The StellaMira wins for me. Pretty much up there with the Tak and enough change left over for a couple of decent eyepieces or money towards other accessories.
Nice one Chris both images looked good to me, your neighbour chatting to you kinda reminded me when I used to go to the dark site years ago. I were looking at Saturn & someone drove by & asked what I were up to so I showed them Saturn in the eyepiece. Hmm visual haven't done that for a while lol
Hey Tich! They are remarkably similar at first glance aren't they. I could only start to see differences when I zoomed right in and blinked between them. Remarkable considering the StellaMira has 56% more light grasp! I bet they still remember seeing Saturn through your scope to this day mate! I love showing folks Saturn for the first time, it's like re living the my own cathartic experience as a young-un :) The Tak has inspired me to do a bit more observing. I've got some Zooms to test out for FLO, I need to get to that thinking about it! Cheers mate!
Mate, I thought the same initially. However, after blinking between the two images a good 50 times lol I'm leaning more towards the StellaMira showing a touch more detail. I think the Tak initially looked like it had the edge on detail because it's image is a touch more contrasty which made the details pop a little more. But when I look repeatedly between the two images the StellaMira does show finer detail. Amazingly close considering the StellaMira has a whopping 56% more light grasp.
Hey thanks! I loved capturing them on camera! I told them they were on a time lapse so would look super sped up which they had a giggle about. It was great seeing their eyes going from the bright dot in the sky to an image of Saturn with rings on the screen, then back and fourth as they were making sense of it all. You can't beat showing people Saturn for the first time, I would never get board of that :)
Street lamps what a pain, try a fishing pole with a bin bag at the end, cut a couple of holes at end of bin bag to let air out for easy temporary application and I put some tape over 3/4 of the light .I have a country house on Spain that had a great place for my scope until I moved in and the council plastered the village with high intensity led street lights that look as bright as the Sun when you look at them. I asked the council to remove the light directly over my property, she said " they have cost a lot of money!".Thank you Phillip's.
contrast seemed a tad higher in the Tak...I guess not a surprise but thought the aperture diff. would make more of a difference than it did. We are talking small differences though. You will be paying quite a bit more for the Tak of course. I would like to see a comparison on something like a cluster or deep sky target to see if the extra aperture makes more of a difference (even if small).
Saturn was so low as well, I think things can only get better from both scopes with a bit more elevation. I'm surprised they scaled up so similarly considering the StellaMira has 56% more light grasp. I probably had no business blowing up Tak image to the size often presented by a larger SCT telescopes. I think the Tak was a touch more contrasty but the StellaMira image was smoother with a touch more detail to my eye, and there was less atmospheric dispersion showing on the StellaMira image. I must have flicked back and fourth between the two images 50 times before I've drawn this conclusion though lol Cheers for leaving your thoughts!
Ide say there's little to choose between them, maybe a little more colour aberration with the Tak but guess it's all trial and error with your setup, the Tak certainly offers classic lines, and has always held a premium scope heritage and price for many years. Regards Tom.
Great video, very nice. Larger scope wins for me, higher resolution and more color, but not by much. You need to do this comparison on the Moon next. Should be interesting.
Thanks mate! I've come to a similar conclusion, the StellaMira image looks a tiny bit fuller with a slight bit more detail, whilst the Tak looks somehow a touch sharper with a touch more contrast, but it looks more like digital sharpening despite the same wavelet pattern being applied to both images. There is more atmospheric dispersion showing on the Tak. I would really love to do a comparison on the Moon, that will happen 100% :)
After a few outings I can already see why people rave about them. The focus snap alone is very satisfying. I spent close to ten minutes tweaking the StellaMira 125 to get the best focus possible, and to my surprise it took 10-20 seconds with the Tak before I could tell it was in :)
Entertaining video Chris and very informative. The Tak does seem a bit more contrasty but also seems to be showing more atmospheric dispersion - cant be lower altitude as the Tak was second? Very little to choose between them though, they are just …. different! One interesting thing is that the shadow of the planet on the rings at the back is much more evident in the Tak, can’t imagine that this us anything to do with the scope though?
