F15Rules

Hi Jock, I don't know for sure, but as per my post, I fear that they are not interchangeable. Our TAL expert on SGL, AndyH, may be able to help out. Might be worth messaging him, you should find him on SGL members search, AndyH☺. Hope that helps a bit. Dave

That's the one I was looking at (but I won't be bidding as I have an ED103s Vixen already☺. It looks great, but ask to see photos of the lens and accessories. The Tal 100r is very Russian. Good points: Great lens, lovely purple coatings, slightly better figured than the later RS models IMO. Decent, if a bit agricultural equipment mount, built like a tank. The tripod is definitely Tal, and it's a good one, ideal for this scope. Accessories are good, the 6x30 finder is a cracker, with helical focusing. The 25m Plossl is superb, optically gives Tele Vue a run for it's money. The 10mm is decent too. The diagonal is excellent. Not so good points: The baffling on the 100r tubes can be poor. Look up the tube and if you can see daylight around the edges of the baffles, they may have moved or not been fixed properly. It is fixable but annoying. The focuser on the 100r is poor and has a tiny amount of travel, maybe c40mm, enough for the Tal eyepieces but other brands may not come to focus. The Crayford focuser on the 100rs is excellent and MUCH better. I think you would want to swap the focuser and Tal stuff has its own build foibles so may need for example to have a custom adapter machined to fit the tube. I don't think the RS focuser fits the 100r tube (even if you could find one). Someone like Mark at Moonraker Telescopes could probably help. That would add to the cost. Mind you, the lens is worth it.. a Moonlite dual speed equipped 100r would be a serious refractor ?. Good luck if you bid, let us know if you win it! Dave

Welcome back Twotter☺..(or "Twitter" as my Android wants to call it!). Yes, we do get some and in fact this winter (I'm in Lincolnshire) we have had a fair number. So go on, get that Tal out, you know you want to!? Dave

Use that chip as a bargaining chip!?. Seriously though, it's tiny and you wouldn't see it in use. Paint it over with flat black paint, job done. But you will know it's there though.. I wouldn't pay more than £80 for that if it is tube only. Dave

That Vixen model is quite old, I think John has had his for about 10 years..at F6.5 and your 'Nox at F9, I doubt there would be a large difference (your F9 has fine optics) - although the tube would be a good deal shorter (but " fatter", with a 114mm ID tube). At the end of the day it's worth what someone would pay, and sadly Vixens don't hold their value Vs new price like Taks do, which is a shame, as they almost always have great optics. Anyway, to avoid hijacking this thread, we could begin another one about Vixen scopes and resale values if you like, Alan??.. Dave

Nice try Alan! Did you see there is a Vixen ED102SS F6.5 on UKABS this evening? I think it's the same model that John Huntley has..it's actually from the same seller I bought my first ED103s from. IMO the price for the above one is a bit high, I reckon £600 or so would be about right..should be a great scope, ask John! Dave

Yes, Alan, I sold the XL7 and a couple of other items to fund these?..time will tell whether I made a good decision or not.. ? Dave

Correct☺.The Eudiascopic seems to be intermittently available in just a couple of sizes (and quite expensive too) Rother Valley optics list 3 variants of the Antares Elite (will be new old stock if they do have some), and you may find the odd Tak LE new, although I think they have now been replaced by the new TOE range.. Dave

Thanks Steve?. I thought hard about buying these, but I've always really liked vintage quality Japanese glass and I'll be very interested to see how these compare with my Pentax and LVW EPs. My The Parks Gold are quite uncommon in the UK, which adds to their appeal for me☺. All I need now to get the set is a 5mm and a 35mm! I'm opening a thread on the Eyepiece forum so as not to hijack this thread☺.. Dave

Hi, Uplooker, These are quite old eyepieces, but back in the 1980s and 90s they were highly regarded.. The Celestron Axiom/ Ultima range were probably the best known, also the Takahashi LEs which are a very similar design. They give very good, sharp views with very good edge correction down to c F5,and are often favourably compared to Tele Vue plossls, but with a slightly wider view and better eye relief. HTH ☺.. Dave

Today I picked up a nice little parcel, and this is what it contained...a nice selection of Parks Gold eyepieces, made in Japan, and of the "Pseudo-Masuyama" design, optically the same or very similar to Celestron Ultima, Antares Elite and Orion Ultrascopic ranges.. They are all in excellent condition, boxed and with smooth barrels (NO undercuts to snag on?). I have also sourced a 3.8mm sample (new old stock) in the USA which isn't arrived yet. I'm very much looking forward to trying these out in the Tak.. the 25 and 30mm in particular look fantastic. I'll post more in the eyepiece forum when I've had first light (ie after The Beast from the East has passed over!). Dave

