Jump to content

Narrowband

Old Vixen 80mm 1st light


baggywrinkle

Recommended Posts

back in September I picked up an old Vixen Custom 80mm (they had a gold lable) on e-bay for £73. It came with a diagonal and 3 ep's.

The mount was an old wooden tripod and in all honesty useless. Bits were missing. Luckily I had not intended to use it and ordered 90mm tube rings and a dovetail plate so it could be used on my Sky T mount.

The idea was to have a small but good refractor for planetary and lunar observing. It has an FL of 910mm so F11.375

The rings finally arrived yesterday! They were out of stock across the UK suppliers.

This morning I had a first light on it with the triple planetary line up.

The ep's are all 0.925 size, a 20mm Kelner, 12.5mm Hygens M, and a 6mm Ortho plus a diagonal. The EP's are surprisingly weighty for such small items and well constructed.

I tried all three. Venus as it is so bright it exhibited some CA with all 3, but Mars was fine, a red disc as expected. Jupiter was stunning, the three ep's all provided decent views allowing for the low eye relief.

I have an 1.25:0.925 adapter and tried that with my Baader 8-24 mm zoom. Not good at all, I could not get enough inward focus. So I swopped to a 9mm Celestron Excel. Bingo! The 9mm showed up some subtle banding and Ganymede (I think) just re-appearing.

So all in all I am quite happy with the 1st test. I will try it with my solar wedge and see how that goes. I should be able to mount it and my PST on the Sky T side by side.

Looking forward to also testing it once my Televue Delite ep's arrive.

I just now need to change the finder it is a small 6x30. It is screwed down to a base plate. I think this must be an early Vixen model due to this and it using 0.925'' ep's. But good value for £73.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.