Vixen AXD Unboxing and Setup

[AnakChan]

Last weekend I received my Vixen AXD mount & AXD-TR102 tripod. This is to replace my 1 year old Vixen SXP that was simply too small for my Takahashi µ-250CRS. Long story short, I initially bought the SXP for my VC200L, then when I saw how my friend's SkyWatcher 8" Dob was much more contrasty than my VC200L,  I wanted a new OTA and ended up with the µ-250CRS which was borderline ok for the SXP visual but not for astrophotography. I later bought the CDS Astro A7s and tried all ways to lighten the load but simply wasn't enough.

Anyway, the AXD came in 2 large boxes for the mount & tripod & a small one for the counterweights. It comes with 7 kg & 1.5 kg counterweight. The mount itself is a single back aching unit of 25kg whilst the SXP is a light 11kg. The picture below shows the size difference between the SXP & AXD.

The AXD-TR102 is no lightweight either at 10.3kg compared to the SXG-HAL130 which is only 5.5kg. But the AXD-TR102 has a very solid feel chunky feel. Unlike the SXG-HAL130, there's no spreader bars to put on a tray, nor are the legs flat surfaced for the Vixen accessory trays. I do miss the ability to hang off the accessory trays for the Starbook, eyepieces, etc.

The mount sits in the socket of the tripod and rotate to any position you wish, unlike the SXP which is directional due to the pin on the SXG-HAL130 but according to the AXD instructions, it's advisable to align to mount & "front" leg pointing to the celestial pole.

The counterweight shaft is a larger diameter than the SXP as to be expected. Surprisingly the supplied weights was sufficient for balance for my OTA & camera. The 8.5kg supplied was good enough, unlike the SXP I had to put on 9.3kg. I guess the main main body of the AXD makes up for it.

Rotating the Dec/RA is smooth as to be expected. However based from memory I seem to feel the Tak EMs still have a slight edge in terms of silky smoothness over the AXD - I'd need to play with the EMs again to be sure.

The mount accepts different mount point plate configurations - Vixen naturally, Takahashi, Losmandy.

Operationally, it's the same as the SXP using the same Starbook Ten. As I was familiar with the SXP, there was no learning curve. The Starbook Ten is one of the reasons why I chose to stick to Vixen in my mount upgrade instead of looking at other brands. To me the Starbook Ten is just simply marvellous. I need a somewhat portable setup as I can't do any astronomy in central Tokyo - so my friends & I have to drive about 100-120km out at the closest to get dark skies. Where we end up is usually somewhere remote where we have our own battery packs so lugging around a notebook/laptop isn't all that practical either. The Starbook Ten runs off the mount at 12V ranging from 0.45A-2.5A depending on slewing and load. Running 100V off my pack would drain it in about 5 hours so as much as possible, I don't use the 100V outlet.

The Starbook Ten is the computer with a 5" 800x480 65k colour display with night vision mode. It has a database holding 270K with of objects, and is programmable to take on more such as periodic comets, etc. Zooming in and out of the display also affects the speed motors when slewing. The operation of the Starbook Ten is also fast...I've not had it lag on me yet. Another big feature of the Starbook Ten for me is the optional Advanced Unit module that plugs into the base of the Starbook Ten. The Advanced Unit can be used as a autoguide computer which accepts video in from video cameras like the Vixen C0014-3M or Watec's. It'll display on the screen the stars you with to use to track. (Aside: the Vixen C0014-3M isn't a very sensitive video camera. I think the Watec's are better spec-ed in that respect).

Further more, it can act as an intervalometer remote shutter control for the DSLR. I customed made my own cable to my CDS Astro A7s and take my subs that way. So the Starbook Ten is quite powerful being a GOTO, Autoguide, itntervalometer computer all-in-one. However there are some shortcomings - e.g. I cannot find stars under SAO names.  However if I can't find something in the Starbook Ten database, I can attach a portable WiFi router (in this case the ASUS WL-330NUL) and have Sky Safari Pro as the GOTO computer instead. Since the Starbook Ten has a USB port, I use that to power the ASUS WL-330NUL whilst feeding the UTP back into the Starbook Ten itself.

Back to the AXD, I've only used it out in the field once last weekend - the very same evening of receiving it. So I don't have enough hands on experience with it yet. Aside from what was mentioned about the weight, it does feel it handles the µ-250CRS better along with the camera equipment. However it's still not immune to wind due to the size of the OTA tube I think. The AXD hasn't solved all my problems I had with the SXP in terms of reducing shake/vibration however I think it may have reduced the chances by a decent percentage (I'd like to say 50% maybe?). I'd need to have more field experience with it more before I can share my thoughts on it.

