Better late than never...Well, I received my new-to-me Tak FS 102 last Friday. I had already made plans to take my Starmaster to a club star party over the weekend, and family stuff came up Sunday, but finally on Monday and Tuesday nights I got out and...what can I say? I am in love with this scope!
It was a beautiful night, though the seeing could have been a bit better, and Mars was boiling quite a bit, so I didn't spend too much time there. Transparency was 9/10 though, so I took in a lot of the summer objects before they are gone for good. I am using the scope on an Orion Atlas mount, with a WO Next Generation diagonal. I spent almost the whole night using a 24mm Panoptic with and without a 2.5X Powermate, though I occasionally used a 10.5mm Pentax XL.
Now I remember why I like refractors! What the FS 102 lacks in aperture, it makes up for in its beauty and the wonderful contrast that it provides. Had a great time and took in some of the usual suspects, as I am prone to do whenever I get a new scope...M13, M92, M27, M57, M11 (love the duckies!), M22, M8, M20, M31/32,Double Cluster, NGC457, split some doubles including Epsilon Lyrae and Albireo (Beta Cygni) and some others.
I am a globular cluster and galaxy fan for the most part, hence my need for aperture, but when it comes to OCs and doubles, I have always liked refractors and this thing delivers!This is truly one kick butt telescope, and it is definitely a keeper! I haven't used a 4" scope in quite some time, but I think that this one is going to get a lot of use.
Doug
Midway, FL
It was a beautiful night, though the seeing could have been a bit better, and Mars was boiling quite a bit, so I didn't spend too much time there. Transparency was 9/10 though, so I took in a lot of the summer objects before they are gone for good. I am using the scope on an Orion Atlas mount, with a WO Next Generation diagonal. I spent almost the whole night using a 24mm Panoptic with and without a 2.5X Powermate, though I occasionally used a 10.5mm Pentax XL.
Now I remember why I like refractors! What the FS 102 lacks in aperture, it makes up for in its beauty and the wonderful contrast that it provides. Had a great time and took in some of the usual suspects, as I am prone to do whenever I get a new scope...M13, M92, M27, M57, M11 (love the duckies!), M22, M8, M20, M31/32,Double Cluster, NGC457, split some doubles including Epsilon Lyrae and Albireo (Beta Cygni) and some others.
I am a globular cluster and galaxy fan for the most part, hence my need for aperture, but when it comes to OCs and doubles, I have always liked refractors and this thing delivers!This is truly one kick butt telescope, and it is definitely a keeper! I haven't used a 4" scope in quite some time, but I think that this one is going to get a lot of use.
Doug
Midway, FL
