F15Rules

Lovely scope John, just a little shorter than the ED103s which is F7.7..maybe Steve/ @Saganite could post one of his ED103s dual mounted with Andromeda (his superb D&G 5" F15)☺️👍

Dave

Superb looking setup, Linton, just superb.

I love that "in your face "ED decal...kind of says "I'm an excellent Vixen ED doublet - so there!!"😂

I for one would love to see that shootout with Stu's fluorite!👍

Thanks for sharing.

Best wishes,

Dave

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

The FL102S looks pretty similar to the SP102M, although if anything the f10 looks even more like a proper scope 👍

Er...in that case, Stu, would you like to do a straight swap, my F10 102m for your FL102s??

I'll even drive down to yours to do the swap, if that helps?

Dave👍

22 hours ago, lguise said:

Hi Dave,

I purchased my first Vixen new from Phil Stone (Superscopes) in 1988.A 102M on a driven Superpolaris mount. It had the old style stickers and the lens cell was green, I think it cost around £750 back then which, as a young teacher, was more than a months wages!

I still have the mount going strong, but I now have the 102ED version OTA which doesn’t seem to have been sold in any quantity. Photo shows the school 102M on the left and my 102ED on the right in action for the recent eclipse.

I enjoyed reading of your restoration etc and delighted Es could sort out the optics.

Hope you are keeping well, All the Best,

Linton

Hi Linton,

I'm well, thanks, I hope you are too?

Thanks for your post and kind comments, and also the photo...great to see the youngsters being encouraged to try out the scopes.

I agree, the 102ED seems to be as rare as hens teeth..I saw one for sale just once, on ebay, probably about 10 years ago..I seem to recall the owner wanted about £1000 for it, I think that included a GP mount..I felt nervous of paying that for s scope about which so little info was available, so I let it pass me by. 

I later read somewhere that the ED102 was intended to replace the legendary FL102s..if that's true, it must have been of very good quality..have you ever compared yours to the earlier Fluorite version? 

I believe the ED103s then replaced the ED102..I've owned  2 of those, and they really are excellent..right up the with Tak 100s IMHO.

Vixens are still underrated, I feel..they don't help themselves with an almost complete lack of proper marketing, yet in Japan I believe they still hold around a 60% share of the amateur scope market .and the Vixen GP remains, for me, an iconic, well engineered mount, so much better than the Chinese clones that hold the lion's share of the UK market these days.

I think that a newcomer to the hobby would be better off looking for an 80mm or 102mm Vixen achromat and an SP/GP/DX mount in good condition, than a brand new Chinese made equivalent..they really do provide some lovely images👍😊.

Dave

Hi Tim,

The Q barlow will work fine with the BHZ👍. It's actually optically excellent and I don't think there is much difference between the Q and the Hyperion Zoom in terms of performance.

The main difference is the build quality, which is definitely better in the Hyperion version, plus the cheaper Q version has only a set screw for retaining eyepieces in the body of the barlow - but as you seem to be planning to use mainly the screw in nosepiece end, it won't be a problem.

HTH,

Dave 

4 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Don’t feel bad Marvin: it took decades for me to appreciate the benefits of refractors and now I am making up for lost time. 😊

As Dave @F15Rules might say, grab one when you can 😊

Totally agree with the above..I don't think I could handle life without a refractor or two in my life..every time I look at them I get a real lift😛

I'm personally not keen on most Astronomy magazines, they seem either very simplistic, aimed at newbies, or imaging, or pondering the latest Astro physics theories. I suppose they have to appeal to all ends of the spectrum (no pun intended) in order to get volumes up.

In particular I find scope reviews on Sky at Night magazine to be incredibly superficial, especially for items costing large sums of money..I'd far rather check out real owners opinions, here on SGL, and delve into good reference books in the areas I'm interested in, such as double stars..

Dave

12 hours ago, A McEwan said:

I'd like to see a tutorial on using Rennaissance Wax. I have some but have never really tried using it properly. It looks kinda...hardcore....  !

 

No tutorial needed Ant😊.

I first used this on my FS128 a couple of years ago, see this thread..

..you actually posted in this thread that you had some...and it appears that you used it too!! ??🤔😂😉... see bottom of the attached thread "Gave the Tak a treat today" 😊

Dave

Being a bit bored today and fed up with the endless clouds, I decided this afternoon to do some more work on the Vixen 102m.

So, here's what I did:

- I stripped down the focuser completely to bits, as I'd found it a bit rough in places. I noticed that the pair of Takahashi large focuser wheels I had fitted to my little Carton 60mm looked to be the same size as the black plastic knobs on the Vixen..even the screws fitted, so I installed the Tak wheels on the Vixen, and re-used the Vixen black wheels on the Carton. Both worked perfectly 👍, and I think the machined aluminium ones look good on the Vixen.

