SBS (Vixen) 80mm F15

[Dave1]

Hello Everyone 
 

As I said in one of my previous threads. Here is the reveal thread of my SBS 80mm F15 refractor. What this is is a Vixen Orion 80mm F15 refractor that was sold in France, and is a French rebadge. It also says on the information plate Lunette Astronomique.
 
I believe this to be an 1981-1982  Vixen Orion telescope.
 
The previous owner put the dual speed Crayford focuser on it, which means unfortunately it wont bring a normal eyepiece to focus. It does however focus zoom eyepieces. Which luckily I own a Baader MK3 zoom eyepiece. I will either extend the OTA tube, or buy a focus tube extension.
 
The lens is in 100 % condition, no chips, the coating is even and uniform across the lens. The matt black paint in the OTA tube is very good, way better than Towa. There is 4-5 baffles in the OTA, which look very good.

 

On the plastic lens cover there is even a V in a circle, which is the mark of Vixen!
 
I consider myself very lucky to be able to own what is essentially a like new condition Vixen Orion 80mm F15!
 

In the photo below you can see one of the quality control stamps

In this photo below you can see a Hara quality control stamp

In this photo is the information plate

 

Edited March 4, 2018 by Dave1

[nightfisher]

Looks a lovey scope, at F15 should give ED views and what a classic

[Chris]

Congratulations, Dave! It can't be easy to find one of these, net alone in such good nick  

[Dave1]

Thanks guys, I have yet to give it first light. I've very excited to look at the views through it. From what I can gather from the man I bought it from. I think this telescope may of been forgotten in the back of a French Astronomy shop in a storage area. An sat unused for a very long time. 

[NGC 1502]

 

Hi Dave1, that’s a very nice scope, great for planets and double stars. The correction will be excellent. Pics below of my shorter F11.4 version. As you can see, mine has the original focuser, and a collimatable cell. Agree that yours will be an 80s scope. Looking at your lens cell, is it collimatable ?   Of course, at F15 it will be very tolerant indeed of any slight deviation from spot on. Later versions of mine came with a non-collimatable cell, probably because Vixen decided that would be fine.  Thanks for sharing a lovely classic, Ed.

[F15Rules]

A beautiful vintage achromatic Dave, should be great on Jupiter and a real double star splitter!

Congratulations!

Dave

[Dave1]

Hi NGC 1502, 

Thanks for sharing some information on Vixen telescopes. It does indeed have a collimatable cell? So am I out on some of the details?

Dave

[Alan White]

Dave, that’s a very fine classic scope, wow.

Slight scope envy going on in my head, very nice, I like older Vixen scopes a lot.

Really look forward to the first light report.

 

[NGC 1502]

1 hour ago, Dave1 said:

Hi NGC 1502, 

Thanks for sharing some information on Vixen telescopes. It does indeed have a collimatable cell? So am I out on some of the details?

Dave

 

Hi Dave. What made me ask the question of a collimatable cell, is because the pic in your first post showed a black objective cell that’s flared out to larger than the tube, same as mine, to accommodate the 3 pairs of screws.  I’m no Vixen expert, but I’ve noticed that later versions had a slimmer cell that was not collimatable. I’m guessing that Vixen decided that as their build quality was very good, and slow focal ratios are not at all critical for collimation, non-collimatable cells were fine.

I’m fond of classic stuff, my elderly Claud Butler bicycle, early Asahi Pentax cameras and Takumar lenses, a collection of Weston exposure meters, just ooze nostalgia for me.

Cheers from Ed.

 

[Dave1]

2 minutes ago, NGC 1502 said:

 

Hi Dave. What made me ask the question of a collimatable cell, is because the pic in your first post showed a black objective cell that’s flared out to larger than the tube, same as mine, to accommodate the 3 pairs of screws.  I’m no Vixen expert, but I’ve noticed that later versions had a slimmer cell that was not collimatable. I’m guessing that Vixen decided that as their build quality was very good, and slow focal ratios are not at all critical for collimation, non-collimatable cells were fine.

I’m fond of classic stuff, my elderly Claud Butler bicycle, early Asahi Pentax cameras and Takumar lenses, a collection of Weston exposure meters, just ooze nostalgia for me.

Cheers from Ed.

 

Hello Ed,

Yes I had noticed in some Vixen objective cells that they were slimmer, I'm no expert and did not know they were later on in Vixen's production history, so I've just learned something new.

I to am a lover of things classic, classic motorcycles, classic bicycles, old school rock and metal! Pipe smoking.

Dave

[NGC 1502]

1 minute ago, Dave1 said:

Hello Ed,

Yes I had noticed in some Vixen objective cells that they were slimmer, I'm no expert and did not know they were later on in Vixen's production history, so I've just learned something new.

I to am a lover of things classic, classic motorcycles, classic bicycles, old school rock and metal! Pipe smoking.

Dave

 

Well Dave, shame your in Dorset, but at least we can chat on here, with no petrol costs ?

