[castor]

I bought a new Takahashi FS-60c, a doublet fluorite apochromat from Grand Eye Scientific Company in Hong Kong. They have considerably lower prices on many items, such as the Meade Range and most Takahashi items. This FS-60c cost a total of HK5150 (approx. $870) including the finder and tube holder, compared to the ota alone going at about $1200 in Australia and similar rate in the US.

This thing is small - the OTA weighs only 1.3kg and is certainly small enough to put in your briefcase - all the better when you are on an overseas trip or even camping. It is a f/5.9 tube with an aperture of 60mm with a wonderful rack-and-pinion focusser. Preliminary testing showed that this scope will bear a LOT of magnification - I could actually get it up to 300x during the day without it completely blurring - far greater than the 60x per inch rule, and there was no discernible chromatic aberration.

Test targets on a rare clear night in light-polluted inner Melbourne included Toliman which was very neatly split at 60x - much easier than on a 70mm achromat which has a bigger aperture. Stars snap into tack (Tak?) sharp focus with a quality unseen on ordinary achromats. Jupiter showed three cloud bands and its four moons; the best views were had at 100-120x. Increasing the power beyond this provided no extra detail and integrity of the image was gradually lost in excess of 150x.

One of the shortcomings of this scope was the fact that only a limited range of eyepieces would come into focus at infinity with a standard diagonal. These were the type 6 Naglers and anything parfocal with them (includes all the Radians and the Panoptic 24). Otherwise, there was insufficient in-focus. With a barlow, no eyepiece would come into focus. However, this was solved if a 2.5x Televue Powermate was used, and any eyepiece can be used in conjunction with it (including stacked Barlows), effectively turning the scope into an f/15 instrument.

The included 6x30 finder was, by the way, brilliant. Stars were sharp to the edge, coatings looked wonderful and could be focussed by smoothly turning the eyepiece.

A Takahashi Sky-90 remains on my wish list, but this will be my last astro purchase for a couple of years. Maybe I will save up for a camera to use with this latest acquisition. A more pragmatic alternative at my age (26) would be on a means to eliminate geekiness and acquire an earthly companion!