Hey thanks very much Rob! The Tak was indeed second, thus higher in elevation, so I'm not sure why it's exhibiting more atmospheric dispersion compared to the SM 125? I've been pondering the same thing mate, more testing needed! :) I see what you mean about the shadow and I have no idea why?
I would think very minor differences in optical coatings/quality, and focus could account for the contrast (former), and dispersion (latter). The difference is marginal and given the cost for the 125 is half that if the Tak, I think I’m sold!
It's not too bad for planetary Lunar work but I wouldn't like DSO imaging at the front of my house. The street light isn't great but it does go off at 11:30pm. Now the neighbour across the road is another matter, three security lights! lol
A mono camera would result in higher resolution for comparison purposes. The pixel size is fine for the scope focal length...depending on the barlow quality it can degrade the image somewhat. I use Sharp Cap to get 2000-3000 video frames and than use AUTO Stakkert to align and compare each video frame for best contrast and sharpness and finally let it pick 15% of best images to stack. Focus is extremely critical and the scope must be stabilized temperate wise to the ambient temperature this often takes a hour of cooling time for absolute best stability and lack of negative artifacts. The temperature can vary a lot over a given time and also seeing can fluctuate in fractions of a second (thus the 15% of best image selections for stacking) A larger aperture does have a theoretically better resolution but often larger aperture increases negative issues like seeing and is more sensitive to temperature variations and cooling time. That is why a smaller aperture generally has many more nights when it is capable of showing a great image....this is obvious when you get into huge differences in aperture.
Well done mate! I'm surprised you didn't go for Jupiter it's low to the northern horizon for us down here in Australia but it should be higher for you. On the other hand Saturn goes up to 75 degrees altitude here so we're pretty happy with that :-)
Thanks mate! Ah yeah, if it wasn't a school night I would have stayed awake for Jupiter for sure. Jupiter rises and clears the houses at around 1am at the moment. I will be on the lookout for it at the weekends mate, and if it or the Moon appears I'll be bagging a comparison :D I saw Dylan's video and noticed Saturn was pretty much over head down there. I hope you get to make the most of it mate with it being close to Zenith and just past opposition. Dylan's C11 Edge HD image was jaw dropping!
If this translates to visual accurately, there would seem little reason to add something like a StellaMira 125 if you already own a Tak FC-100. It's an easier scope to handle with its light weight and much smaller OTA. Any improvement with the extra aperture here would appear to be marginal.
The 125 mm Stellamira has a 56% higher light gathering capacity than the 100 mm Takahashi. That means that DSO will be a lot brighter in the Stellamira.
@astrolavista - what’s a better choice for a G&Go visual telescope (that can I can at a later point use for imaging)? The TV-85 or the Tak FC100DC? Obviously the Tak is much larger aperture but is it too big for G&G scope (I know it’s light).
Hi there, well they both weigh the same so require the same level of mounting which makes them almost equally portable in my book, unless you want to take one on a plane as hand luggage in which case go for the TV85. The Tak will be more rewarding for observing owing to it's larger aperture, but the TV85 has the better focuser for imaging. So far I've been imaging both planets and deep sky objects with the Tak and I've been impressed with the results, however it could do with a focuser upgrade or auto focuser. There is a DF version of the Tak 100 which is better suited to deep sky imaging which might be a better fit for you? www.firstlightoptics.com/takahashi-fc-100-series-refractor-telescopes/takahashi-fc-100df-f74-doublet-fluorite-apo-refractor/ref/astrolavista/ There is a definite line where too small means it won't show you enough to keep you coming back. For a long time now I've considered a 4" refractor or 6" reflector as the sweet spot between aperture and portability. ruclips.net/video/u_2AaugVRvw/видео.html
If you want to compare it with Takahashi's refractor, it would be better to compare it with Takahashi's refractor, which has almost the same diameter. For example, TSA-120 or TOA-130. By the way, I own a TSA-120.
