Pete,
Hi.
Actually I'm in S. Victoria!
If you could PM me the name & contact details that'd be great. I'd send you one, but I'm also having Telstra server woes at the moment and it takes about 1/2 hour to send one!
I'm waiting on a call-back from the original and very helpful Californian vendor to see if it goes back to them or to Tak directly.
Alas, I haven't really got the set-up to image properly with the Tak, but I could try an EP projection though that's liable to make it appear worse.
Its very disappointing and not just because of the time and money.
I'd hoped I'd never have to get another refractor and I saved for yonks. I did my research and concluded that The Tak hit the sweet-spot of aperture, IQ and portability. Going on what was said on-line, I hoped the chances of getting a duff one were very, very low compared to say a Skywatcher/Orion/Nanjing product as I've been-there-done-that ,with them. .
I'd known Taks to have mechanical foibles, but rarely optical flaws, but hopefully the lovely, lovely people at Takahashi can sort it out!
(You never know who's watching!)
Thanks again for the heads-up
Peter