Old but gold mount... well vixen green actually!

[Fozzie]

So earlier this week I was lucky enough and quick enough to get first dibs on something I missed out on a while back due to reduced astro funds and time to collect just not being available.. however whilst browsing ABS i came across a second chance and jumped for it.. 

Now I have a feeling that this mount has done some travelling around the UK, and I know two previous owners, but I feel lucky to be giving her a home currently.

The engineering in this mount is excellent, alot better than an eq5 mount I previously had, the motors are very quiet and it's very very smooth.. 

All in all I think this is a great introduction into a tracked mount.. my old but gold vixen GP EQ.. nice!

 

Hopefully give her a try out tonight..

Ta

Fozzie

[nightfisher]

Looks a nice mount Fozzie

[Fozzie]

Thanks Jules.. hoping it will help with some more detailed lunar work and just general tracking objects..

[John]

Super mount and it goes very well with the long frac as well

[Saganite]

47 minutes ago, Fozzie said:

So earlier this week I was lucky enough and quick enough to get first dibs on something I missed out on a while back due to reduced astro funds and time to collect just not being available.. however whilst browsing ABS i came across a second chance and jumped for it.. 

Now I have a feeling that this mount has done some travelling around the UK, and I know two previous owners, but I feel lucky to be giving her a home currently.

The engineering in this mount is excellent, alot better than an eq5 mount I previously had, the motors are very quiet and it's very very smooth.. 

All in all I think this is a great introduction into a tracked mount.. my old but gold vixen GP EQ.. nice!

 

Hopefully give her a try out tonight..

Ta

Fozzie

I know what you mean about missing out, because I quite fancied the Vixen mount that Dave sold a while back , but I was buying something else at the time, a great shame.

 I have a Starwave on a Skytee 2, and it is a really lovely scope. Look forward to your report. 

[Fozzie]

7 minutes ago, Saganite said:

I know what you mean about missing out, because I quite fancied the Vixen mount that Dave sold a while back , but I was buying something else at the time, a great shame.

 I have a Starwave on a Skytee 2, and it is a really lovely scope. Look forward to your report. 

I'm 99% sure this is the mount that @F15Rules sold, as I bought of the dobbie who bought it from Dave, minus the wooden tripod... I'm looking to source one as I feel it is more in keeping..

 

[Saganite]

I had an idea that it might be the very one, and Dave always swore by the quality of it, so well done; needless to say, should you decide to move it on Fozzie, I'm yer man.  

 

[Racey]

@Fozzie

That looks just like a refractor and mount should. Timeless. Elegant. And jealous... ?

[Saganite]

Ah well Simon, had you made it to my place , you could have had a drool over mine 

[F15Rules]

Hi Fozzie, yes, that looks like my old Vixen GP☺...I sold it to John (Dobbie) only a couple of months back, very reluctantly as part of my sell off to raise funds for my new to.me Tak FS128.

It should say Orion Optics on the side, as it was from when Orion were the main UK dealer for Vixen.

I bought it from a guy in Spain believe it or not, was a bit nervous til it arrived, but I needn't have worried, the seller had looked after it and it was in lovely condition, but didn't have a handset with it (it had failed and the seller made full disclosure). The price reflected that, and I bought the new DD3 controller in January last year from Opticron/Vixen UK, it was around £150 (now lists at £199 I believe!).

I bought the head only and motors, no tripod was for sale but I had a large wooden one which fitted perfectly (and which is now supporting my FS128 on its Tak EM2 mount, see below).

I'm sure you will get great service from the mount, they are so we'll built Fozzie. And do get a wooden tripod if you can..apart from the fact that they look great, I actually think they are more solid than a steel tripod as well. Enjoy!?

Dave

 

[Fozzie]

Hi Dave..  thanks for the back story, it does indeed say Orion optics on the side, I'd not noticed that before.. the motors on this are whisper quiet and the dd3 is a nice hand set.

I'll get a mount sorted for it, if I can find a eq5 tripod hub I might even be tempted to make one up..

 

Btw Dave that is a lovely set you have.. Just lovely!

[Fozzie]

27 minutes ago, Saganite said:

I had an idea that it might be the very one, and Dave always swore by the quality of it, so well done; needless to say, should you decide to move it on Fozzie, I'm yer man.  

 

I'll keep that in mind... dobbie said there was a lot of interest in the mount..

[Stu]

Lovely looking mount Fozzie, I have one too and it is excellent. It currently has my C925 on and handles it very well, normal task is the Tak though, but your Starwave looks far more grand on it than my stubby Tak  

[Racey]

20 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Ah well Simon, had you made it to my place , you could have had a drool over mine 

I've still got some of that bag of beers and good Claret left Steve... ?

[Saganite]

Come on over then , we can have a starry party !!

[Chris]

Looks lovely, Fozzie, as said especially with the long frac  

Chris

[Chris]

55 minutes ago, Saganite said:

 I quite fancied the Vixen mount that Dave sold a while back , but I was buying something else at the time, a great shame.

 

cough cough, I have a feeling that might have been my fault?  

[Saganite]

No Definitely not you, It was a very nice guy who's name was Chris I believe ! 

[Chris]

1 minute ago, Saganite said:

No Definitely not you, It was a very nice guy who's name was Chris I believe ! 

Not Chris Lock? don't trust him as far as you could throw him....although that's probably quite far considering how thin he is  

[Fozzie]

I can report that she's ticking along very well, considering I've not polar aligned, just (note chalk marks on ground) roughly set up along axis I'm a good 10mins in and only just off axis in a 50deg ep.. 

Jupiter is looking lovely in my 10mm SLV..  happy days boys and girls.. happy day.

[DRT]

Very nice, Steve.

Now then, let's recap where we are:

1. Fozzie buys a Takahashi mount for his nice refractors
2. Fozzie is looking for a Takahashi wooden tripod because it would be rude not to
3. Fozzie ends up here  

The slope is a slippery one!  

[Fozzie]

Step 4... Fozzie ends up here..

Btw what a great name for a dog... Bob.

[Racey]

2 hours ago, Saganite said:

Come on over then , we can have a starry party !!

Let's just drink the Claret, smoke the Cohibas, look at the beautiful scopes and talk the talk of the exoplanets we'd have found had we taken the night seriously ?

[Saganite]

8 hours ago, Racey said:

Let's just drink the Claret, smoke the Cohibas, look at the beautiful scopes and talk the talk of the exoplanets we'd have found had we taken the night seriously ?

That's all I seem to have done for some time, is look at my beautiful scopes, precious little chance to use them.

[F15Rules]

I actually got a nice view of Jupiter last night..I found a few old Tal filters..they are plastic circles with a glass filter in the middle, and were designed to clip over the top of older Tal eyepieces..

As luck would have it, they sit nicely inside my Tak LE7.5mm eyecup and one of them, (greenish) really got rid of light glare/scatter and brought out the details. As a bonus I got a nice view of the GRS appearing on the right hand side of the planet just after 11.00pm.

I must look into some proper modern filters...?.

And I have to say, the EM2 tracks beautifully.

Dave