I carefully adjusted the 4 retaining screws on the focuser bottom plate which covers the focuser shaft and teeth which turn and engage with the focuser rack, until I had it feeling really light and smooth. It's now how I would have imagined it when virtually new.

- I removed the tube rings (bit of a fag as the rings don't open up like modern rings) - they can loosen off to move or rotate the tube, but to take the OTA out of the rings you need to remove either the lens cell or the focuser and slide the rings off either end once you've done that.

I  wanted to give the OTA a good clean, but didn't want to take the lens cell or the focuser off having just adjusted the focuser, so I just slid the tube rings, once loosened, down to the focuser end of the OTA. I used CIF cream cleaner and a warm, damp J cloth to gently clean the tube, then wiped the tube with a clean cloth and finally dried the tube off with a clean, dry micro fibre cloth. I then did the same with the other end of the OTA, simply sliding the tube rings up to the cleaned end.

I have to say, it's amazing how these old tubes will clean up in this way, and mine looks very close to it's original new appearance now, with just one small scratch on the underside of the tube.

I will probably polish the tube with the legendary Renaissance Wax polish when time permits, it's brilliant stuff!

- Next task was to remove the film covering layer from the Vixen Decals recently kindly supplied by Pete Gamby of Opticron, and which I fitted to the dewshield (one either side). I hadn't realised there was a double layer of film.. when you remove the first underlayer as you position the decal, you then carefully peel back the top layer, having allowed the first application to stick properly, the top film layer can then be slowly peeled back, leaving just the red Vixen letters in place..my thanks to Pete!👍😊

- Next I fitted a 6x30 RACI finder to the Vixen..I took this off the Carton and replaced it with the excellent original 6x30 Carton straight through finder, which I still have. The white on black colour scheme matches quite nicely.

- Finally, I added a black metal accessory tray to the wooden tripod, to beef up the rigidity - which it does nicely, plus I now have somewhere to store spare eps during a session 😊.

I think I'm almost there now, I just need to paint the white mount hub in Wilko Thyme Green, which is a good Vixen approximation..

All I need now is some clear sky to look at..I haven't had a proper session in over a month!

Thanks for reading.

Dave

PS: Jeremy, I'm NOT fitting a handle to this scope!!😋

Thanks Pete, I'll have a look at it..at least it will keep them nice and clean!😂😂

Dave

Pentax Quality Control is usually excellent, and I'd normally suggest that you request a replacement set from your supplier.

However, if you sourced them via the USA I'm not sure how easy that will be?

You really want them to be 100% though, in case you ever want to sell them on.

They are very decent bins when working correctly 😊.

Dave

What a fascinating thread!👍

As it's progressed, I have become more and more cognisant of my complete ignorance of engineering, but more and more admiring of  astro colleagues like you, who can, and do, attempt successfully this kind of work.

It looks as if when you're finished, Alan, you will have a mount head that will be the engineering equal (or even better?) of your late, lamented Vixen GP-DX - a properly engineered Japanese mount, built in the good old days to a "standard", not to a "cost".

Thanks for all your effort in sharing this project: I'm sure it will inspire some of our more technically able members to take on such projects..as for me, I'm content just to watch and enjoy this fascinating journey!👍

Dave

26 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Now you’re getting Carried away, Dave. Gotta hand it to you: You might be trying to throw me of the scent, but I’ll pick it up again soon.

🤣

...and while you're at it, pick up that missing "f" from the "trying to throw me of the scent" sentence...

On 07/04/2021 at 22:17, Stu said:

It does give actual magnitudes for each star. I’ve highlighted them individually in these images and you can see the mag at the top of each image.

Hi Stu,

My sincere apologies! 

Somehow I forgot to revisit this thread from April and just came across it again..

Thanks for showing the individual stars within or very close to the pan of the Plough..although a couple of them are close to mag 6, I am fairly certain I could just make them out with averted vision on that night back in April..I think their position right overhead gave the best chance of spotting them, it would be much more difficult, if not impossible, when the Plough is much lower down.

Thanks, Stu👍😊

Dave

Hi Ant,

It's the original holder into which I've fitted a SW 6x30 Raci finder.

The original 6x30 straight through finder is very nice, but the RACI is perfect for this scope and so comfortable to use😊👍.

Dave

13 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Actually, Dave, I’ve always considered you to be a very handly person 🤣

Have to say, Jeremy, your posts always give me a lift.. the technicalities are sometimes hard to grasp (as is your sense of humour). 

Better get a grip!!

Dave

11 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Very nice... My eyes keep being drawn to the massive focus wheels. Original or an upgrade?

Well spotted!..

Yes, the larger wheels were originally from a Tak FS series..they're the same as the ones on my FS128, although I think all the FS Taks with the original 2.7" Tak focuser came with these wheels.

