Australian Sky Telescope MayJune 2017

70 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE May | June 2017

forvisualuse.Furthermore,todaythere

aremanyhigh-qualityrefractorsin

this aperture range that offer excellent

visual performance. You don’t need the

advantages of a premium astrograph

toenjoyfirst-classviewsthroughan

eyepiece. But it’s also nice to know that

ifyouwanttolookthroughtheFSQ-

130ED, you can.

The focuser’s relatively short travel

wasalsoanissuethatcroppedupwhen

IwasshootingwithaDSLRcamera.The

eveningbeforetheMercurytransitlast

MayImadesurethescopewasproperly

setupformyNikonD700cameraby

focusing on stars. In the morning while

waitingforthetransittobegin,aflock

of brilliantly coloured finches descended

onourbirdfeederabout30metresfrom

thescope.Itseemedliketheperfect

photoopforthisexceedinglysharp

650-mm‘cameralens,’butIcouldn’t

rack the drawtube out enough to reach

focus,andIwasn’tabouttomess

with changing adapters in the waning

momentsbeforethetransit’sstart.

There’snodoubtthescopeisagreat

lensforterrestrialphotography,but

it’s not one that can adapt quickly to

focusingoveralargerangeofrelatively

nearby distances.

WheretheFSQ-130ED’soptical

and mechanical features coalesce to

formavirtuallyperfectsystemiswhen

the scope is used as an astrograph.

Asmentionedabove,thesuperb

starimagesacrossahugefieldof

view, coupled with the scope’s solid

construction and smooth focusing,

left nothing to be desired. The

accompanying deep sky images speak

for themselves.

I was pleased that the scope required

no refocusing when switching between

colour filters for RGB imaging, but it

was necessary to tweak the focus in

conditions of significantly changing air

temperature. This was especially true

during my late-spring imaging sessions,

when pleasantly mild evenings rapidly

descended to sub-freezing temperatures,

requiring me to adjust the focus at least

once, and sometimes twice each hour.

But when the temperature was stable

to within about 2°C, the scope’s focus

was also quite stable over many hours.

One good example is the lead image in

this review of the Andromeda Galaxy.

It was assembled from exposures

gathered over a 5-hour period spread

across two consecutive nights when the

scope’s focus remained fixed and the air

temperature varied by less than 2.8°C.

And, of course, as I mentioned earlier,

routine focus updates are of little

concern for anyone running a fully

automated imaging setup.

It’s never easy to stick a ‘best’ label

on any telescope or astrograph; there

are simply too many subtleties involved

when it comes to defining what makes

a perfect instrument in the eyes of each

observer. But I will say that when it

comes to a 1310-mm telescope designed

for wide-field, deep sky imaging, I’ve

never used a better one than the

Takahashi FSQ-130ED.

„ DENNIS DI CICCO has been writing

about equipment for more than 40 years.

With the focuser

stripped of any

adapters and

the dew shield

retracted, the

12.2-kg optical

tube assembly is

only 53 cm long.

TThis snapshot of Mercury transiting the Sun last May was made with the FSQ-130ED and a full-frame

Nikon D700 DSLR camera about 10 minutes after the planet first crossed the Sun’s eastern limb.

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