1ST light TAK 130 TOA

Here it goes, on 8-8-03.

It was a windy, and moon lit night. I just got the scope, and set it
up in my backyard, the winds were about 20 mph,and the sky was washed
in moon light. I was'nt expecting much in these conditions, yet I was
pleasntly surprised (I'll explain later).

I've been star gazing now for about 4 years, and have gone thru
several scopes, including a 10" & 15" newt.and a 7" Mead Mak. Which
since then I have sold, the only scope I've held on to is a TV102.
The reason I sold all the others, was because I eventually realized
that I did'nt like setting up heavy scopes, and that the little TV102
gave me real nice images limited only by it's appeture, and was very
portable and light weight. The only thing is that DSO. were dim, even
though the detail was impressive or at the very least more pleasant
than the 10" newt.

So my quest started for a highly portable and light weight APO.
scope 5"to6", something that would show DSO brighter,and bigger with
excellent contrast(my 1st. choice would have been an AP. 6" over the
TAK.6" only because it's shorter, and lighter weight,but the wait is
too long).

Now to 1st. light:

I set up the scope on the new Celestron EQ. CG-5 mount. This is my
first EQ. mount, and was very impressed, it moved gracefully, with no
backlash what so ever, a very good bargain at $330.00 IMHO. I rapped
on the scope and it settled down in about 2 seconds maybe 3 which was
very impressive considering the winds I had.

The EP's I used were Nagler's 22mm,13mm,and 7mm. My 1st. target was
the ring nebula, wow I've never seen it like that before, not only
was it big and bright, but the detail was very sharp. Next was the
dumbbell nebula, same as above, it had an hour glass figure to it.
M13 resolved into thousands little pinpoints, with several star
strands extending from its center. The double double in lyra split
easily at 77x. All views were very impressive cosidering the moon lit
sky,and high winds I had. I can only guess what this scope will do on
a nice night! Latter looked at Mars, saw polar cap,and some detail,
all without any filter, in all pretty good view considering it was
low on the horizon.

Well thats it for now, I'll do another report when I have a better
night, but for now 1st. impression is very promising, pretty much
what I was hoping for overall in this scope. Does anyone know if TAK
will come out with a 6" ortho?

Nick Tsakoyias

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the info. on tak. 1ST on the new CG-5 mount Max payload is 30lbs, the scope I believe weighs 22lbs, with diagonal and heavy EP's total weight approx.25lbs. I use 2 11lbs couter weights which is more than enough. I normally don't crank up the power more than 200x execpt when I'm trying to split doubles, and thats with any scope I've ever had, even though the TAk scope seemed to be begging for more.

Finally on faint fuzzies, I mean what I said, on what things I saw that night. Because of the serious sky glow in my area (san francisco-bay area)even big newts on faint fuzzies in general don't fair all that great. so what I CAN see thru a small refractor, though dimmer,seems to me IMHO more pleasant.

Nick T. Concord Ca.

"The reason I sold all the others, was because I eventually realized that I did'nt like setting up heavy scopes"

That was exactly the reason that I got rid of my TOA130 and bought a lighter 5" refractor. I think the TOA weighs about 25 pounds with the basic accessories like the mounting rings, finder/bracket. It wasn't a light and portable scope at all.

Anyway it's an excellent refractor. Congrates!!!