Show us your Vixen Scope or mount

[F15Rules]

On 20/01/2018 at 13:23, cotterless45 said:

Wonderful to see these scopes appreciated and loved . The  optics are sweet. Old school here. Rescued and fettled. Old Nick.

Vixen 90 on az and 102 on SP mount.

Fabulous Duo Nick?. Had both some years ago, really liked both. The Altaz is the essence of simplicity, and as for the GP....the original, and the best!?.

Dave

[F15Rules]

4 hours ago, JOC said:

I bought the one advertised in this thread:

It's a really cute little telescope.  What I didn't appreciate before I bought it is that the 3 little legs actually store inside the vertical bit of the stand which is a rather neat system.  What I really like is the action of the movement - it is just so absolutely smooth with just the correct degree of sticktion - it stays exactly where it is put when the movement stops.  The only problem is that I haven't really used it yet - I thought I'd have it in my room and look through the windows (perhaps with it on a camera tripod), but I can't get them open wide enough and if I take it outside I tend to have the Dob out too and then I use the Dob.  I also envisaged that I might take it camping, but when I went last year I couldn't fit it in.  I've got a lovely Revelation diagonal for it (it has an adaptor to take 1.25") and all those lovely EP's I bought that would work in it.  I really should make use of it - it's such a lovely well made instrument

Perl is/was a French Vixen distributor, see this thread: 

Perl-Vixen 80m F11.4 Super Polaris

By astro mick, May 22, 2016 in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups 

I also had a Perl branded Vixen made frac some years ago, can't recall which at this point, but it was a nice scope. You just now need to USE it!??

Dave

[Tyson M]

I just got it in!!! Vixen 81S.

 

I am still waiting for the carrying handle to arrive. This is a seriously nice unit. I have yet to have first light.

 

Perfect for grab and go if you can get around the length. It is very light weight.

 

 

[25585]

Tyson M, nice tripod! What make & model is it please?

Does anyone own a Vixen AX103S triplet?  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen/vixen-ax103s-flat-field-apo-refractor.html 

 

[John]

6 hours ago, 25585 said:

Does anyone own a Vixen AX103S triplet?  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen/vixen-ax103s-flat-field-apo-refractor.html 

 

I've not used one but here is a German optical test of the AX103S which seems very positive (might want to run it through Google translate or similar):

http://astro-foren.de/index.php?thread/13357-refraktor-als-fotomaschine/&postID=57253&l=2

[Tyson M]

16 hours ago, 25585 said:

Tyson M, nice tripod! What make & model is it please?

Does anyone own a Vixen AX103S triplet?  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/vixen/vixen-ax103s-flat-field-apo-refractor.html 

 

The mount head is DSV-M. It is ultra portable with its small dimensions.  The mount is a Manfrotto 028 tripod. A bit old but works, bought preowned for a really good price. 

[F15Rules]

On 26/01/2018 at 01:54, Tyson M said:

Perfect for grab and go if you can get around the length. It is very light weight

How about this for length???

Mind you, it didn't claim to be "grab n go"

Vixen Pulsar 102mm F13 achromat..

Dave

[marcus_z]

Here's an Advanced Polaris...

[marcus_z]

By the way, why just post mounts and telescopes?

[25585]

 

Right! I'll get my ?s out on the catwalk! ?

Edited January 28, 2018 by 25585

[Tyson M]

Here it is with the center column raised 3.5 inches and also with the DSVM mount extension. 

Indoor star test has been the best I have ever seen and extremely contrasty, with no image breakdown at 250x. I will be comparing this scope directly with a TV85 I picked up as well.

One will stay, one will go. 

 

[Froeng]

... just wanted to bump this thread up a bit again. My SP-DX and scopes in all its glory:

Edited February 4, 2018 by Froeng

[JeremyS]

2 hours ago, Froeng said:

... just wanted to bump this thread up a bit again. My SP-DX and scopes in all its glory:

That's a cracking looking set-up, Freong. What's the guide-scope? Is it attached to the C8 or the mount (a bit difficult to see from this angle)?

Nice looking tripod.