On you last image with the zoomed in picture using the Takahashi, what caused it to be so pixelated? I had that doing Jupiter, and wasn't able to really track the issue down.
The Tak does appear a little more digitally sharpened despite having the same processing applied. Looking closely at the Tak image there is noticeably more atmospheric dispersion (blue fringing at the top and red at the bottom of the image) and the pixels seem more noticeable in these red and blue regions of the image. The zoomed in images at the end really are me over doing the pixel peeping. Usually I wouldn't present a Saturn image from a 4" refractor at such an image scale. I'm wondering if you did the same and just zoomed in more than the resolution would allow?
Pretty much blows all the specially magic from Tak and Vixen fluorite refractors you hear on the forums. What I don’t like is they take post down and block people that don’t try and push the most expensive Astro equipment. Same happens to spotting scopes on hunting and birding forums. I have personally seen $1000 dollar refractor and spotting scopes perform as well as $4000 dollar alpha scopes. There is a lot of placebo effects and people will rate higher and complain less when they pay more (this is true in general and has been shown in studies). Same is true in general when people pick what is the most popular, they have been shown that they will value it more when they pay more. Marketers are aware and know how to use human nature to make more money.
Hello! Thanks for the interesting perspective. I'm wondering if you've taken account of the Taks 56% aperture deficit, plus the image is presented at an image scale more akin to a 8" scope rather than a 4". The StellaMira 5" scope costs 1.6k and the Tak can be had for 1.9k new, not a huge price difference. Both scopes will have a similar Abbe number in terms of refractive index too - fpl53 equiv and Lanthanum for the SM 125 and Fluorite and Eco glass for the Tak. In effect the test is between two very good quality ED refractors; one being a 4" and the other being 5". I need to star test both scopes properly. I had a quick look intra and extra focus on the Tak and the Fresnel rings looked perfect either side of focus. Normally on more affordable refractors there is a degree of under or over correction. I will check again to make sure though. I work for an astronomy retailor who sponsors a large astronomy forum and I don't recognise the behaviour you mention, but maybe I'm just not being observant enough?
@@Astrolavista Well you have shown if the Tak has the special magic than the StellaMira has the same magic. And yes they argue that only Tak and Vixen doublets with Calcium Flourite crystal objective lens element have that special magic on the forums. They give a list of reasons, some not very scientific, and yes I have heard the reasons many times over. I also seen other shoot outs where I could not see that they had any more magic than other good ED scopes. The reviewer would often reason away things I saw in the image. Claiming that it was easy to remove in post processing. Also they would say they liked the colour better in the Tak even when it was scientifically less accurate. They also will put down an apo triplet even when it had less chromatic aberration on paper. Sorry but I don’t believe in magic.
Wow, the Takahashi is pretty poor compared to the much cheaper Stellamira scope, surprising, hmmm maybe not as I sold a tak as it was pretty poor, especially for imaging deep Sky… Great comparison video, and FLO will be very happy…
Hey, I'm sorry to hear you've had a bad experience with a Tak. The StellaMira 125 ED is a real weapon with 5" aperture, and fpl53 equivalent glass (synthetic fluorite), mated to a Lanthanum element; That combo really helps take care of chromatic and spherical aberrations. Now, I am interested in your opinion about the Tak comparing poorly. What is it that you're seeing? The StellaMira has 56% more light grasp and weighs double (although very light for a 5" frac) For me, after blinking between the two images (at an image scale beyond what I should really be presenting an image from a 4" frac at), I can see that the image from the StellaMira is smoother (more full) I can see a touch more in terms of finer detail, and there isn't as much atmospheric dispersion showing on the limbs. When I blow the Tak image right up I can see that it appears a touch sharper, but digitally so, despite having the same wavelet pattern applied to both images. I feel that the Tak has a touch more contrast but less overall detail. Some are saying that the Tak is showing more detail but I think it could be the contrast popping out rather than the detail. The atmospheric dispersion is possibly letting the Tak down a touch, and I'm sure it's atmospheric dispersion rather than the glass because it's red on the bottom and blue on the top, rather than presenting as chromatic aberration, although there must be a small amount of CA there from a doublet. More testing needed ;) I will say that although the StellaMIra has a nice dual speed focuser, I found that focus seemed to snap in place easier with the agricultural single speed focuser of the Tak. The lenses do have a great figure going by a quick star test; equal Fresnel rings either side of focus so none of that over or under corrected optics you can see from mass produced but admittedly cheaper scopes.
