even Vega this morning) at 233X in or out of focus.

BTW--I use the CAA along with the 2" visual back and Tak 1/10 wave diagonal and all my Televue eps come to focus with lots of room to spare both in and out.

Hans,

I use an IPAQ running Pocket Sky and like it much more than the Takahashi THC. The THC is like using 10 year old technology. The Pocket Sky has a huge database and the initialization procedure is very easy compared with the THC. I also use Bluetooth which makes my setup wireless. This is no big deal in an observatory, but is quite nice when in the field.

One good thing I will say for the THC is that the build quality is like all things Tak. It is just that the feature set is very, very thin for the price.

Try these guys:

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Evan,

My experience with my new TSA-102 mimicks your exactly. I am very happy to find the same incredible contrast as other Tak scopes and have stayed up all night viewing the Souther Summer Milky Way from the M8/M20 and the the Eagle all the way to the North American nebula. I also had an NP101 and while I found it to be exceptional and color free, I believe I much prefer the TSA, but mostly for reasons of personal preference. I especially like that it performs well on the Teegul modified alt az mount. The combination of TSA102 and Teegul has to be one of the best possible 4" APO grab and go setups around.

I am also fortunate to have taken delivery of a new TOA-130 yesterday. I didn't sleep all night once I set it up at a nearby site relatively free of artificial light and with a skies at about mag 5.5. I thought my former FS128 was spectacular, but the TOA-130 is easily the best scope I have viewed through in its size class. Like most Tak scopes that I have owned or used, the contrast is almost startling at first. I watched Jupiter for hours last night and M57 was big and bright. I cannot wait to get it to an even darker site, but of course we are expecting rain tonight through the weekend.

Having had the TSA-102 and TOA-130 side by side all night last night, I can say that to my eyes the views are remarkably similar in terms of contrast and image quality (especially Jupiter). The TOA takes a bit longer to cool down, of course (about 45 minutes as opposed to about 30 min for the TSA) in our warm and muggy Memphis climate. You could definitely tell the difference in the two looking at deep sky, last night notably with M57. The Ring looked like a faint smoke ring in the TSA-102, but was easily visible with direct vision. In the TOA, you kept thinking with just a bit of luck, you might see the central star. Of course, you couldn't, but the view was so clear, I got this sense that the TOA could possibly do the impossible.

With a UHC filter, the NA was trivial with either scope and the Veil was truly breathtaking especially the Witches' Broom.

Scott,

Congratulations. I have had my TSA102 about a month now and am increasingly impressed with its performance. My eps for it are:

35mm Panoptic
24mm Panoptic
3.5mm, 5mm, 7mm, 9mm, and 13mm Nagler Type 6.

I find these eps give me a very nice range of magnification, are well corrected and give ample eye relief. Of course, there are many other eps that will work, too, but this set meets my needs very well.

Best wishes,

Paul,

Congratulations. This is one of the best looking scope pics I have seen in years.

Very, very nice.