Takahashi Teegul Sky Patrol SP3
Mount Review
Takahashi Teegul SP3 in fork mode
with FS-60.
Tele Vue’s diminutive TV-60, mounted on their TelePod mount, is one of my favourite grab-n-go setups - so
small and light you can pick it up with one hand and just walk-out to view. If
like me you have various steps and slopes to traverse to get to the bits of
your garden you observe from, that’s a big advantage. Such a tiny setup bridges
the quick-look gap between binoculars and telescopes. And nowadays you can
build a similar alt-az grab-n-go with various scopes
and mounts. All great, in theory …
But for me there is a problem. I used to own half a dozen
alt-az mounts like the TelePod;
now I own precisely none. The reason is that I had a kind of epiphany one
night, out on my balcony, trying to get a good view of Mars with an alt-az mounted refractor. What I realised was that for the kind of viewing I do alt-az mounts are a pain. At low powers they’re great, but at
high-powers you are forever pushing the mount around trying to get that planet
back in view.
What’s needed, of course, is an equatorial mount: just a simple one with a driven RA axis to
follow the sky and some smooth manual slow-motion controls for fine
adjustments. No problem! There are loads of those around. But now what if I
want that one-hand grab-n-go portability as well?
Just about the only mount that fits the bill is Takahashi’s Teegul Sky Patrol. The Teegul SP
has been around for a long time, but has been revised in recent years to make
it easier to use. It’s tiny and very light (about 2Kg for the basic set), but
also breaks down into very small chunks for travel, making a perfect
eclipse-chasers’ mount.
I don’t do many mount reviews, but the Teegul
is worth it if only because there seems to be some confusion as to how it’s
actually meant to work (the guy I bought mine from clearly didn’t get it at all
and had given up with the mount unused); it also has a lot of options and is
arguably a bit too clever for its own good. I’ll try to get to the bottom of
all that here.
Note: A big
thanks to Peter Barker for correcting some of my mistakes and supplying some
images of accessories I don’t have.
Design and Build
The first thing to understand about the Teegul
is that it isn’t one mount, it’s (at least) three, all of which have quite
different configurations using the Teegul components
(and some extra accessories) put together in different ways. The key to this
lies in the fact that the RA and DEC components are separable, locking together
with tiny set screws. (Don’t understand? Trust me, it’s easier to look at the
photos).
I’ll describe these three possible configurations separately
below.
Takahashi Teegul SP3 components
1. Single-Arm Fork Configuration
Most promotional photos of the Teegul
show it in this configuration and this is how the SP3 is supplied in its most
basic form, if you don’t buy the counterweight set.
It’s a slightly tricky arrangement, but is easy enough to setup
once you realise it’s not a German
Equatorial!! This configuration only works for the shortest OTAs (i.e. the
FS-60) and even then, it won’t give you coverage of the whole sky because the
focuser interferes with the RA housing (see photo below). It does have the
advantage of being very solid and compact, though, and is perhaps the ideal
eclipse-imaging configuration.
I’ll say it again: it’s not a German
Equatorial! You have to disassemble it and put it back together in a different
configuration to make it into one (see below)!
It’s
easier to look at the photos than read an explanation of how it goes together.
When I first got it, this had me scratching my head; the previous owner clearly
never got past that stage!
Tripod Adapter
The
mount as sold doesn’t have a native means to align the RA axis with the pole,
it just has a ¼-20 thread on the bottom. So, unless you live at the pole like
Santa you will need one of two Takahashi accessories (or use a tilting photo
head of some sort): either the TSH60100 Tripod adapter head or the TSV60100 V
Adapter (shown below). The V adapter is a fixed 45° wedge that fixes to the top of a photo tripod and the bottom
of the mount. This is quite a neat accessory that also makes a cheap, light
wedge for a Questar!
The
adapter head is just a pivoting elbow held by a single screw that bolts to a
photo tripod. It will adjust for any latitude; I haven’t tried it.
Pretty
obviously, the V plate alone isn’t going to work unless you live in southern
Europe or the central US, but there is a way around this that I’ve used here:
buy a tripod with a locking ball head; the combination will give you precise
latitude adjustment, but with the solidity of the V plate.