@@Astrolavista hello, My opinion is really purely from an imaging point of view. The FSQ85 was not at all designed for imaging with small pixel sensor cameras and suffers with really bad astigmatism , this was a nightmare with mine and I sold because of it, which was a real shame as I thought it was my for ever scope. Tak even supplied an extra flattener with the scope, to correct the issue that they new existed. But why should you have to use 2 flatteners with a scope that already has one built into the scope, I did a video on this issue on my channel….
@@Astro_Shed Oh yes, I've heard about issues with the FSQ85. It's unfortunately not their finest hour. I'll try and find time to watch your vid over the weekend.
The StellaMira wins for me. Pretty much up there with the Tak and enough change left over for a couple of decent eyepieces or money towards other accessories.
Not a lot between them I would love either of those scopes.
Nice one Chris both images looked good to me, your neighbour chatting to you kinda reminded me when I used to go to the dark site years ago. I were looking at Saturn & someone drove by & asked what I were up to so I showed them Saturn in the eyepiece. Hmm visual haven't done that for a while lol
Hey Tich! They are remarkably similar at first glance aren't they. I could only start to see differences when I zoomed right in and blinked between them. Remarkable considering the StellaMira has 56% more light grasp! I bet they still remember seeing Saturn through your scope to this day mate! I love showing folks Saturn for the first time, it's like re living the my own cathartic experience as a young-un :) The Tak has inspired me to do a bit more observing. I've got some Zooms to test out for FLO, I need to get to that thinking about it! Cheers mate!
I get excited when I get to see someone put my Tak through its paces. Not many RUclipsrs do anything with the FC100DC.
I noticed the same when I searched for Tak DC100dc content. Lets change that, I'll be including it in many comparison videos :)
The tak has a little more detail in my opinion. Fantastic views Chris and clear skies cheers Ryan
Mate, I thought the same initially. However, after blinking between the two images a good 50 times lol I'm leaning more towards the StellaMira showing a touch more detail. I think the Tak initially looked like it had the edge on detail because it's image is a touch more contrasty which made the details pop a little more. But when I look repeatedly between the two images the StellaMira does show finer detail. Amazingly close considering the StellaMira has a whopping 56% more light grasp.
Your neighbour coming round to see what's going on is brilliant. And so true. Nice video, thanks for sharing.
Hey thanks! I loved capturing them on camera! I told them they were on a time lapse so would look super sped up which they had a giggle about. It was great seeing their eyes going from the bright dot in the sky to an image of Saturn with rings on the screen, then back and fourth as they were making sense of it all. You can't beat showing people Saturn for the first time, I would never get board of that :)
@@Astrolavista My favorite part of visual astronomy, the reaction of first time viewers.
Street lamps what a pain, try a fishing pole with a bin bag at the end, cut a couple of holes at end of bin bag to let air out for easy temporary application and I put some tape over 3/4 of the light .I have a country house on Spain that had a great place for my scope until I moved in and the council plastered the village with high intensity led street lights that look as bright as the Sun when you look at them. I asked the council to remove the light directly over my property, she said " they have cost a lot of money!".Thank you Phillip's.
Need to get the council to put an on/off switch onto that street lamp for you
:D
contrast seemed a tad higher in the Tak...I guess not a surprise but thought the aperture diff. would make more of a difference than it did. We are talking small differences though. You will be paying quite a bit more for the Tak of course. I would like to see a comparison on something like a cluster or deep sky target to see if the extra aperture makes more of a difference (even if small).
