Reviews

I bought this scope out of experience from a few other people who own Takahashi's. The reputation of these scopes for sharp optics and precision also drove the final decision. That and the price, which at the time of purchase was very favorable. It seemed the retailer had a few of these scopes that he wanted to sell and so I snapped it up.

Takahashi TSA102S
I bought this scope out of experience from a few other people who own Takahashi's. The reputation of these scopes for sharp optics and precision also drove the final decision. That and the price, which at the time of purchase was very favorable. It seemed the retailer had a few of these scopes that he wanted to sell and so I snapped it up.
Build and Spec's The build quality of these scopes is generally really good. The TSA front cell is made up of a triplet configuration and is very solid looking with all the collimation screws well locked off. The rack and pinion focuser while an older style of focuser is very solid and works superbly with no slippage or slop. The unit comes with an eyepiece holder and a finder scope. The finder is very good in that is holds position really well with the main scope even with being moved around.
Use This scope is really nice both visually and imaging wise. When using it visually the stars are like little needles of light coming from an inky blackness. The focuser is smooth and precise, leading to exact focus. Planets have great contrast and superb colour correction. Looking at the moon is as good as looking through the C14 except the contrast is so much better and a lot less bright. Imaging though this scope is very good; especially in the wide field sense. Large objects like the Lagoon fit nicely into the field while targets like M42 can sit side by side with the running man. Personally I like this image scale. Though you could not use this as a planetary imaging scope due to the short focal length. However there are a few little things that are not entirely great. First, there is some slight field curvature that is evident when imaging. You need to buy a flattener or a reducer/flattener to eliminate this issue. Now this might seem light "yeah of course" but nothing that Tak makes is cheap. The flattener which I have just bought cost nearly 400 AUD and is not much bigger than a pan 24. That is not to mention the camera rotator that was also several hundred dollars. Essential items for imaging should be a little cheaper than this. Besides the wild claims that some Takahashi dealers make, you would think that these scopes were gods gift and why would they need something to correct a curved field? Just an observation, but typical of astronomy related gear I suppose. Secondly, if you look at the scope all the way from the lens cell to the focuser it all looks bullet proof. To a large extent this is true, mind you don't try dropping these scopes. They bounce but are not invincible. However, if you take a look from the focuser to the eyepiece holder there are some things that look a bit ordinary to me and let the whole side down. The lack of compression rings and the use of grub screws makes for some slop and ultimately movement. It does not really matter for visual work but imaging it could be a problem. Aside from these minor issues these scopes really are very good and do produce lovely views and images. Cool down time is very good and I really like how the scope performs. Bottom Line Great scopes, excellent contrast and superb acquisition.

		EARTH & COSMOS

Takahashi TSA102S