mikeDnight

I think these little scopes can be awesome. Here's my 60mm F11.6 Carton Comet Seeker. I know, it doesn't sound like much of a comet seeker at F11.6 let alone with a 60mm objective, but for its time it was quite short yet still is pretty much free of any visible CA. The Carton also boasts a 1.25" stock focuser which again is unusual for a 60mm of its time. This of course means I can use some high quality eyepieces to get the best out of this beautiful little objective. The scope is also capable of using a binoviewer which really gives it a punch above its aperture class. Below are some pic's and a sketch of mars from this evening (07/12/22).

I think these little scopes can be awesome. Here's my 60mm F11.6 Carton Comet Seeker. I know, it doesn't sound like much of a comet seeker at F11.6 let alone with a 60mm objective, but for its time it was quite short yet still is pretty much free of any visible CA. The Carton also boasts a 1.25" stock focuser which again is unusual for a 60mm of its time. This of course means I can use some high quality eyepieces to get the best out of this beautiful little objective. The scope is also capable of using a binoviewer which really gives it a punch above its aperture class. Below are some pic's and a sketch of mars from this evening (07/12/22).

Hi Paul. I'm not sure if the altitude gearbox can be altered without having the arm at an angle. This would presumably give you easier access to the zenith as well as resolve the osition problem of the altitude control.

Lovely informative images, and a seemingly enjoyable session with some very nice equipment.

Hi Jeremy, Yes I mainly used a binoviewer last night, although I dabbled with my 3.6 HR which was higher power but still very pleasing. The night was a bit wishy-washy and I constantly had to refocus.

Mars on 28/11/2022 showing Mare Tyrrhenum to the lower right (south bottom, east west reversed), and Mare Cemmerium and Solis lower left and centre. Phlegra, Elysium, and Umbra from left to right in the north.

Currently I have six refractors of different flavours just to prove to myself that I only need one.

I haven't read the entire article, but I'd have no worries about buying a F10 Newtonian and expecting it to work perfectly, which it will providing there's no turned edge, zones, and has a perfectly flat secondary. Parabolizing an F10 mirror offers no meaningful advantage other than to significantly increase the cost of production.

It's really easy in a transparent sky. Keep your peripheral vision shielded from stray light and persevere. It will initially look like there's a little haze in the sky, or your lens is fogging over, but its actually the nebula. The longer you spend on it the more you'll see, until the Pleiades appear completely enmeshed in a nebulous haze. Aperture isn't important, as even 10×50's will show it, but a scope will show its intricacies at low to medium powers.

About 11 years ago, my friend Philip built his observatory by adapting a metal garden shed. It was probably about 5 ft by 6 ft, with walls around 5.5ft high. He built a simple wooden H frame to hold the wooden runners. It worked well, although I felt it was a little on the snug side. But it was a cheap option. Phil's observatory, with Phil and his 5" apo refractor. I built mine by screwing a 3" by 2" frame to 3/4" ply, clad externally with white plastic tongue & groove to protect the wood from moisture, and internally, with black foam excercise matting to minimise stray light and which never needs painting. It stands 6 ft 6" high, is built on 5" joists with a 3/4" ply floor, and is fit long and 7 ft wide. The roof is covered with rubber roofing sheet which is glued to 1/2" ply, and rolls on angle iron runners using 5" wheels placed 1/3 of the way in from the outer edge of the roof. Placing the wheels so far in from the edge of the roof allows an H frame to be built closer to the main building. 11 years on and its still working flawlessly. The roof moves with the touch of my fingers! It currently houses a 6" F10 refractor.

Put a sock on it! Cutting a hole in the end of a sock and slipping it over your telescope keeps the tube, cell and dewshield from getting too cold. 🧦

The ED80 is a delightful scope, and with a binoviewer can give great lunar and planetary views. A 102mm offers much more punch though. FLO currently have a Starfield 102ED at a reduced price, I think as a customer return. It may be worth checking it out as it would make a great all round grab and go, and a serious stand alone scope.

