2 inch crayford for Vixen SP102M

[MjrTom]

Hello,

Bit of a speculative question as not really sure of the viability of this proposition.

The Vixen SP102M f/9.8 achromat refractor that I have currently has the original rack & pinion focuser fitted but it is only 1.25" (a very nice R&P focuser I may add)

This is a little limiting and would ideally prefer that it would accept 2" eyepieces increasing the FOV from 1.5 degrees at present to a more usable 2.2 degrees. (1000mm focal length)

I dont want to spent a great deal as I only paid £200 for the OTA and Alt/Az mount.

Is this a good idea or not?

Would I be able to use an off the shelf crayford or would it need to be a custom flange for instance? The internal diameter of the tube is ~110mm

Optically the telescope is very nice, with very little fringing, comparable with the TAL 100RS which I compared it to at last weekends star party.

A classic 4" f/10 Achro but could do with a new focuser IMO

[John]

One of our members, Andrew*, had a Moonlight flange for a Vixen for sale recently for very little £'s.

It's possible that a non-Moonlight aftermarket crayford would fit - it depends on the tube inside diameter I guess.

I agree with your comparison with the TAL100 - I moved from a Vixen SP102M to the TAL with a gap of a few scopeless years in between but I can recall how Vixen-like the TAL views were. In those days the TAL was the untried contender though.

[MjrTom]

Thanks John,

I suspected Moonlite would have a flange to fit but not cheep.

I have done a bit of googling and not much is coming up for a 110mm tube diameter.

The current focuser is screwed through the tube with no flange by the looks of it.

I shall have a look for that flange that Andrew had although a Moonlight focuser would be more than the cost of the OTA

EDIT: flange has been sold

[MjrTom]

Hi John, further to our discussion according to Moonlite they do a 4.4 inch Vixen flange which is probably to one I need.

4.4 inches equates to 111.7mm which is probably the internal diameter since I was only measuring it with a steel rule so might not have been that accurate. It also uses the three bolt configuration as detailed on the Moonlite website.

http://www.focuser.com/cgi-bin/dman.cgi?page=refractorinterface

I do currently have a Moonlite Crayford focuser which i need to send back to Moonlite for repair and refurbishment after it had a soul destroying rendezvous with gravity and my concrete garden path.

I have been putting it off for a month as I just cant deal with it at the moment, I still have flashbacks of seeing it nose dive onto the concrete after not checking the ground was level....

Maybe I should request a quote from them for the repair and then get the vixen flange.

That way I can use the same focuser on both my refractors, just changing the flange depending upon which scope I want to use at the time.

[MjrTom]

Quick update:

Contacted Moonlite and they have quoted me £50 for the parts plus postage. No charge for labour costs.

Now that's what you call good customer service

I shall enquire about the Vixen 4.400 inch 3 bolt flange as well so I can moonlite the 4" refractor as well and open up the opportunity to use the 35mm panoptic with it as well