Highburymark

Hi Tim - do you know the weight of your basic OTA? The advertised information on retailers’ websites tends to fall between 4.4kg and 6.2kg, but I’ve seen various other weight claims for the 115. Not specific to Vixen - it’s an industry-wide problem in my experience. Stunning set up by the way.

Yes - totally agree. If 4.7kg is accurate this scope is a real breakthrough for those of us who count weight as one of the key features in choosing a refractor.

You’d have to lose the focuser too unfortunately. 22” is the maximum bag size on most airlines, which means the scope needs to be around 19” or less. Weight is rarely a problem - it’s dimensions that prove difficult. Lovely scope to take abroad though if the Moonlite’s easily removable?

I can only comment on solar Ha really, as I’ve only directly compared the two types through a solar scope - I’d always slightly favour TV Plossls here. Delites are excellent in a binoviewer, as good as any complex eyepiece, and frankly often as good as orthos and Plossls. But the Nagler 13s have surprised me - I actually slightly preferred them to Morpheus 12.5s, but all these choices are very close in quality. It’s just a nice option to have a pair of widefields for the MBII - or any other of the BVs with wider prisms that have recently been launched.

Looking too far off axis causes blackouts Stu, but I find there’s a natural compromise where I can scan around a medium wide field and certainly appreciate the ‘majesty’ factor beyond that. The Naglers work really nicely for solar Ha too - seeing the full solar disc at 120x creeping into view is pretty awesome. I still use orthos and Plossls 90% of the time - particularly for sharpest study of solar features. But it’s only a few years since the only widefield BVs on the market were £1k-plus. The MBIIs changed that so it’s nice to have some eyepieces that can take advantage of what they offer.

I think this was the solution I read about on Solarchat too. But it was several years ago.

It depends what your targets are, but the main selling point of the Maxbright II is wider views, so it’s nice to have at least one pair of eyepieces that exploits this feature. I love TV Plossls and microscope ‘orthos’ in my binoviewers on solar system objects, but I’ve recently been enjoying some Nagler 13s on the Moon and Sun. Seeing the Moon at 180x with 82 degrees of AFOV is wonderful.

I hoped that the Lunt anti reflection filter would largely fix the problem, but it appears not. Your best bet is to ask the same question on Solarchat, where there are a number of member who have had the same issue. Haven’t seen it covered on SGL. It was the glow that put me off the LS80DS - otherwise such a fine scope. But I’m sure Solarchat will help you.

I remember expert predictions just three or four years ago that we might be entering a new Maunder Minimum - 75 years of inactivity as experienced in the 17th century.

That’s fair. Both the pressure tuned scopes I had only came on band at the end of the piston travel, so required quite a lot of force - and that can be an issue with light mounts. But otherwise they were fine.

There’s no reason to avoid pressure tuning. In general the system works very well. There are some cases where the internal o-rings have needed replacing, but out of thousands of pressure tuned scopes out there, it’s a pretty robust system - definitely should not put you off buying a particular model.

After 25 years of starhopping, going to give push-to a try. Celestron Starsense Explorer unit repurposed for a typical Synta finder mount. Thanks to the much missed JohninDerby for the original inspiration, and others on the forum for help sourcing the bits.

Bizarrely, the More Blue rings even seem to work with the turbobanana.

For the FS-128 I think I’d have done the same Stu. More of a classic look.

If it’s 6kg this looks like a very nice telescope for a highly competitive price. Optical reports have been very good from what I’ve seen. FCD100 according to those sources. Also nice to see another visual scope from the FLO stable, although I’m sure it’s a nice imaging instrument too.

Very nice. What’s the 45 degree diagonal with the FS60 out of interest? Going against the classic Tak grain, I also like the More Blue rings for the bigger scopes. They’re smart and well built. I think Tak has missed a trick not offering its own line of slightly more affordable rings.

I agree Matthew. Nice lightweight well figured doublet. I managed to take an FC-100DC abroad a few times but didn’t like having to take off the focuser and dew shield each time.

Here’s the pic……

It’s very easy to turn and engage Jeremy. Nicely weighted with a firm click each time the eyepiece is in position. No shift in the scope or view. Really nicely made product. It could interfere with the mount depending on your set up - though in most cases it will be fine. No problem with my TSA-120 for example. If the end of the focuser isn’t sufficient distance from the rest of the mount (for example in the pic, you can see how eyepieces would clash with ADM clamp if focuser was adjusted any further inwards). This is the only scope/mount I’d have a problem with as it’s so short and the dovetail’s positioned a long way back - but I can adjust the dovetail to solve the problem. It’s a prism inside - seems on a par with my Baader diagonals, so very nice views. Finally, any eyepiece with barrels above 31mm will hit the prism, so caution needed. My Pentax XO5.1 is 30mm so right on the cusp. Other eyepieces (like Nagler zooms?) might be over the limit.

Never tried a turret before but looking forward to planet season.

3.3kg would be world-beating if it were accurate. Even the ultra-light Tak FC-100DC is 2.8kg. It’s a helluva package for that price though.

It looks like an amazing package. But definitely not carry on size for air travel.

I think some of the specs must be wrong??? Dewshield only 123mm diameter for a 125mm scope?

Surely 3.3kg can’t be right? That would be extraordinary.

I meant bar the ratio difference…..