Saturn was so low as well, I think things can only get better from both scopes with a bit more elevation. I'm surprised they scaled up so similarly considering the StellaMira has 56% more light grasp. I probably had no business blowing up Tak image to the size often presented by a larger SCT telescopes. I think the Tak was a touch more contrasty but the StellaMira image was smoother with a touch more detail to my eye, and there was less atmospheric dispersion showing on the StellaMira image. I must have flicked back and fourth between the two images 50 times before I've drawn this conclusion though lol Cheers for leaving your thoughts!
Ide say there's little to choose between them, maybe a little more colour aberration with the Tak but guess it's all trial and error with your setup, the Tak certainly offers classic lines, and has always held a premium scope heritage and price for many years. Regards Tom.
that street light must give you hell
Hey, it not too bad for planetary/Lunar and it does go off at 11:30pm :)
Great video, very nice. Larger scope wins for me, higher resolution and more color, but not by much. You need to do this comparison on the Moon next. Should be interesting.
Thanks mate! I've come to a similar conclusion, the StellaMira image looks a tiny bit fuller with a slight bit more detail, whilst the Tak looks somehow a touch sharper with a touch more contrast, but it looks more like digital sharpening despite the same wavelet pattern being applied to both images. There is more atmospheric dispersion showing on the Tak. I would really love to do a comparison on the Moon, that will happen 100% :)
Thanks for sharing.
Tough to pick a favorite. Personally would be happier with either.
Wow, I guess I should seriously think about a Takahashi purchase.
After a few outings I can already see why people rave about them. The focus snap alone is very satisfying. I spent close to ten minutes tweaking the StellaMira 125 to get the best focus possible, and to my surprise it took 10-20 seconds with the Tak before I could tell it was in :)
Entertaining video Chris and very informative. The Tak does seem a bit more contrasty but also seems to be showing more atmospheric dispersion - cant be lower altitude as the Tak was second? Very little to choose between them though, they are just …. different! One interesting thing is that the shadow of the planet on the rings at the back is much more evident in the Tak, can’t imagine that this us anything to do with the scope though?
Hey thanks very much Rob! The Tak was indeed second, thus higher in elevation, so I'm not sure why it's exhibiting more atmospheric dispersion compared to the SM 125? I've been pondering the same thing mate, more testing needed! :) I see what you mean about the shadow and I have no idea why?
I would think very minor differences in optical coatings/quality, and focus could account for the contrast (former), and dispersion (latter). The difference is marginal and given the cost for the 125 is half that if the Tak, I think I’m sold!
that street light needs to go..
It's not too bad for planetary Lunar work but I wouldn't like DSO imaging at the front of my house. The street light isn't great but it does go off at 11:30pm. Now the neighbour across the road is another matter, three security lights! lol
A mono camera would result in higher resolution for comparison purposes. The pixel size is fine for the scope focal length...depending on the barlow quality it can degrade the image somewhat. I use Sharp Cap to get 2000-3000 video frames and than use AUTO Stakkert to align and compare each video frame for best contrast and sharpness and finally let it pick 15% of best images to stack. Focus is extremely critical and the scope must be stabilized temperate wise to the ambient temperature this often takes a hour of cooling time for absolute best stability and lack of negative artifacts. The temperature can vary a lot over a given time and also seeing can fluctuate in fractions of a second (thus the 15% of best image selections for stacking) A larger aperture does have a theoretically better resolution but often larger aperture increases negative issues like seeing and is more sensitive to temperature variations and cooling time. That is why a smaller aperture generally has many more nights when it is capable of showing a great image....this is obvious when you get into huge differences in aperture.
