Posts Made By: Walter Locke

Good work, Mike! You have nerves of steel to have dismembered and reassembled a delicate thing like an eyepiece! I know you've mentioned your belief in the five element construction of the Tak LE in the past, and I always doubted that assertion, and I apologize for ever doubting you. Thanks for setting me straight!

That's a beautiful photograph! These birds visit our home every year and eat the privet berries from the bushes. It's a real treat to watch them from our sunroom windows! Thanks!

That's an interesting review, Alan. I am wondering about the manufacturer's intention behind the slow focuser. These days many focusers are made to go from extreme close focus to infinity at one turn or less. Slower moving binocular focusers are tedious and time-consuming. Thanks for the time spent describing this binocular!

He a skilled and reputable individual. Give him the benefit of the doubt and I am confident he'll come through for you! Hang in there!

"To the moon, Alice! To the moon!"

I've used a TEC I-Turret for a year or two and I like it a lot. It makes changing eyepieces a breeze and reduces the number of times you have to fiddle with eyepieces in the dark. It is on the heavy side, however, and the addition of five eyepieces will make it even heavier. Otherwise, it's a useful piece of equipment and well worth having, in my humble opinion.

I have formerly owned one Tak FS-102 and two WO Megrez 80 scopes (I currently have the ED Triplet). I have seen Orion ED 80 scopes at star parties. My humble opinion is that if quality...both optical and mechanical...is important, the Tak will be the scope to buy. Its fit and finish are excellent and I personally have not seen a Takahashi that didn't put up first class images at the eyepiece. Second, I would nominate the WO Megrez 80 ED Triplet. It will equal the Orion optically, and it is superior mechanically with its smooth, rotating focuser with a two speed option (or it may be standard by now, I'm not sure) and retractable dew shield. Again, fit and finish are very good, although not quite up to the standards of Takahashi, but close. The Orion is an impressive scope for the money, however. It has fine optics but from my experience its construction quality isn't quite up to the standards of either Tak or WO. Retrofitting the Orion with after market focusers has become fairly common, from accounts I have read. On the other hand, Orion's ED 80 is very attractively priced, making its modification seem cost effective to many owners.

Other scopes worth looking into would be the Stellarvue and Televue scopes. Both are fine optically and mechanically.

Here is a shot of the spider and the secondary's adjustment screws. The focuser is barely visible to the right.

While this scope doesn't come with a tripod or mount, it can easily be adapted to any number of inexpensive mounting options.

For those of you who think of owls as nocturnal and arboreal, meet an owl that's diurnal and nests in burrows!

I changed my email address to my backup account. We'll see if that helps.