You have three dream refractors there Stu. It really shows how Tak have managed to reduce the bulk of their 4" apo's while maintaining the punch. I love the DC very much. The Vixen however is a hard act to follow.

Looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey to me, but its a nice pic all the same.

After getting my FC100DC in early 2015, it wasn't too long before an inevitable shoot-out took place; and it took place between three great scopes, including a Sky 90 and Peter Drew's superlative Vixen FL102. This particular Vixen was the one that started me on an insane fluorite apo rollercoaster ride lasting almost 20 years, and that's cost me a small fortune. I wonder if I can claim compensation, as there was no warning on Peter's scope saying Observers Beware! I knew the FC100DC was up against a killer scope, and it actually kept pace with the Vixen very well, both on the Moon and Jupiter. Festoons, garlands, white ovals and barges were easily seen in both refractors with the DC giving a slightly warmer tone. Personally I prefer the cooler tone of the FL102, but at the end of the day I really couldn't fault the view through either. Mechanically the Vixen focuser was noticeably better than that on the Tak DC. To date, I have not yet seen any apo that, aperture for aperture, beats the Vixen fluorite as a visual refractor. All that can be hoped for is that an apo can match the Vixen in terms of definition and contrast. The DC did remarkably well, and I've yet to give my DZ a serious run on the planets, but the DL is definitely the equal of the FL102. In the pic below, Peters FL102 has a shortened tube to the normal Vixen, which was done by Peter so that the scope could accommodate a binoviewer without the use of a barlow.

I know how you feel Dave. I've had all manner of junk over the years, and spent a fortune trying to find scopes I'd like without spending a fortune. It doesn't work! May be if I'd have bought one of those beautiful Newtonians at the start, I'd have stuck with reflectors in blissful ignorance, but i couldnt afford one. I've never been one for going into debt for anything, but after observing through Peter's FL102 on January 3rd 2003, I knew I had to have one. I saved solidly, working as much overtime as I could for three months until I had enough money to buy one. Unfortunately for me the Vixens were unavailable in the UK when I wanted one, so I turned to Takahashi. Since then I've owned an FS128, FS152, FC100DC, and now a FC100DZ. I have observed Mars simultaneously using my FC100DZ and a 200mm Orion Optics UK F6 Newtonian, and saw nothing in the Newt that wasn't also visible in the DZ. The DZ was more comfortable to observe with, and sharper with no diffraction spikes. I get that these medium aperture refractors aren't for everyone, but for me they are simply Nirvana. What they lack in aperture, they seem to more than compensate for in definition and clarity of image. Below is my FC100DZ on a Vixen GP, - a perfect combination.

Have you considered an 8" or 10" Classical Cassegrain by StellaLyra rather than a Mewlon? They do seem to have good reports, and if you found you didn't like it, you could sell it on to me cheap. Win win! The Sphynx doesn't have a manual slow motion option, but the Rowan does. That might be something worth considering in case of power failure.

That's sound advice Mark. And it would be nice if another 7mm smooth Nagler turns up again one day.

The 7mm smooth Nagler was my first Nagler eyepiece, and in my view optically better than the version that followed it. Back in 2003 I made all my observational sketches of Mars using that 7mm Nagler, which gave me 148X in my Tak FS128. It was a stunning combination. The entire Moon fit into the field of view with room to spare, which at 148X was quite impressive. I wish I'd never sold it, but I have a habit of making dumb decisions.

The Vixen LV's are great eyepieces but are likely out of fashion because they are relatively narrow field and cheap. A 15mm LV pair in my binoviewer and Tak FC100DC, gave me my best ever and most memorable view of the Alpine Valley's central rille. And my 2.5mm LV was a superb high power eyepiece for observing tiny Mars while it was below 5" of arc. I've had nearly all the Nagler line as well as the XW's, but in my view, the LV's were their equal on axis, and superb for lunar, planetary, and double stars. And it seems solar as well.

I think there's a danger when using such estimation scales, that they can have a negative effect on the observer, perhaps giving them a defeatist mentality.