Sound advice :)
The Takahashi costs a lot more so gotta give it to the Underdog! Well done to both, and to the OP 😅
Thanks 😅
Well done mate! I'm surprised you didn't go for Jupiter it's low to the northern horizon for us down here in Australia but it should be higher for you. On the other hand Saturn goes up to 75 degrees altitude here so we're pretty happy with that :-)
Thanks mate! Ah yeah, if it wasn't a school night I would have stayed awake for Jupiter for sure. Jupiter rises and clears the houses at around 1am at the moment. I will be on the lookout for it at the weekends mate, and if it or the Moon appears I'll be bagging a comparison :D I saw Dylan's video and noticed Saturn was pretty much over head down there. I hope you get to make the most of it mate with it being close to Zenith and just past opposition. Dylan's C11 Edge HD image was jaw dropping!
@@Astrolavista I took a pretty nice picture of Saturn on the weekend too, but I don't have any way to share with you :-(
If this translates to visual accurately, there would seem little reason to add something like a StellaMira 125 if you already own a Tak FC-100. It's an easier scope to handle with its light weight and much smaller OTA. Any improvement with the extra aperture here would appear to be marginal.
The 125 mm Stellamira has a 56% higher light gathering capacity than the 100 mm Takahashi. That means that DSO will be a lot brighter in the Stellamira.
is the fc100 better, or am i just seeing things
Both look goog but think the Tak has the edge
It did a grand job with 56% less aperture. The StellaMira 125 ED is a proper weapon but I love the Tak!
@astrolavista - what’s a better choice for a G&Go visual telescope (that can I can at a later point use for imaging)? The TV-85 or the Tak FC100DC? Obviously the Tak is much larger aperture but is it too big for G&G scope (I know it’s light).
Hi there, well they both weigh the same so require the same level of mounting which makes them almost equally portable in my book, unless you want to take one on a plane as hand luggage in which case go for the TV85. The Tak will be more rewarding for observing owing to it's larger aperture, but the TV85 has the better focuser for imaging.
So far I've been imaging both planets and deep sky objects with the Tak and I've been impressed with the results, however it could do with a focuser upgrade or auto focuser.
There is a DF version of the Tak 100 which is better suited to deep sky imaging which might be a better fit for you? www.firstlightoptics.com/takahashi-fc-100-series-refractor-telescopes/takahashi-fc-100df-f74-doublet-fluorite-apo-refractor/ref/astrolavista/
There is a definite line where too small means it won't show you enough to keep you coming back. For a long time now I've considered a 4" refractor or 6" reflector as the sweet spot between aperture and portability. ruclips.net/video/u_2AaugVRvw/видео.html
If you want to compare it with Takahashi's refractor, it would be better to compare it with Takahashi's refractor, which has almost the same diameter.
For example, TSA-120 or TOA-130.
By the way, I own a TSA-120.
On you last image with the zoomed in picture using the Takahashi, what caused it to be so pixelated? I had that doing Jupiter, and wasn't able to really track the issue down.
The Tak does appear a little more digitally sharpened despite having the same processing applied. Looking closely at the Tak image there is noticeably more atmospheric dispersion (blue fringing at the top and red at the bottom of the image) and the pixels seem more noticeable in these red and blue regions of the image. The zoomed in images at the end really are me over doing the pixel peeping. Usually I wouldn't present a Saturn image from a 4" refractor at such an image scale. I'm wondering if you did the same and just zoomed in more than the resolution would allow?
The Stellamira is a little better, brighter image with less color aberration.
Pretty much blows all the specially magic from Tak and Vixen fluorite refractors you hear on the forums. What I don’t like is they take post down and block people that don’t try and push the most expensive Astro equipment. Same happens to spotting scopes on hunting and birding forums. I have personally seen $1000 dollar refractor and spotting scopes perform as well as $4000 dollar alpha scopes. There is a lot of placebo effects and people will rate higher and complain less when they pay more (this is true in general and has been shown in studies). Same is true in general when people pick what is the most popular, they have been shown that they will value it more when they pay more. Marketers are aware and know how to use human nature to make more money.
