25585

And here are my Primaluce 95mm tube rings for the Tak FC. 

Black velvet inner. 5 mounting holes top & bottom so every arrangement usable. Primaluce uses 2 M6 but a third is possible. 

I just bought a new Newt. 

Farmers (who were right about last year) are shaking their heads about this one. Cold & wetter April even more means good weather for 

This era of global warming & clouds means less planning & more opportunism. See what is there to be seen rather than what you want to see. 

Most constellations have doubles, variables, DSOs and different coloured stars. All have loads more everything than naked eyes, binoculars and smaller scopes can show. See a smudge in the sky, an interesting asterism - look 'em up! Re-visit what started the wonder. 

Vixen NLV 50mm. 

About same weight as the TV 55mm Plossl or 35mm Panoptic, perhaps a bit less. 

Nice to hold with its chequered rubber grip band. Slippery otherwise. 

No problem with eye relief. As the photo shows however, eye lens is deeply recessed, so effective just right for wearing glasses, but too long without. 

Eye cup is fixed but a comfortably deep cushion. Coatings are greenish as photos show. Tube, as for NLV/W eps is a thinner inner, with air space between it and it's gold jacket. All lenses are in that assembly, the chrome bottom tube contains none, unlike NLVW 30mm. 

Of the 2 inch fit eps, this 50 is biggest and comfiest to use. LV 30mm comes 4th, LVW 42mm is 3rd, NLVW 30mm is 2nd and NLV 50mm is 1st. 

(I do not have a LV 50mm, but comparing the two 30mm Vixens above, I think a LV 50 would be heavier due to its thicker tube and have a less good eye cup)

1 hour ago, Charic said:

.......still the hottest UK Year that I can recall, just sweltering.

Sat & failed most of my A levels that year. Gym with closed windows wearing a sticky clammy BryNylon shirt. 

I feel sorry for all the people with expensive dedicated gear in fixed locations especially. 

Apart from work fatigue, and too much street & neighbour lighting, what killed off my big scope stargazing was weather.

Been less good for about 20 years now. Milder but cloudy & wet for longer.  

1 hour ago, scarp15 said:

Shedding a few layers is good, here, the down jacket is replaced with a down vest, late summer nights can become chilly.

From August where I live! But that's normally the first month of autumn these years. 

More sense to buy dual purpose scopes & eye pieces now. So terrestial use covered as well. Better value for money generally. 

4 hours ago, scarp15 said:

Yep I'm looking forward to that aspect to, short sleeved cycling jersey, etc. Having other interests and hobbies ensures that you are kept occupied.

 Night viewing in T-shirt, shorts & sandals (but with much insect repellent on). Never mind astronomical twilight, if there is anything shining & viewable I'll be out there!

18 hours ago, Olli said:

So after the past month ( might be even longer)  it has been cloudy basically every night or its raining since the first month I bought my scope I managed to use it a few times but havent since. And now as the skies are getting dark later I no longer feel like going out as I'm just too tired to go out late. Because of these reasons I  keep thinking to myself if I have waisted my money on buying a scope. I know this is probably not true and will hopefully pass when I get to use scope again but was wondering if any of you have had this feeling before?  

 

I still have my strong interest in astronomy still though

On a lot of stuff. Very few nights when weather, wakefulness, health and inclination have all prevailed together. I think a lot of gear buying is astro related retail therapy as a result of disappointment.  

My TAL 115mm has been delivered. 

Hopefully some Primaluce tube rings for the Tak tomorrow (then at least I have everything to mount it securely enough for peace of mind). 

13 hours ago, Hallingskies said:

I'm a huge (old) Vixen fan. This is my Vixen ED114 refractor on a Vixen GPDX mount with the Skysensor 2000 controller

I used the above portable imaging set-up for years until the frac and nifty Vixen guidescope combo went onto an EQ6 in my observatory.  Colour correction on the frac is not perfect (it's an ED after all) but the scope works just fine on narrowband.  The Skysensor was/is a superb bit of kit: it remembers the time and date, tracks comets from orbital elements and has superb pointing and tracking accuracy. It was let down by the weedy plastic electrical connection to the handset that occasionally rendered it frustratingly cranky; the scope would sometimes fly off in a random direction if you moved the handset and flexed the connection!  But the PE on the mount is only around 3-4 arc-seconds (and you could flatten that out even more because the SS2K has PPEC), and the polar finder was excellent.  I still use the GPDX with a C9.25 for planetary or visual.

