BillBwithley

This may be of interest, but I have just had the lens of a 2005 FS102 cleaned by Takahashi Europe ( France) to remove fungus.  The scope was sent to France by FLO and they did an excellent job. If  Takahashi Europe can dismantle, clean and reassemble a lens , maybe they can clean your flatterer. You could ask Ian at FLO.

Sorry, I just realised you are in US.

Bill

On 09/11/2019 at 20:15, Peter Drew said:

I think most of us would confirm John Nichol's integrity and optical excellence so I'm surprised that, allegedly, there have been unhappy customers.    🤨

I am certainly happy with a second hand mirror that was re-figured for me by John Nichol. Before John re-figured the mirror, it exhibited zonal errors in the star test and John confirmed this when he sent me a picture of the mirror under an autocollimator test before he worked on it. Now the mirror is very good and the cost was reasonable; I am just glad the used scope was cheap to buy.

5 hours ago, steve k said:

Tried to collimate my skymax 127mm for the first time as seemed a bit out... schoolboy error as loosened screw and now the mirror has slipped !! Don't want to make matters worse by any further tinkering so if anyone in the Essex area is able to carry out this work at a sensible cost would be very much appreciated. I will deliver and collect OTA..

many thanks in advance if anyone could help..

Hello Steve,

Located in Dunmow. Familiar with collimating Maks ( Intes MK67), so willing to help if you get stuck. 

Bill

On ‎15‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 19:10, BillBwithley said:

After selling my old GPDX and Skysensor SS2K after years of service, I decided to stick with Vixen and bought a SXD2.  Very pleased with the SXD2 and Starbook Ten after 2 months. I bet Vixen don't sell many of these mounts in the UK, because of the uncompetitive £ . Also have a green GP mount with for a 4 inch refractor.

Bill

Hello Stu, the scope is a Tak CN212 being used in Cassegrain mode (F12.4). I do use it in Newtonian mode (F3.9) occasionally with a Paracorr. Bought in 2007, with the intention of doing some imaging in Newt mode, but never did get around to do any serious imaging.

Bill

After selling my old GPDX and Skysensor SS2K after years of service, I decided to stick with Vixen and bought a SXD2.  Very pleased with the SXD2 and Starbook Ten after 2 months. I bet Vixen don't sell many of these mounts in the UK, because of the uncompetitive £ . Also have a green GP mount with for a 4 inch refractor.

Bill