Hello! Thanks for the interesting perspective. I'm wondering if you've taken account of the Taks 56% aperture deficit, plus the image is presented at an image scale more akin to a 8" scope rather than a 4". The StellaMira 5" scope costs 1.6k and the Tak can be had for 1.9k new, not a huge price difference. Both scopes will have a similar Abbe number in terms of refractive index too - fpl53 equiv and Lanthanum for the SM 125 and Fluorite and Eco glass for the Tak. In effect the test is between two very good quality ED refractors; one being a 4" and the other being 5".
I need to star test both scopes properly. I had a quick look intra and extra focus on the Tak and the Fresnel rings looked perfect either side of focus. Normally on more affordable refractors there is a degree of under or over correction. I will check again to make sure though.
I work for an astronomy retailor who sponsors a large astronomy forum and I don't recognise the behaviour you mention, but maybe I'm just not being observant enough?
@@Astrolavista Well you have shown if the Tak has the special magic than the StellaMira has the same magic. And yes they argue that only Tak and Vixen doublets with Calcium Flourite crystal objective lens element have that special magic on the forums. They give a list of reasons, some not very scientific, and yes I have heard the reasons many times over. I also seen other shoot outs where I could not see that they had any more magic than other good ED scopes. The reviewer would often reason away things I saw in the image. Claiming that it was easy to remove in post processing. Also they would say they liked the colour better in the Tak even when it was scientifically less accurate. They also will put down an apo triplet even when it had less chromatic aberration on paper. Sorry but I don’t believe in magic.
Cassini looks sharper in Tak.
Wow, the Takahashi is pretty poor compared to the much cheaper Stellamira scope, surprising, hmmm maybe not as I sold a tak as it was pretty poor, especially for imaging deep Sky…
Great comparison video, and FLO will be very happy…
Hey, I'm sorry to hear you've had a bad experience with a Tak. The StellaMira 125 ED is a real weapon with 5" aperture, and fpl53 equivalent glass (synthetic fluorite), mated to a Lanthanum element; That combo really helps take care of chromatic and spherical aberrations.
Now, I am interested in your opinion about the Tak comparing poorly. What is it that you're seeing? The StellaMira has 56% more light grasp and weighs double (although very light for a 5" frac)
For me, after blinking between the two images (at an image scale beyond what I should really be presenting an image from a 4" frac at), I can see that the image from the StellaMira is smoother (more full) I can see a touch more in terms of finer detail, and there isn't as much atmospheric dispersion showing on the limbs. When I blow the Tak image right up I can see that it appears a touch sharper, but digitally so, despite having the same wavelet pattern applied to both images. I feel that the Tak has a touch more contrast but less overall detail. Some are saying that the Tak is showing more detail but I think it could be the contrast popping out rather than the detail.
The atmospheric dispersion is possibly letting the Tak down a touch, and I'm sure it's atmospheric dispersion rather than the glass because it's red on the bottom and blue on the top, rather than presenting as chromatic aberration, although there must be a small amount of CA there from a doublet. More testing needed ;)
I will say that although the StellaMIra has a nice dual speed focuser, I found that focus seemed to snap in place easier with the agricultural single speed focuser of the Tak. The lenses do have a great figure going by a quick star test; equal Fresnel rings either side of focus so none of that over or under corrected optics you can see from mass produced but admittedly cheaper scopes.
@@Astrolavista hello,
My opinion is really purely from an imaging point of view. The FSQ85 was not at all designed for imaging with small pixel sensor cameras and suffers with really bad astigmatism , this was a nightmare with mine and I sold because of it, which was a real shame as I thought it was my for ever scope. Tak even supplied an extra flattener with the scope, to correct the issue that they new existed. But why should you have to use 2 flatteners with a scope that already has one built into the scope, I did a video on this issue on my channel….
@@Astro_Shed Oh yes, I've heard about issues with the FSQ85. It's unfortunately not their finest hour. I'll try and find time to watch your vid over the weekend.