I also still have a VC200L that I used to use on the same set-up...

The thick spider vanes for the secondary do make bright stars a bit blocky for imaging but otherwise it's very sharp, has a huge imaging circle and it is also a superb visual scope - the big secondary doesn't affect contrast as much as you might think. The scope holds its collimation well - I've only had to tweak it once in the 15 years I've had it (and that was because I dropped it - no damage done thank goodness!).

I also have a collection of Vixen Lanthanum long-relief eyepieces (4, 9, 15, 25 and 40mm plus 2x barlow), all of which are excellent.

I have wondered if the VMC200L is better than SCTs for visual. A half way between SC and MC?

8 hours ago, jkwhinfrey said:

April Fool perhaps, but it turned up on CN on 30 March.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/612994-unusual-vixen-100mm-eyepiece/#entry8490661

New Vixen eyepieces have gone from 3.4mm to 100mm in a few days and missed out everything inbetween. I think they’ve got a plan

James

 

Japan is across the IDL (International Date Line)

Perhaps a 50 Plossl with built-in Barlow 2x? If it's real. Note it's got Made in China on it. 

Or a Freudian competition with Masuyama

12 minutes ago, DirkSteele said:

Here you go:  http://alpha-lyrae.co.uk/2014/10/25/vixen-sg-2-1x42-binoculars-review/

 

I love them.

8.4mm eye relief. Pass.

Fujifilm 16mm f1.4 lens for my X-T2 camera. Pre-owned but great optic, the equivalent of 24mm wide angle for a 35mm film camera.

2 hours ago, Charic said:

@BinocularSky has forgotten his early report on the 10x50's where he measured 14mm with doubt? read it here http://www.strathspey.co.uk/10x50rev.html

I had both the 7x50 and still have their 10x50's, the only reason I don't have the 7x50's is that the field of view is wider on my Helios 8x40 Natureport, otherwise they'd be part of my collection.

With my 10x50's I estimate the closest sharpest image is about 42 feet for my eyes, but beyond that,once set, there's no further adjustment required, great views. 

Although some binoculars report their eye relief, this short video goes some way to explain what eye relief, and  about getting your eye  in just the right place?

I've seen folk myself wearing glasses with the binocular eye cups fully extended and wondering how they manage? Check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0RCqpajMwA

Many thanks. 14mm is too short. I will look into the 10x50 waterproof cf model instead.

My best smaller bins are Swift Osprey 7.5x42. Eye relief of 19mm. Got several pairs and a Derby version which is IF instead. 80s Bk7 but the best Swifts I have owned.

3 hours ago, BinocularSky said:

Main Stable (i.e. stuff I use regularly):

From the back, L-R: Miyauchi Bj-100 (my most used astro instrument by a long way), Lunt Magnesium 16x70 (quick & easy grab-and-go on a monopod), Lunt Magnesium 10x50 (my brightest hand-held bino)

Strathspey Marine 10x50 (robust, abused, live in the car), Opticron BGA 10x42 (lovely quality, small & light enough to be a "holiday" binocular when space/weight is tight), Vixen SG 6.5x32 ED (stunning image, now my favourite hand-held bino), Vixen SG 2.1x42 (magnificent under a very dark sky).

