Vintage Vixen SP102M F10 achromat purchase

[Franklin]

Back in the 80's, as a teenager, I bought a secondhand Vixen 4" refractor. It was an excellent scope and I regretted selling it on ever since. However, it was not the 102M. It was called the Vixen Sensor102 and had a shorter focal length of 900mm. The tube had four lugs, two on each side, which sat in a cradle attached to a large yoke/fork style altazimuth mount with slow motion controls. All on a lovely tall Vixen wooden tripod with white trim. Since it went I have neither seen nor heard of another like it. There is a line drawing picture of the Sensor102 in an old Vixen catalogue from the 70's that I found online but that was where my search ended. Do any of you old-timer frac-afficiandos remember this model, it would be great to see a picture of it. There must be at least one around because someone bought it from me in South Yorkshire 30 years ago!

[NVDW]

Got to love full Vixen sets!!! 

Also got two of them.... Finally.... 80M and 102M with GP and GP-DX. 

These oldies give nice, clear views! 

[F15Rules]

13 hours ago, neil phillips said:

I remember them well.  A certain standard of quality. Nice catch. Was it ebay ?

 

Hi Neil,

No, I bought it from an astro forum..to be honest I think I'm done with eBay now...too many scams, too many dictatorial eBay edicts. the latest one being their threat to stop me selling (not buying) if I don't give them my bank details for processing payments, instead of the PayPal system which I've used without problems for 15 years. It's a simple con to take most of the PayPal fee, add it to their eBay fees, and then only pay you within 4 working days rather than within minutes with PayPal (if the buyer pays promptly.

I don't respond well to threats from large online US companies!

I also think that eBay are in terminal decline..my.grown kids hardly use it, preferring Gumtree and Facebook marketplace, and eBay are clearly more interested in online retail sellers than ordinary folks like us..

Rant Over! 👍😁

Dave

[F15Rules]

13 hours ago, neil phillips said:

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by F15Rules
Duplicate post

[jock1958]

3 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Hi Neil,

No, I bought it from an astro forum..to be honest I think I'm done with eBay now...too many scams, too many dictatorial eBay edicts. the latest one being their threat to stop me selling (not buying) if I don't give them my bank details for processing payments, instead of the PayPal system which I've used without problems for 15 years. It's a simple con to take most of the PayPal fee, add it to their eBay fees, and then only pay you within 4 working days rather than within minutes with PayPal (if the buyer pays promptly.

I don't respond well to threats from large online US companies!

I also think that eBay are in terminal decline..my.grown kids hardly use it, preferring Gumtree and Facebook marketplace, and eBay are clearly more interested in online retail sellers than ordinary folks like us..

Rant Over! 👍😁

Dave

Talking about Gumtree there’s a Vixen SP 102m with a matching Vixen EQ mount including some bits & bobs for £390, not sure how much they usually go for? Looks nice though! 
Agree what you say about eBay, been buying stuff for years and recently sold my first item which I found easy enough but had to wait at least a week for the funds to hit my account...not impressed at all! 
 

[A McEwan]

On 15/06/2021 at 16:55, jock1958 said:

Talking about Gumtree there’s a Vixen SP 102m with a matching Vixen EQ mount including some bits & bobs for £390, not sure how much they usually go for? Looks nice though! 
Agree what you say about eBay, been buying stuff for years and recently sold my first item which I found easy enough but had to wait at least a week for the funds to hit my account...not impressed at all! 
 

Is that the one that's on AB&S at the mo for £375? I looked at it.

Ant

[John]

3 hours ago, A McEwan said:

Is that the one that's on AB&S at the mo for £375? I looked at it.

Ant

I'll always look at adverts for Vixen's even though I really don't need another scope. The proportions of a Vixen refractor and their mounts just seem to be "right" somehow plus they evoke very nice memories of drooling over them during the 1980's for people, like me, of a certain age 

 

 

[JeremyS]

53 minutes ago, John said:

I'll always look at adverts for Vixen's even though I really don't need another scope. The proportions of a Vixen refractor and their mounts just seem to be "right" somehow plus they evoke very nice memories of drooling over them during the 1980's for people, like me, of a certain age 

 

 

No harm in looking, John 🙂

 

[A McEwan]

53 minutes ago, John said:

I'll always look at adverts for Vixen's even though I really don't need another scope. The proportions of a Vixen refractor and their mounts just seem to be "right" somehow plus they evoke very nice memories of drooling over them during the 1980's for people, like me, of a certain age 

 

 

Yes, agree completely! Thing is, that would be ideal for me as I was interested in a SP mount for my Swift 831, but I have enough kit (I know, heresy, heresy!!!) at the moment. Or to put it another way, my kit/space ratio is in balance!  