The original Carton wheels were black plastic.. perfectly good and work fine ( I still have them), but as the Cartons' focuser is so smooth the bigger wheels make fine focusing even easier.. the screw thread happens to be the same as the Tak wheels thread👍.

Dave

Great report Paul, and so glad you were able to get out for a prolonged session..

Some interesting, new - to - me targets there, if ever we get a clear sky here again!😂.

Thanks for sharing.

Dave

I was having a "me" day today after some busy days lately, so I decided to partially strip down my Carton Japan 60mm Comet Seeker achromat mount..

It's about 35 years old and there was a bit of "stickshun" in the mounts' movement, due I suspected to hardening of the original grease used for lubrication.

I'm not a very handy person to be honest, but the mount seemed simple enough in its build, and so it proved. I did take a few pictures of each step though, just in case I couldn't recall which bit went where!

As I thought, the original grease was very sticky, so I soaked the parts in white spirit to remove the old stuff, and then dried each component carefully with a clean cloth. I then applied some Lithium grease, which I've always found to be really effective as a light form of lubrication, and put everything back together carefully.

There is still a little play in the RA axis, but I'm not fussed enough to get into disassembly territory that I'm not confident I could sort myself. The main thing is that the motions on both axes are very smooth and light, and the mount really suits this little scope.

The mount is unusual in that it can operate in both equatorial and altazimuth modes - a feature that used to be found on other vintage mounts such as the Vixen Super Polaris. It's a shame you don't often see this design these days, as I feel sure that an altaz facility could easily be added to modern eq mounts for relatively little additional cost?

The scope itself is a simple achromatic doublet with single Mfg coatings typical of the 1980s. With a focal length of 710mm and 60mm aperture it operates at just under F12: as such, CA is well controlled, and the scope happily takes 100x on most targets, and up to 150-160x on the Moon. It was marketed at the time of Halley's Comet in the mid 1980s as a "Comet Seeker", and as such would have given nice views of the comet to astro newbies.

The scope came with a very useful camera counterweight which you can see just behind the objective end of the tube. It was originally meant to provide a balance to the included camera mount to allow the tube to stay in balance..as I've adapted the scope to take modern, heavier 1.25" eyepieces such as Morpheus, and this balancing ring really helps with the balance of the OTA.

I've had this scope for around 7 months now, but have yet to have a really good, dark session with it, although the double star views I have seen are very nice.

Optically I'd rate this scope as good to very good, definitely better than a Unitron Polarex 114, but definitely not quite as good as a Zeiss Telementor, mainly due to the Zeiss's better coatings and polish I suspect.

All in all a lovely, nicely made vintage refractor which many oldies like myself cut our teeth on in our younger days!😊

The pics show the scope after reassembly this afternoon, in both EQ and Altaz modes.

Dave

I saw Pete Gambys' recent post offering some old stock Vixen decals he was clearing for free (for those who don't know, Pete works for Opticron UK, who were for years the UK Distributor for Vixen Japan - Vixen moved their UK Distribution to a European Distributor about 18 months ago, a grave mistake IMHO).

Having recent acquired the nice old Vixen 102M achromat, the subject of this thread, I couldn't resist, and I requested a couple from Pete, who kindly sent these to me a few days ago.

As the original Vixen Decal is still in place (to the rear of the tube, near the focuser), I decided to put these new "old" ones on each side of the dewshield.

You can see that the older logo is somewhat different "font" to the new ones, and the newer ones are a tad smaller, but the colour looks much the same, and I quite like them🤗.

My thanks to Pete, whom I always found to be a great ambassador for Opticron and all things Vixen when he was promoting their products in the UK.👏👏

Before and after pics below😊.

Dave

A very sad sight to see😟..

Let's hope they can establish who/how/why as soon as possible.

Dave

A couple of shots of my Tak FS128 at night a couple of years ago..one of them is my avatar picture, I liked the shadow on the scope at that angle..

Dave

Good luck finding your last two to complete the set Michael 😊👍.

Although I don't have any now (you actually had the last one I owned 🤣!!), but I have a real soft spot for them. I've always found the volcano top design more comfortable than the Baader Genuine Ortho flat tops, although if I'm honest I found the flat tops slightly superior on contrast: the difference was very slight though...I often wondered how good a volcano topped BGO with their excellent Phantom Coatings would have performed 🤔😊..

Dave

4 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Great stuff..and even a spare tyre in case of a puncture!😁👍

Dave

51 minutes ago, Stu said:

Excellent! It’s even got a spare wheel in case you get a puncture! 😉

Come on Stu, keep up!!😂😂😂😊

Dave

Great stuff..and even a spare tyre in case of a puncture!😁👍

Dave