TSV60100
V Adapter.
TSH60100
Tripod adapter head.
The V
Adapter fits to the ball head in the tripod to allow accurate polar alignment.
Takahashi
make a table-top tripod for the Teegul, but I’ve used
a small Berlebach (Report 1032) ash tripod that is
light, folds-up small, looks good and damps vibration very effectively.
Tube Ring
The mount head is designed to accept the FC-60/FC-50/FOA-60
68mm and FS-60/FS-76DC 80mm tube rings. It has two M8 threaded holes with the
standard 35mm Takahashi spacing. Third party dovetail clamps do exist, but the
best solution may be to use one of the two Mewlon
plates Takahashi makes that also fit Vixen plates fine - TKP71422 for the Mewlon 210 and TKP70422 for the Mewlon
180 version:
TKP71422 dovetail plate for the Mewlon 210.
TKP70422 Mewlon 180
dovetail plate (note: it’s the post-2016 light blue colour).
Control Box
The motor has a typical Takahashi drive box that works with
all three configurations described. In the SP3 variant, the control box holds
the batteries (4 x AAA) and connects to the enclosed RA motor with a single DIN
cable (older versions have a separate battery box). It’s also possible to
connect an external 6v power supply.
The control box is typical Takahashi: complex, fiddly and
retro, but beautifully made.
A
photo of the box is shown below. The ‘Drive Mode’ dial gives you the choice of
solar, sidereal, 0.3x, 0.5x and 0.7x rates, in either hemisphere
(eclipse-chasers take note!) and double speed or stop for fine tuning your
pointing. A rather bright red LED flashes when it’s running, but note that a rapid pulsing of the HD control unit
light indicates low battery and the mount will not drive properly.
The SP2 version houses that batteries in an external box and
has much simpler controls.
The TG-HD control box for SP3.
In Use – Single Arm
Fork
The fork is very stable and stiff and damps vibration almost
instantly with the FS-60.
The slow motion controls on each
axis are smooth and have in-built clutches (no need to tighten a clutch when
engaging RA drive). However, this does mean the mount will drift a bit in RA
until the slack is taken up after you move it with the slo-mo
control. The knurled screws that tighten the axis clamps are small and fiddly –
they have to be that way for clearance.
Drive is quiet, smooth and effective, given that drift
caveat. The single-cable control box is convenient; it’s pretty fiddly, though
(the double-speed and stop buttons are miniscule). Eyeball alignment with
Polaris gives very effective tracking for visual use; you’d need the German
configuration and accessory polar scope for imaging.
The big downside with this (fork) configuration is that
viewing near to and pole-wards of the zenith is tricky due to the clearance
problem. For solar system objects like the Sun, this isn’t going to be a
problem.
In single-arm fork configuration the Teegul
lacks clearance near the zenith.
2. German Equatorial Configuration
Takahashi Teegul SP3 in German
Equatorial configuration.
In this configuration, the Teegul
is a fabulous little German equatorial with a driven RA axis that is very light
but will take scopes up to a 3” refractor. The clever design means the built-in
RA motor acts as a partial counterweight, so you only need a 0.6Kg weight for
any scope the mount will carry. You rarely see pics of the Teegul
put together like this, perhaps because it requires a separate kit to get it to
work. The parts you’ll need from the Takahashi catalogue are:
TSP60110
Teegul SP3 Mount and TG-HD Drive controller
TSE60100
Counterweight kit incl 0.6Kg weight
A
picture speaks a thousand words and I talk enough already, so I’ve taken a
photo sequence to show how to convert the mount from fork to German Equatorial.
Note that a smaller DEC clamp screw is included for extra clearance.
Step
1: Loosen the clamp screws and separate the axes
Step
2: Fit the counterweight-shaft plate onto the RA axis module.
Step
3: Tighten the set screws
Step
4: Fit the DEC module to the counter-weight shaft plate
Step
5: Tighten those set-screws
Step
6: Fit the shaft and counter-weight
Step
7: Swap-in the smaller DEC axis clamp knob. Note that ideally this is in the 2
o’clock position from the front for optimal clearance.