Fingers crossed if the weather is good, I may get a chance to take it out again this weekend.

[melsmore]

Congratulations on the mount, it looks fantastic. But it does seem to dwarf the tripod!

Sent from my HTC Desire 510 using Tapatalk

[Stu]

Very nice indeed. I do love Vixen kit

[Chris]

I've really not seen much written about the newer Vixen mounts, so it's very interesting to read your write up Looking at the pictures they certainly look well engineered. There is quite a lot of mass slung under the RA axis, looks like you could mount an 80mm refractor without even needing a counter weight, quite a clever idea, I've seen Ioptron do similar with the budget SmartEQ, no idea who came up with the idea first?

The Starbook 10 also looks good. 

I'm quite partial to Vixen eyepieces myself

[AnakChan]

I think the former Sphinx  DEC jump issue has deterred a lot of folks from Vixen from wanting to try the newer SX2, SXD2, SXP, & AXD range - and as such very little written about it. I myself jumped from the GP-DX to the SXP/AXD. In Japan, brands like Astro Physics, Losmandy, Paramount, etc. are hard to come by. In fact I've never seen one in person - distributors would order-on-demand.

I believe the AXD was released in 2010. Not certain when the iOptron SmartEQ was released. The Avalon Linear GEM is similar - that's one beautiful mount. Design-wise of the AXD, there's a strong focus on the size of the RA shaft (presumably to highlight it's ability to handle the weight of the mechanics in the massive chunk under the RA).

melsmore, it could be the angle of the photo I was taking that makes the AXD-TR102 tripod look small. However having said that, after the SXG-HAL130 for the SXP, I have a feeling Vixen still has quite a way to in making/selling robust tripods.

[Zhao]

Congrat! This is a great looking mount!

I feel many people underestimated Vixen's new Sphinx mounts and the Starbook TEN controller.

BTW, Chan, I think the shake/vibration problem you mentioned is due to the saddle. The sanki saddle is just too small compares to the size and weight of your  OTA.

[AnakChan]

Interesting point. I kept thinking the rings are too close and talked to Sanki about a longer baseplate. Unfortunately the mount points for these Orion Optics rings are proprietary in distance so I couldn't just use any of Sanki's base plates. It didn't occur to me to look at the dovetail and the saddle.

I'm currently using the C10-DT2 :-

They also have a longer C10-DT3 :-

Thanks for the tip!

[AnakChan]

I took the setup out for another run this past weekend. This time I had my trusty old Vixen 70S guide scope, with the Vixen C0014-3M video camera plugged into the Advanced Unit of my Starbook Ten. The AXD mount handled the µ-250CRS/Astro A7s rather well despite some wind.

Here's a video of the Starbook Ten Advanced unit in action with the intervalometer & autoguiding.

The results of the night :-

[JeremyS]

Very nice images

Jeremy

[AnakChan]

Congrat! This is a great looking mount!

I feel many people underestimated Vixen's new Sphinx mounts and the Starbook TEN controller.

BTW, Chan, I think the shake/vibration problem you mentioned is due to the saddle. The sanki saddle is just too small compares to the size and weight of your  OTA.

Interesting point. I kept thinking the rings are too close and talked to Sanki about a longer baseplate. Unfortunately the mount points for these Orion Optics rings are proprietary in distance so I couldn't just use any of Sanki's base plates. It didn't occur to me to look at the dovetail and the saddle.

I'm currently using the C10-DT2 :-

[snip!]

They also have a longer C10-DT3 :-

[snip!]

Thanks for the tip!

I had a chat with Miyazaki-san from Sanki today about using the C10-TD3 with the dual locks however his point of view is that it would improve stability only a little. The C10-DT2 I have is sufficient for the Takahashi µ-250CRS & C11-like scopes and the C10-DT3 was designed more for the CCA-250/C14 (or the 20kg+ OTAs). I would get a greater stability if my tube rings are more separated (currently 230mm) than changing to the C10-DT3 so I may consider getting some custom base (and top) plates from him and changing to the longer C10-230 dovetail, but can continue using the current C10-DT2 saddle.

As much as I like my Orion Optics tube rings, it's kinda annoying that the folks ther have made with a proprietary spacing mount points, as such Miyazaki-san having to drill proprietary spaced holes to accommodate it.

I do have my Takahashi µ-250CRS tube rings and plates, but they're kinda heavy.

Very nice images

Jeremy

Thank you! I think the AXD has been a stepped improvement over the SXP from the perspective that it's given me greater buffer for "play". I wouldn't consider it an outright-easy win though but with the SXP I'd need more "ideal" conditions & more accurate/critical balance setup to achieve what I could do with the AXD.