Outreach bins (used for teaching, outreach, etc.):

From the back, L-R: Opticron Oregon 20x80 (recently acquired for outreach project; also used for teaching; OK on monopod or Skymount/Paragon parallelogram), Revelation Astro 15x70 (BA-1 variant, used for teaching, and as a "loan" instrument), Unbranded (well, would you want your name on something like this?) 12-60x70 zoom with the "latest ruby coatings"  (the result of a manufacturer stooping to the challenge: "Just how bad can a binocular be for £79?"; used for teaching/warning)

Opticron Adventurer T 8x42 WP (Used for outreach; the result of a manufacturer rising to the challenge: "Just how good can a binocular be for £79?"; I recently acquired a bunch of these for an outreach project), Vortex Raptor 6.5x32 (used for teaching & visiting grandchildren), No-name plastic-lensed Galilean type 4x20 (used for teaching, mostly to demonstrate that two of Jupiter's Galilean moons can be visible with cheap toy binoculars; ridiculously narrow FoV)

 

 

Interesting collection. Strathspey Marine bins are excellent if a bit heavy. I have a 7x50 pair. What is the eye relief for 10x50 please?

56 minutes ago, BillP said:

If you do a test I'd be interested to hear, especially if you Barlow them.  A few years back I did a personal experiment and took some common Abbes and a few Plossls of similar focal lengths and Barlowed them for high magnification lunar and planetary observing.  None of the Plossls when Barlowed were able to produce as crisp of an image as the Abbes Barlowed to the same magnification.  Was a real eye opener.  Convinced me that Plossls are not a good choice to Barlow for planetary observing.

I expect my Barlow will be the weakest point in doing so. A TV x2.5. Will compare with my Vixen LVW 13mm image.

As a fan of retro mounts, what models, colours and maximum loads were all the different G/S/P /DX Super/Polaris mounts?

How can you tell one is actually a Vixen from photos? The ENS photos, for example show no Vixen badge anywhere. 

On 19/03/2018 at 18:23, BillP said:

Wow...get the whole set!  Wish I could afford that as nothing quite like having a good Abbes set for when needed.  Not an every night eyepiece IMO but outstanding specialty tools.  One thing that is a rarity for Abbe world is one longer than 28mm focal length.  Most makers make a 25mm one, long ago University Optics offered a 28mm flat top one, but Tak has a modern 32mm Ortho in their line up!!  Certainly destined to be a rare bird, like the 35 ZAO-I.  But as good as the Taks are, IMO there is considerable way to get to the ZAO level.  Those were masterpieces of the minimum glass eyepiece maker's art.  I maintain a 6mm one as that is my most used planetary focal length.  I once borrowed the 25mm and was simply astounded at how differently it portrayed objects compared to other common 25mm eyepieces.  Amazing the clarity and purity it brought to the objects.

Maybe I should keep my 32mm TAO then @BillP

I have read a comparison by you, comparing the Abbe to LE, the former coming out favourably. 

I am disappointed by the effective eye relief. Advertised as 28mm, but deeply recessed eye lens and poorly designed eye cup take up at least 10mm ER. 

I can understand the Moon and Jupiter viewers wanting the best. But Saturn, rings apart, and Mars + the rest are fine in less specialised wider field eps, many of which have good on axis performance. However it will be interesting to see how a TV 32mm compares, if I keep the TAO (sell for £170 I expect).

I have been outbid on ebay for old Vixen mounts, which I thought my max was sure to win for old tech & metal. But they all went for at least as much as the equivalent SW new price!

35 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Nice old mount but not exactly cheap! It seems to me that ENS prices have been rising quite a bit in the past few years?

"Proper" GPs  often with electric drives come up for sale on here or the other site..☺

Dave

Not sure I trust any old electronic stuff, whatever it may be. Nice sturdy manual mounts with setting circles & slo mo are fine, but I have tripods aplenty.

SW have set a bad example with their Skytee 2's mechanics, so anything better interests me.

For example?

http://ensoptical.co.uk/celestron-vixen-japan-vintage-mount?search=vixen mount

Like the mount.

32 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Sell?   But, but, but, but you are The Astro Magpie!

Have to say joking aside, far too often specification and expectation fail to merge with many purchases.

 

As long as my core eps remain, the ones I treasure and/or use most. 

2 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

You need to invest in one of these!

Is that gor visual Mike? Looking forward to your impressions as a Tak fan using a Chinese scope ?

As if on cue, my Vixen LV 10mm 50 deg is delivered. Brand new. Nostalgia ep case space.

So just one to come now, another Vixen.