Polar Finder
The
accessory buying and fitting doesn’t quite stop there. For imaging you’d need the
optional polar finder that clips to the RA motor housing and looks through that
slot in the DEC axis. I haven’t tested it. The Tak
part number is:
TPF60100
Polar Finder
In Use - German
Equatorial
The Teegul is highly effective in
this configuration and is surprisingly stable and vibe-free for scopes in its
capacity range (up to 3Kg). The FS-60Q shown weighs about 2Kg and is fairly
long, but vibes damp very fast and planetary viewing at high magnification is possible.
As
you can see in the photo below, the counterweight isn’t
at full travel when balancing the FS-60Q, so the claim of up to 3kg seems reasonable..
Teegul 0.6Kg counter-weight, recessed for
extra travel
Note that the counter weight has a recess on one side so it
can be pushed right over the safety screw on the end of the shaft to provide a
bit more travel for a heavier scope.
The whole FS-60Q setup shown in the end photo is one-hand portable and would break
down to fit into a carry-on case (incl the tripod).
OtherTakahashis fit too! Below is the recent FC-76DCU which is surprisingly
stable on the Teegul. Also shown is the classic
FC-60. You always see the FC-60/Teegul like this with
the OTA pushed fully forward in the clamshell. That’s because it’s the proper
balance point and otherwise the focuser wheels hit the RA housing. Note also
that with the counterweight in that position it’s perfectly balanced (partially
by the motor) as shown.
Teegul SP3 with FC-76DCU.
Teegul SP3 with FC-60.
3.
Camera Configuration
The Teegul camera plate attaches directly to the RA module.
The Teegul works in a third configuration: as an RA-only camera
mount. It’s ingenious, but once again means taking the mount apart and
re-assembling it. Another accessory is needed as well (you knew it):
TSC60100
Camera Plate
To
mount the plate you have to first remove the DEC axis;
the plate mounts straight onto the RA module.
This
configuration is designed for short focal-length (wide-angle) camera lenses
only, i.e. for capturing large swathes of sky. There is no DEC adjustment
possible, you can just swivel the camera on its mounting-thread to point at
different parts of the celestial equator. This may seem a puzzling limitation,
but think about it: most of the star fields and extended nebulosity you might
want to capture with a wide angle lens are near the
celestial equator, right? You want to image a single DSO at higher image-scale?
Use a telescope! That, at least, seems to be the rationale and it does make
sense, especially given the extreme portability of this configuration (the
whole mount weighs perhaps a kilo this way) – perfect for easy transport to the
kind of dark site where you’ll be taking those kind of
wide-angle exposures of the galactic plane.
Teegul SP3 configured
as a camera mount.
Summary
The Teegul’s highly-flexible, modular construction is far from
easy to figure out at first, especially given the unhelpful Japanese
instruction booklet. However, when you understand what it’s capable of (and
have spent big on all the accessories), it’s a uniquely capable micro tracking
mount for small refractors.
The Teegul’s small component size and light-weight, counter-weight
minimising design, accurate RA drive and flexible control box, make it ideal
for travel and especially for eclipse-chasers; building it up from its
palm-sized components only takes about five minutes once you get the hang of
it. All the components would fit in a small peli-case
for transport.
Downsides
include cost and the drift you get whilst the drive takes-up play in the
clutch. Nonetheless, I absolutely love the Teegul and
find it a real improvement over an alt-azimuth mount for the kind of
high-magnification observing I do. Like the Questar, you can configure a portable
personal observatory around it that you can carry in one hand, but that tracks
and so allows you to relax at the eyepiece.
The Takahashi Teegul SP3 is highly
recommended for those wanting an ultra-portable equatorial grab-no-go and for
serious astro-travelers (especially eclipse-chasers).
The Teegul is also attractive to fetishists of Tak’s lime-coloured castings (including me).
Takahashi Teegul SP3 / FS-60Q is an
interesting alternative to Questar for eclipse chasing
Update
2019: Tak discontinued the Teegul
and replaced it with the PM-SP, but that only lasted a few years and has also
now been discontinued. The PM-SP is better in some ways (better drive, integral
polar scope, more clearance), worse in others (heavier and needs a much larger
counterbalance precisely because of that extra clearance).
PM-SP mount with FOA-60.