my son is interested in getting a tak sky 90... does anyone have extensive experience with one, they seem pricey, but how do they stand up in comparisons with other high quality apo's... even in the 4 inch range?
sky 90
Started by don93111, 10/07/2005 10:16PM
Posted 10/07/2005 10:16PM
Opening Post
Posted 10/08/2005 12:52AM
| Edited 10/08/2005 12:53AM
#1
Don,
Sky 90s are very fast refractors (f/5.6) that are optimized for astrophotography, especially with the optional reducer/flattener, which takes it to a fast f/4.5 or so. It takes awesome photos in this configuration. Check out my photos in the ATWB Customer Galleries.
For visual use, it is extremely portable and light weight, and makes a good travel scope. Due to its fast f ratio and short focal length (504mm), there are better options if his interest is in viewing planets, planetary nebulaes or double stars. Similarly, if his interest is in deep sky objects, there are plenty of good scopes in this price range that will deliver more with bigger apertures.
Having said that, I do enjoy an occasional night in my light polluted backyard due to its sheer portability. It takes me less than 5 min to hook it up to my Microstar or DM-6 alt az mount and be happily viewing away. But for serious visual work or dark skies, my bigger scopes nautrally take over. Typically I use my Sky 90 for deep sky wide field photography. I think it is a better option than a FS-60C.
Quality wise it is a very nice scope. Many will call it "cute". But it delivers well visually, something like a 8/10 with very little color around bright objects. But 90mm is 90mm, and for many objects he will find rather dim.
By the way, the Tak accessories tend to be quite expensive, so price these in the system as part of your decision.
Good luck and hope that helps,
Ivan
Sky 90s are very fast refractors (f/5.6) that are optimized for astrophotography, especially with the optional reducer/flattener, which takes it to a fast f/4.5 or so. It takes awesome photos in this configuration. Check out my photos in the ATWB Customer Galleries.
For visual use, it is extremely portable and light weight, and makes a good travel scope. Due to its fast f ratio and short focal length (504mm), there are better options if his interest is in viewing planets, planetary nebulaes or double stars. Similarly, if his interest is in deep sky objects, there are plenty of good scopes in this price range that will deliver more with bigger apertures.
Having said that, I do enjoy an occasional night in my light polluted backyard due to its sheer portability. It takes me less than 5 min to hook it up to my Microstar or DM-6 alt az mount and be happily viewing away. But for serious visual work or dark skies, my bigger scopes nautrally take over. Typically I use my Sky 90 for deep sky wide field photography. I think it is a better option than a FS-60C.
Quality wise it is a very nice scope. Many will call it "cute". But it delivers well visually, something like a 8/10 with very little color around bright objects. But 90mm is 90mm, and for many objects he will find rather dim.
By the way, the Tak accessories tend to be quite expensive, so price these in the system as part of your decision.
Good luck and hope that helps,
Ivan
Posted 10/12/2005 04:17AM
#2
If you have dark skies it will perform well for deep space objects. I compared it to an average 8" CAT on several Messier objects in Sagittarius and it showed less bright objects but better definition and more pleasing wide field views ... as the other scope owner keep saying " ... gee that is a good little scope!".
howard
Posted 10/12/2005 08:25AM
#3
Hello:
I have one and it's a fun, cute little scope. Optically, it's very good, and I think it'd be hard to show that any other ~4" APO is significantly better in terms of optical quality. The wide field views can't be beat. With the 31mm Nagler, I can get a 5 degree field of view which make things like the California Nebula or the North America AND Pelican Nebula, or the whole Veil Nebula possible, if not easy. Since the focal length is so short, a good barlow is necessary for any kind of planetary observing, and a 5x powermate would go well with this scope.
A fun story of mine is that once we had our Sky90 set up next to a C11 at a dark site (12,000ft. on Mauna Kea). With both scopes pointed at the Virgo cluster and using similar eyepieces, we could see the same number of galaxies in both scopes! The C11 could see fainter, but the Sky90 had a wider field of view, so in the end it came out the same. Other scopes probably give you more bang for the buck, but the Sky90 is a real peasure to use.
Cheers
Mike Connelley
I have one and it's a fun, cute little scope. Optically, it's very good, and I think it'd be hard to show that any other ~4" APO is significantly better in terms of optical quality. The wide field views can't be beat. With the 31mm Nagler, I can get a 5 degree field of view which make things like the California Nebula or the North America AND Pelican Nebula, or the whole Veil Nebula possible, if not easy. Since the focal length is so short, a good barlow is necessary for any kind of planetary observing, and a 5x powermate would go well with this scope.
A fun story of mine is that once we had our Sky90 set up next to a C11 at a dark site (12,000ft. on Mauna Kea). With both scopes pointed at the Virgo cluster and using similar eyepieces, we could see the same number of galaxies in both scopes! The C11 could see fainter, but the Sky90 had a wider field of view, so in the end it came out the same. Other scopes probably give you more bang for the buck, but the Sky90 is a real peasure to use.
Cheers
Mike Connelley
Funding Member
