On 7 Sep 2004 11:43:16 -0700, (Robert Cook) wrote:

"Tom E." wrote in message ...

It seems I found it at Oceanside Telescope. $895.00.

It's $829, actually (minus sales tax).

Ouch.

Compared to similarly-priced decorative brass telescopes, it's a
bargain. :-)

Seriously, if money was no factor, which would you prefer if
you could just have one scope for a year, the Tak 60 or the
Orion 80ED? ...or the new Celestron 80ED (but the reviews
aren't out yet).

If I could only use one telescope during my entire life, and it had to
be one of these, I'd choose the 80ED without question, due to its
advantage in aperture. But if it's just for a year, with no other
limitations, then I'd pick the Tak.

The Tak, like TeleVue's 60mm are pretty much for extreme portability
and there they have it over the 80mm products, except for the Chinese
80mm f5 achros which are pretty light and short. They position the TV
as a birding scope as well as an astronomical scope. I had the Tak 78
and it produced a near textbook image and was fairly portable.
-Rich