Takahashi are missing a trick here...buy a load of identical cases, slap a Tak logo on them and charge £200 each...Kerrrchinng!! Dave

Ah, I see, well it's possible of course. I've owned 3 XFs and all were fine in that respect, but maybe a bad one got through.. Dave ☺

Pentax XF every time for me. I've owned both XFs and just the 12mm SLV. I didn't like the latter and returned it to FLO (I know most people like the SLV range though). The XF is Japan made, has superb mechanics and optics (including Lanthanum element I believe), and is rather like a mini XW or XL. It has a significantly wider field of view and is sharp to the edge in my scopes (F7.7 & F8). The 12mm has minor field curvature, which didn't bother me personally. The XFs used to have an RRP of £149, so at around £99 now they are excellent value. I would say the build quality is better than the Vixens (and I'm a big Vixen fan, the LVW 22mm is one of my all time favourites). Regarding the "fold up rubber eyeguard", I wasn't aware the XFs had such a feature..a twist up click lock feature for comfort, certainly, but not fold up as far as I'm aware? The top part of the rotating/twist up cup has a directional arrow to indicate which direction to turn to adjust the cup up or down, so if the cup also folded up it would obscure this? (See photo below, image credit to Microglobe Ltd). I've certainly never had an issue with that excellent feature?. Dave

Congrats, Steve. The 13T6 is the best TV ep I've looked through/owned, cracking eyepiece ?. Dave

Hi Alan The series 3000 are a great range of eyepieces IMO, rather underrated. For me, the absolute pick of the range is the 16mm, a really lovely eyepiece if you can find one..? Dave

Dave, Pictures are required please! ?? Dave

Based on my ED103s, my money is on the Vixen?..

Yes, they do have CA, but I have used several CR6/Eco 150s and a couple of the 120s and I always much preferred the views of the latter..

I couldn't agree more. If the lens is well figured and polished it should deliver stunning views. And it would be as rare as Skylights too! Dave

I know what you mean. I have in store for my son in law an Evostar 120mm F8 and I just don't like it. I found the 150mm F8s much better, and at 150mm they really give the wow factor on clusters such as the Pleiades and double cluster in Perseus. For low power wide views at reasonable cost, I'd recommend the TS Optics 40mm Parocor. I have one and it's excellent (same as TMB Paragon and SAW Aero). The 40mm will give you x30 at 1200mm focal length, and a 30mm is also available giving x40. Both will be pin sharp to the edge at F15?. Dave

That's great Dave, Out of interest, have you knocked out the baffle in the original really long draw tube at the focuser end? It's something that a lot of owners have done, I think the original baffle inside the drawtube can vignette the views, and at F15, you want the largest image circle possible to pass light through to the eyepiece. But these really are cracking scopes when you consider the age, early coatings and modest aperture and price! Just one other thought. Have you considered buying a 6" F8 achromat? The Celestron C6R or the Skywatcher Evostar 150 F8 are very similar optically. But they can give stunning views of clusters and nebulae compared to the 80mm, but you can also mask the aperture down to 100mm to give you an F12 achromat, which would have very good CA correction. So making two or more (with different aperture masks) scopes in one. The only drawback is that this scope is quite heavy. However, I used one quite happily for a couple of years on a CG5 class mount with ADM saddle upgrade to hold the tube more firmly. It worked really well for visual and went up to around x250 on good nights with some great views Good luck, Dave

With great respect I don't think you'd see much difference. They are both 80mm F15 Japanese achromats and both optically very good. The Vixen will be mechanically better, no doubt about it, with a better finder and focuser, but detail wise I think they are very similar (I've owned a Vixen Custom 80m F11, not the F15). A 102mm Vixen SP102 F10 will be a different kettle of fish.. superb optics and that 22mm does make a very noticeable difference☺.. Dave

How about trying THIS F15?? Dave, this is my former D&G 5" F15 USA built achromat, "Andromeda", now lovingly owned by Steve ("Saganite") and properly pier/EQ6 mounted by him (Steve's photo?). The second picture shows Andromeda with a Tal 100RS for scale comparison. An amazing achromat. Dave

+1 if you want to go more modern. I've owned both and liked both. The ED100 is superb for the cost and almost free of CA visually, the AR127 is larger, shows more, but with a bit more CA on bright objects☺. Dave