I saw a Tak 106 in action last summer. I own a 12" LX200. First off, There's a big difference between what kind pictures it takes and what it does visually. That picture is a processed, stacked long exposure images that looks nothing like what the guy saw in the eyepiece. Every thing you see in that scope will look incredibly sharp. It focuses spectacular. You'll see stars so small you won't believe it. I saw Jupiter and Saturn in that scope and it was the best I've ever seen with the exception of the 20" Obession. The images were not as bright as my 12" LX200 but way sharper. The thing is, your not going to see as many objects in there. It's still only a 4" aperture which limnits the number of DSO's your gonna see. Again the Tak is a great scope, I'd love to have one of those. But would not trade my 12" LX200 for it. I'd love to have it sitting on top of there. Best of both worlds. Your not gonna see 13th and 14th and even 15th magnitude galaxies in there,as I do with the 12". Again, everything you see in there will look great, sharper than the 12" but not brighter. If you want to see real dim objects you have to go with the 12". Also, the price your talking about is for the tube only. No mount, no tripod, no finder scope, no eyepieces, no GOTO, just the tube. That tripod and mount you see in the magazine is $8000 US. The one I saw was attached to a CCD with a PC and monitor. The PC had GOTO softwear controlling the scope. The guy said it was over $20,000 worth of stuff and the tube was more of an accessory. I'm telling you, the Tak is real nice scope but more of a connoisseur's scope. If your doing photography, it's great, so is the LX200. It's up to you, I just didn't want you to think your gonna see anything like the pictures it takes and it's a lot of money for a 4" scope.
That's it;
BOB SAL

• Thanks for that Bob - craby - June 25, 2002 - 06:09 UTC
  • Good - bobsal - June 25, 2002 - 11:16 UTC
    • $10,000! for about $4,000 more get the 16" GPS - robertko2 - July 27, 2002 - 16:44 UTC
• Tak FSQ106 vs LX200 GPS 10" or 12" - kmueller26 - August 27, 2002 - 21:43 UTC