[John]

22 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

No harm in looking, John 🙂

 

Sometimes there is !

My other half has a habit of walking behind me just when I've got a pic of a nice scope on my laptop screen and saying "Oooh - thinking about buying another dear ?"

Edited June 19, 2021 by John

[jock1958]

8 hours ago, A McEwan said:

Is that the one that's on AB&S at the mo for £375? I looked at it.

Ant

Yep that’s the one, tempting but it’s a case of look but don’t touch 🤣

[Peter Drew]

Vixen enthusiasts might like to know that when the 102m achromats first appeared, should you have the misfortune to break your objective, a replacement including the adjustable cell was £445.       🙂

[Rusted]

10 hours ago, John said:

Sometimes there is !

My other half has a habit of walking behind me just when I've got a pic of a nice scope on my laptop screen and saying "Oooh - thinking about buying another dear ?"

Is she related to my wife?  😱

[A McEwan]

14 hours ago, John said:

Sometimes there is !

My other half has a habit of walking behind me just when I've got a pic of a nice scope on my laptop screen and saying "Oooh - thinking about buying another dear ?"

Is that worse than "thinking about buying a DIFFERENT one dear ?" lol  

[F15Rules]

I saw Pete Gambys' recent post offering some old stock Vixen decals he was clearing for free (for those who don't know, Pete works for Opticron UK, who were for years the UK Distributor for Vixen Japan - Vixen moved their UK Distribution to a European Distributor about 18 months ago, a grave mistake IMHO).

Having recent acquired the nice old Vixen 102M achromat, the subject of this thread, I couldn't resist, and I requested a couple from Pete, who kindly sent these to me a few days ago.

As the original Vixen Decal is still in place (to the rear of the tube, near the focuser), I decided to put these new "old" ones on each side of the dewshield.

You can see that the older logo is somewhat different "font" to the new ones, and the newer ones are a tad smaller, but the colour looks much the same, and I quite like them🤗.

My thanks to Pete, whom I always found to be a great ambassador for Opticron and all things Vixen when he was promoting their products in the UK.👏👏

Before and after pics below😊.

Dave

 

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by F15Rules
Additional text info

[Rusted]

I bought a secondhand 90M years ago.
Still use it for solar white light imaging with a Lunt 1.25" wedge and Solar Continuum filter.
Shown here with a home made solar foil filter and star diagonal.

[pete_gamby]

Hi Dave - many thanks for the kind words!

It looks like you may not have removed a final layer of plastic from the decals - the top transparent layer should be peeled away (carefully) to just leave the red letters in place.

Cheers, Pete

[F15Rules]

Thanks Pete, I'll have a look at it..at least it will keep them nice and clean!😂😂

Dave

[F15Rules]

Being a bit bored today and fed up with the endless clouds, I decided this afternoon to do some more work on the Vixen 102m.

So, here's what I did:

- I stripped down the focuser completely to bits, as I'd found it a bit rough in places. I noticed that the pair of Takahashi large focuser wheels I had fitted to my little Carton 60mm looked to be the same size as the black plastic knobs on the Vixen..even the screws fitted, so I installed the Tak wheels on the Vixen, and re-used the Vixen black wheels on the Carton. Both worked perfectly 👍, and I think the machined aluminium ones look good on the Vixen.

I carefully adjusted the 4 retaining screws on the focuser bottom plate which covers the focuser shaft and teeth which turn and engage with the focuser rack, until I had it feeling really light and smooth. It's now how I would have imagined it when virtually new.

- I removed the tube rings (bit of a fag as the rings don't open up like modern rings) - they can loosen off to move or rotate the tube, but to take the OTA out of the rings you need to remove either the lens cell or the focuser and slide the rings off either end once you've done that.

