How do you Collimate a TOA-130?

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

Hello everyone,

I have a new TOA-130 purchased from the Australian Tak dealer. For the month of having the scope I have been trouble shooting what I thought were tilt issues. Closely examining the STL, rotator, focuser flex, imaging to see what is happening after modifications, but no resolution. Considering I've had numerous Tak scopes before, I never thought it could be collimation. As a last resort I today put in my Tak collimating scope to find the scope is actually out of collimation. The collimation error reflected in the centre reflection being just north of the target exactly reflects the error I'm seeing in my images.

I have been searching the www to find no guides to collimating a these scope, but plenty of referrals to Fred [Tak USA] who seems the key person. I have a question about the 6 adjustment screws on the front, and feel one set is for the cell and the other for the lenses? Is there any way someone would part with an instruction on this topic?


Thanks if you can get me the golden guide - or is calling Fred the only option if I want to rectify this myself?


Cheers,


Steve

[Exfso (Peter)]

Steve the simple answer is YOU DON'T. If you have just purchased it from Claude as a new scope, it is his problem and it needs to go back to Japan as a warranty issue. As I have said in numerous posts, do NOT let anyone other than Takahashi touch one of their APO's. People have tried and failed miserably I can speak from experience on this as I had sent mine to a mob in Sydney who Claude recommended and they trashed it completely. They have now gone out of business now, and it sure does not surprise me considering the hassles I had with them. My TOA130 had to go back to Japan for a complete rebuild after those butchers did their thing.
Obviously being a warranty thing, you will not be out of pocket at all. Takahashi will do all that is required including return freight. It is probably best to deal with them directly. I have the details of the guy to contact if you need them. He is a very helpful chap.

This is the biggest problem with Takahashi as far as Australia goes, there is no one that can satisfactorily service them. Outside of Japan, as far as I know only TNR are authorised to do this work. If you lived in the USA you would send it to them, but everywhere else, it is back to Japan unfortunately.

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

Thank you Peter, that is sound advise and will contact Claude on Monday. Thanks for taking the time to write.

Kind regards,

Steve

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

Well, after receiving some sound advise, and following some investigation and close inspection of the 3 reflections, I altered collimation extremely finely and completed a alignment within 30 mins. All three reflections now appear quite centralised.

I do not believe any bump put the collimation out, as all three sets of screws were tight, and all cracked on unlocking. Luckily the objectives remained aligned.

Regards,

Steve

[Exfso (Peter)]

Steve, the best indicator is a relatively high mag out of focus star. If the circles are absolutely concentric, all is fine generally. This is a shot taken with relatively bad seeing on my TOA130 as you can see the rings are pretty well concentric, so this is definintely in collimation.

[Paul Haese]

Yep I can second that. Send it back to Takahashi. Don't take no for an answer from the local dealer. Your scope appears to have a problem.

[thomqos (Russell)]

Well my TSA-120 certainly produces awesome star images, but based on what I'd read on IIS when waiting for it, I was concerned about whether It'd arrive in collimation; I'd read about the way in which Takahashi pack their scopes; Sure they come triple boxed, but I think that's still inadequate when each of those boxes are only separated/isolated by hard polystyrene and not a shred of cushioning bubble wrap to be found. Polystyrene blocks don't really provide cushioning against shock.

[stevous67 (Steve M)]

THanks Peter, Paul and Russell for your comments. I've now sent it back and its being looked after by the agent. I've had a few Tak's before and all have been marvelous, but I am still very surprised the collimation was out as these are built like tanks.

Anyway, cant wait to get it back.

Bye!
Steve

[Exfso (Peter)]

I am pretty sure they do the cooks tour before you get them. Instead of coming directly from Takahashi, I believe they get sent to the Agent who is located in Cleve, he then on sends to the purchaser. There is a lot of, in my opinion, unnecessary travelling once the scope arrives in Australia, that is more time for the courier to stuff them up. However being a bit of a cynic may cloud my judgement