[Froeng]

Thanks Jeremy,

 

the guidescope is a Vixen 60l, f/15 Fraunhofer. It is attached to the top of the mount. This is a diy solution using some angle brackets and standard tube rings/guide scope rings, depending on what I am doing with it in that session...

the tripod is the original SP-DX one that came with the mount.

Detail photo below:

Edited February 4, 2018 by Froeng

[F15Rules]

On 28/01/2018 at 19:51, Tyson M said:

One will stay, one will go

Based on my ED103s, my money is on the Vixen?..

[mikeDnight]

A few days ago I parted with this classic Vixen Polaris, at first it was a long term loan. 

Then after further discussion with paulastro, we decided to do a trade. Paul wanted the Polaris as a quality Altaz for his 4" ED. For my part I received this in exchange!

A beautiful Vixen GP. This is my second Vixen GP, the first is permanently housed on a steel pier in my observatory and now this second GP is my solid grab and go mount. I prefer equatorial when sketching!

Personally i feel these classic mounts are some of the finest portable mounts ever made. It's a tragedy Vixen stopped making them, but fortunately they are greatly undervalued by the majority and so come up second hand quite cheap. 

 

Edited March 23, 2018 by mikeDnight

[Alan White]

39 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

A few days ago I parted with this classic Vixen Polaris, at first it was a long term loan. 

Then after further discussion with paulastro, we decided to do a trade. Paul wanted the Polaris as a quality Altaz for his 4" ED. For my part I received this in exchange!

A beautiful Vixen GP. This is my second Vixen GP, the first is permanently housed on a steel pier in my observatory and now this second GP is my solid grab and go mount. I prefer equatorial when sketching!

Personally i feel these classic mounts are some of the finest portable mounts ever made. It's a tragedy Vixen stopped making them, but fortunately they are greatly undervalued by the majority and so come up second hand quite cheap. 

 

TwoGP mounts, wow.

[25585]

For example?

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

[F15Rules]

Cracking mount Mike, so smooth and well engineered.

If you could source a good wooden tripod for it, it would be immensely stable (I'm sure it is already very good) - and the Tak will only have its own objective and sky conditions as it's limitations ☺.

Dave

[F15Rules]

6 minutes ago, 25585 said:

For example?

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

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

[mikeDnight]

29 minutes ago, Alan White said:

TwoGP mounts, wow.

One for each eye!

The 1.5m tripod came with my first GP now in the observatory. This deal was only for the mount head, and to my surprise a WHITE counterweight. ?

[mikeDnight]

14 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Cracking mount Mike, so smooth and well engineered.

If you could source a good wooden tripod for it, it would be immensely stable (I'm sure it is already very good) - and the Tak will only have its own objective and sky conditions as it's limitations ☺.

Dave

I really love this Vixen tripod Dave. It's got an exceptionally wide spread and is surprisingly solid and vibration free. It makes the cheap Chinese clones look pathetic by comparison. I like wooden tripods but the Vixen AL 1.5 is just too good to part with. So it seems that the only issues i'll have to contend with is the local seeing, and of course this Tak lens! And that WHITE counterweight!! It plays havoc with my OCD!

[F15Rules]

3 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I really love this Vixen tripod Dave. It's got an exceptionally wide spread and is surprisingly solid and vibration free. It makes the cheap Chinese clones look pathetic by comparison. I like wooden tripods but the Vixen AL 1.5 is just too good to part with. So it seems that the only issues i'll have to contend with is the local seeing, and of course this Tak lens! And that WHITE counterweight!! It plays havoc with my OCD!

[Fozzie]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

 

A beautiful Vixen GP. This is my second Vixen GP, the first is permanently housed on a steel pier in my observatory and now this second GP is my solid grab and go mount. I prefer equatorial when sketching!

 

Personally i feel these classic mounts are some of the finest portable mounts ever made. It's a tragedy Vixen stopped making them, but fortunately they are greatly undervalued by the majority and so come up second hand quite cheap. 

 

Lovely GP mount Mike, looks great despite the antiOCD counterweight.. the only thing I'd love to change on mine is the saddle..  a nice adm  saddle would be perfect for this, but I've yet to find a solution to that..

 

[25585]

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.

Edited March 23, 2018 by 25585