I  wanted to give the OTA a good clean, but didn't want to take the lens cell or the focuser off having just adjusted the focuser, so I just slid the tube rings, once loosened, down to the focuser end of the OTA. I used CIF cream cleaner and a warm, damp J cloth to gently clean the tube, then wiped the tube with a clean cloth and finally dried the tube off with a clean, dry micro fibre cloth. I then did the same with the other end of the OTA, simply sliding the tube rings up to the cleaned end.

I have to say, it's amazing how these old tubes will clean up in this way, and mine looks very close to it's original new appearance now, with just one small scratch on the underside of the tube.

I will probably polish the tube with the legendary Renaissance Wax polish when time permits, it's brilliant stuff!

- Next task was to remove the film covering layer from the Vixen Decals recently kindly supplied by Pete Gamby of Opticron, and which I fitted to the dewshield (one either side). I hadn't realised there was a double layer of film.. when you remove the first underlayer as you position the decal, you then carefully peel back the top layer, having allowed the first application to stick properly, the top film layer can then be slowly peeled back, leaving just the red Vixen letters in place..my thanks to Pete!👍😊

- Next I fitted a 6x30 RACI finder to the Vixen..I took this off the Carton and replaced it with the excellent original 6x30 Carton straight through finder, which I still have. The white on black colour scheme matches quite nicely.

- Finally, I added a black metal accessory tray to the wooden tripod, to beef up the rigidity - which it does nicely, plus I now have somewhere to store spare eps during a session 😊.

I think I'm almost there now, I just need to paint the white mount hub in Wilko Thyme Green, which is a good Vixen approximation..

All I need now is some clear sky to look at..I haven't had a proper session in over a month!

Thanks for reading.

Dave

PS: Jeremy, I'm NOT fitting a handle to this scope!!😋

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by F15Rules
Additional text info

[JeremyS]

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

 

PS: Jeremy, I'm NOT fitting a handle to this scope!!😋

 

 

No need, Dave. It’s even Wilko Thyme 👍🏻

[wookie1965]

Great piece of kit and lovely scope now I am not jealous at all cough cough. 

[A McEwan]

I'd like to see a tutorial on using Rennaissance Wax. I have some but have never really tried using it properly. It looks kinda...hardcore....  !

 

[F15Rules]

12 hours ago, A McEwan said:

I'd like to see a tutorial on using Rennaissance Wax. I have some but have never really tried using it properly. It looks kinda...hardcore....  !

 

No tutorial needed Ant😊.

I first used this on my FS128 a couple of years ago, see this thread..

..you actually posted in this thread that you had some...and it appears that you used it too!! ??🤔😂😉... see bottom of the attached thread "Gave the Tak a treat today" 😊

Dave

[garryblueboy]

On 26/06/2021 at 14:10, F15Rules said:

I saw Pete Gambys' recent post offering some old stock Vixen decals he was clearing for free (for those who don't know, Pete works for Opticron UK, who were for years the UK Distributor for Vixen Japan - Vixen moved their UK Distribution to a European Distributor about 18 months ago, a grave mistake IMHO).

Having recent acquired the nice old Vixen 102M achromat, the subject of this thread, I couldn't resist, and I requested a couple from Pete, who kindly sent these to me a few days ago.

As the original Vixen Decal is still in place (to the rear of the tube, near the focuser), I decided to put these new "old" ones on each side of the dewshield.

You can see that the older logo is somewhat different "font" to the new ones, and the newer ones are a tad smaller, but the colour looks much the same, and I quite like them🤗.

My thanks to Pete, whom I always found to be a great ambassador for Opticron and all things Vixen when he was promoting their products in the UK.👏👏

Before and after pics below😊.

Dave

 

 

 

You would ever know it’s a vixen Dave  😂🤣😂

Edited July 1, 2021 by garryblueboy

[Marvin Jenkins]

Your Vixen looks like an amazing bit of equipment. I am relatively new to Astro and avoided fracs with my first purchase, as I thought they looked old fashioned. I would say I was new and a fool!

I look at scopes like this now and know I will own own one in the future. The quality is right in your face. Not to mention they were made to last.

Marvin