Noticed in your signature you have some circle T Orthos, I have some of them too. Looks like we’ve both got it bad ?

I’ll check back tomorrow, Ed.

[Dave1]

56 minutes ago, NGC 1502 said:

 

Well Dave, shame your in Dorset, but at least we can chat on here, with no petrol costs ?

Noticed in your signature you have some circle T Orthos, I have some of them too. Looks like we’ve both got it bad ?

I’ll check back tomorrow, Ed.

Yeah got some circle t ortho's, yeah I have it bad lol. Starting to even build up a collection of Brandon eyepieces! 

[Stu]

Lovely scope Dave, and in beautiful 'as new' condition by the looks of it. Looking forward to hearing about the views, should be cracking.

[Alan White]

So reading the posts of ED and Dave, you do have it bad, but nothing wrong with that at all.
It must be us low tech visual astronomers, I too am a classic fan of all things mechanical and optical, used to be into classic motorcycles too.

Ed like the photography things you mention,
I have a small collection of Rollei, Voigtlander, Olympus and other cameras, all still work.
 

[25585]

49 minutes ago, Alan White said:

So reading the posts of ED and Dave, you do have it bad, but nothing wrong with that at all.
It must be us low tech visual astronomers, I too am a classic fan of all things mechanical and optical, used to be into classic motorcycles too.

Ed like the photography things you mention,
I have a small collection of Rollei, Voigtlander, Olympus and other cameras, all still work.
 

I have some Mamiya TLRs and lenses, plus inherited cameras from parents and grandparents.

Oldest binoculars, a pair of US Navy 1942 7x50 Bausch & Lomb.

Edited March 5, 2018 by 25585

[Dave1]

Ah well there are a few of us that are old school in our tastes. I'm purely an visual astronomer. I prefer long focus refractors, just something about the images they put up, and they are good to look at. 

My main way of getting around is by Ural motorcycle and sidecar. 

Never tried old cameras, maybe one day. 

Edited March 5, 2018 by Dave1

[Alan White]

3 minutes ago, Dave1 said:

My main way of getting around is by Ural motorcycle and sidecar.

Now that is old school style, like it Dave.
Is this an older Ural or one of the newer ones?
The Ural is an opposed twin if I remember correctly. 

[25585]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Now that is old school style, like it Dave.
Is this an older Ural or one of the newer ones?
The Ural is an opposed twin if I remember correctly. 

Russian copy of the WW2 BMW boxer m/c and sidecar, minus MG34 machine gun.

Might like https://industryandsupply.com/military-range/military-motorcycles/ural-t-shirt/

 

Some classic Celestron - Vixen optics on ebay. A Barlow 2x and Silvertop 25mm Plossl if you are interested. Also some Vixen LV eps.

[Alan White]

[Dave1]

13 minutes ago, 25585 said:

Russian copy of the WW2 BMW boxer m/c and sidecar, minus MG34 machine gun.

Might like https://industryandsupply.com/military-range/military-motorcycles/ural-t-shirt/

 

Some classic Celestron - Vixen optics on ebay. A Barlow 2x and Silvertop 25mm Plossl if you are interested. Also some Vixen LV eps.

That's only actually true of WW2 era Urals. Since ww2 ural has developed just about everything and made everything better. Engine, frame, electrics, brakes, gearbox, fueling, air filtration....Without going into specifics. The more modern Urals are much better. The new ones are very good, with components from Japan, Germany, Italy, and Russia. 

[25585]

2 minutes ago, Dave1 said:

That's only actually true of WW2 era Urals. Since ww2 ural has developed just about everything and made everything better. Engine, frame, electrics, brakes, gearbox, fueling, air filtration....Without going into specifics. The more modern Urals are much better. The new ones are very good, with components from Japan, Germany, Italy, and Russia. 

Last one I saw was a Soviet era model. Glad they have been modernised. 

[Dave1]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Now that is old school style, like it Dave.
Is this an older Ural or one of the newer ones?
The Ural is an opposed twin if I remember correctly. 

Mine is a 2006. Which is the period when Ural started to update the design a bit more. Denso alternator, Kehlin CVK carburetors. Everything else is Russian. In 2007 there was a whole host of updates again, one of the big years for updates. Then the next big year for updates is 2013.

I'll post a photo of mine.

[Dave1]

3 minutes ago, 25585 said:

Last one I saw was a Soviet era model. Glad they have been modernised. 

Yeah even the Soviet era ural were different to ww2 models. Frame, head design, carburetors, alternator. To name a few.

[Dave1]

Heres some photos of mine. 

[Dave1]

Well guys, I've been doing some digging on classic Vixen telescopes, here is an old Vixen catalogue https://web.archive.org/web/20140104002904/http://yumarin7.sakura.ne.jp:80/retrokan/Vixen1981.pdf 

The price new was 40,000 yen back in 1980, which going by 1980 exchange rate would cost £75.06p. Average wage back then was £5720. I guess for us classic collectors this sort of stuff is interesting, but I guess to you guys that only are interested in new telescopes this is boring

Dave