I like the challenge of gleaning as much I can out of nebulae and galaxies, sketching what I see in the eyepiece while studying them for half an hour or more. Generally I'll observe from under a blackout blanket where I can get a reasonable level of dark adaption. Often it's the dark nebulae that draw my attention as they are blacker than the sky background and really give a sense of depth to the view. Most of my deep sky observing is done with either a 100mm F8 or 101mm F5.4 refractors, and although many might imagine you can't see much with a 4" aperture scope, with a little care, even from the suburbs such scopes can give incredible views. However, it's often the stars themselves that give me my most pleasurable moments, be it low power views of rich star fields, or higher power views of globulars or double stars. I think that the stars themselves are the most spectacular, yet most overlooked DSO's.

I think the weather is more of a hindrance to the imager rather than to the visual observer, as with the latter there are always opportunities to catch 15 mins here and 30 mins there through sucker holes. It helps having equipment that's quick to set up and is thermally stable within a few minutes. It's rare that I never observe over the course of a couple of weeks unless I choose to do so. And I observe all year round, even through the summer months. The Moon and planets don't require either a truly dark sky neither a transparent one, and even street lighting isn't much of a problem. Low power sweeping of the summer milkyway between midnight and 2am BST is plenty dark enough and thrilling enough to keep me enthused. Double star observing is another facet of observing that can be done under a summer sky. In fact if anything, it's the biting cold of winter nights that I dislike the most these days, so I like shorter sessions of around an hour or less in winter unless there's something truly interesting to observe. The trick is to be adaptable and not limit the type of observing to just deep sky, or just planetary and lunar, but flirting with a bit of everything, being 100% happy in your chosen field but 99% happy in any other.

Vixen used to offer a superb 102mm F6.5 ED doublet that had excellent colour correction, and delivered great planetary views when called upon to do so. Today Takahashi's FC100DC and DF have a ratio of 7.4, which is probably the lower limit while retaining its Apochromatic credentials. The Sky 90 was a fluorite doublet having an F ratio of 5.5 I think. Technosky offer an F7 ED doublet and there is Tak's super expensive FSQ 106 ED quad. The performance gap between true fluorite and some modern ED glasses has closed considerably over the last 20 years or so, so fluorite isn't the only option. I think if i were looking for a fluorite doublet with a low F ratio I'd go for the Tak DC or DF at F7.4. They are awesome under a dark sky. But if I wasn't too bothered about fluorite, I'd just grab myself a 102mm Starfield or Technosky.

It will knock the socks off many apo's and ED's too! Congrat's on finding such a beautiful vintage classic. The Vixen fluorite have optics made by Canon Optron same as Takahashi, and like many of the earlier Tak fluorites, the Vixen rear fluorite Steinheil element remained uncoated. The front element is multicoated. Takahashi, or more likely Canon Optron, later developed a method of hard coating their fluorite elements and coated some later versions of their original FC100 series. Then Tak brought out the FS series with a front (hard multicoated) fluorite element with a Fraunhofer design. Tak claimed the FS was a better design, but in reality the only advantage it offered was a thinner, and therefor less expensive to manufacture, fluorite element. The FS series never quite matched the level of colour correction of the Steinheil (Vixen or early FC100's), and both even today have an almost cult following among lunar and planetary observers, and lovers of fluorite optics. The choice of a Steinheil objective may most likely have stemmed, initially at least, from the need to protect the uncoated fluorite element from moisture and repeated cleaning. But the Steinheil has another advantage over the Fraunhofer design, in that the Steinheil offers better colour correction at shorter F ratio's. For example, the FS lower limit was F8, below which the scope nolonger can be said to be apochromatic. (The Sky 90 was not part of the FS family and has a different lens design). And so all things considered, the Vixen fluorite apochromat's are among the best 4" class refractors ever made, with excellent continuity of quality thanks to Canon Optron. The modern incarnation of the FC Steinheil's by Tak do have fully hard multicoated optics at F7.5, F8 and F9, and though they might keep pace, but I doubt any could noticeably outperform the Vixen in side by side comparison. I imagine your Vixen standing at the end of your garden set against a starry background sky, and being all the telescope you'll ever need.