Vintage Vixen SP102M F10 achromat purchase

[JeremyS]

3 hours ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

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

Don’t feel bad Marvin: it took decades for me to appreciate the benefits of refractors and now I am making up for lost time. 😊

As Dave @F15Rules might say, grab one when you can 😊

[F15Rules]

4 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Don’t feel bad Marvin: it took decades for me to appreciate the benefits of refractors and now I am making up for lost time. 😊

As Dave @F15Rules might say, grab one when you can 😊

Totally agree with the above..I don't think I could handle life without a refractor or two in my life..every time I look at them I get a real lift😛

[lguise]

Hi Dave,

I purchased my first Vixen new from Phil Stone (Superscopes) in 1988.A 102M on a driven Superpolaris mount. It had the old style stickers and the lens cell was green, I think it cost around £750 back then which, as a young teacher, was more than a months wages!

I still have the mount going strong, but I now have the 102ED version OTA which doesn’t seem to have been sold in any quantity. Photo shows the school 102M on the left and my 102ED on the right in action for the recent eclipse.

I enjoyed reading of your restoration etc and delighted Es could sort out the optics.

Hope you are keeping well, All the Best,

Linton

Edited July 3, 2021 by lguise
Photo addes

[John]

57 minutes ago, lguise said:

I purchased my first Vixen new from Phil Stone (Superscopes) in 1988.A 102M on a driven Superpolaris mount....

 

 

I nearly bought one from Phil around about that time as well. He was getting it sorted for me when a pre-owned one with the "Skysensor" GOTO system came up locally so I went for that instead. Saved a couple of £hundred as well (sorry Phil !).

He was a helpful chap though and took it pretty well !

I was so pleased to get one of these after looking very enviously at them in Telescope House during trips to London for a year or so.

 

 

Edited July 3, 2021 by John

[Gonariu]

I also saw for sale on an online flea market the legendary Vixen 102M achromatic refractor on which I too drooled a lot in the 80s (only the optics without finder) for 350 euros (301 pounds) and I'm thinking seriously to buy it. A long focus achromatic refractor is fine for me as well, I don't feel the need for an apochromat. Since the optic is sold without a finder, is it okay if I put the 6X30 one of the Konusuper 120 I have in it or is the attack different?

[John]

18 minutes ago, Gonariu said:

I also saw for sale on an online flea market the legendary Vixen 102M achromatic refractor on which I too drooled a lot in the 80s (only the optics without finder) for 350 euros (301 pounds) and I'm thinking seriously to buy it. A long focus achromatic refractor is fine for me as well, I don't feel the need for an apochromat. Since the optic is sold without a finder, is it okay if I put the 6X30 one of the Konusuper 120 I have in it or is the attack different?

The Konussuper 120 6x30 finder scope itself is pretty much the same design as the Vixen original. The finder mount and the fitting on the scope does need to be checked though because Vixen quite often used a different type of finder fitting on their SP refractors from the one that the Konusuper 120 and other chinese made refractors use.

With the Vixen 102M being long out of production now, spare parts are hard to find if you need them.

Your Konusuper 120 is a pretty good refractor itself by the way. I used to own one of those for a while.

 

 

 

[A McEwan]

On 01/07/2021 at 10:22, F15Rules said:

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

Good grief! I'd forgotten I'd even done that! I knew I had some somewhere but didn't realise I'd used it as recently as 2019! 🥴 Now where did I put my memory pills again....

(Edit - I must use it on my Omni XLT 102 soon....   ) 

[Gonariu]

@John. Thank you. On the Konusuper 120 I must say that on the one hand in 2003 I made some beautiful observations of the great opposition of Mars, on the other hand it had a slight lateral smear when looking at the planets, especially with Venus of which it gave an unacceptable image. Last year I had it checked by an experienced and well-known firm among amateur astronomers who, in addition to telling me that it gave me a sufficient image, also told me that the achromatic doublet had a lateral chipping that I had never noticed. . Since the smear on Mars in the past autumn was too much and even by coloring the chip black I did not get anything, I diaphragmed it to 90 mm, minifying this defect. In this way, in the past opposition of October Mars was very beautiful, the instrument also held 333X and also on the Moon at 250X - 333X it gives a fairytale vision. I thought about changing the achromatic doublet but I don't know where to get it from.

[F15Rules]

22 hours ago, lguise said:

Hi Dave,

I purchased my first Vixen new from Phil Stone (Superscopes) in 1988.A 102M on a driven Superpolaris mount. It had the old style stickers and the lens cell was green, I think it cost around £750 back then which, as a young teacher, was more than a months wages!

I still have the mount going strong, but I now have the 102ED version OTA which doesn’t seem to have been sold in any quantity. Photo shows the school 102M on the left and my 102ED on the right in action for the recent eclipse.

I enjoyed reading of your restoration etc and delighted Es could sort out the optics.

Hope you are keeping well, All the Best,

Linton

Hi Linton,

I'm well, thanks, I hope you are too?

Thanks for your post and kind comments, and also the photo...great to see the youngsters being encouraged to try out the scopes.

I agree, the 102ED seems to be as rare as hens teeth..I saw one for sale just once, on ebay, probably about 10 years ago..I seem to recall the owner wanted about £1000 for it, I think that included a GP mount..I felt nervous of paying that for s scope about which so little info was available, so I let it pass me by. 

I later read somewhere that the ED102 was intended to replace the legendary FL102s..if that's true, it must have been of very good quality..have you ever compared yours to the earlier Fluorite version? 

I believe the ED103s then replaced the ED102..I've owned  2 of those, and they really are excellent..right up the with Tak 100s IMHO.

Vixens are still underrated, I feel..they don't help themselves with an almost complete lack of proper marketing, yet in Japan I believe they still hold around a 60% share of the amateur scope market .and the Vixen GP remains, for me, an iconic, well engineered mount, so much better than the Chinese clones that hold the lion's share of the UK market these days.

I think that a newcomer to the hobby would be better off looking for an 80mm or 102mm Vixen achromat and an SP/GP/DX mount in good condition, than a brand new Chinese made equivalent..they really do provide some lovely images👍😊.

Dave

[Sunshine]

Oh jeez what a wonderful 102 this is, and on a Vixen mount to boot! which I am partial to, it looks like you have found a beautiful scope there my friend. My jealousy is tarting to show through isn't it? its ok I'm not trying to hide it.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Sunshine

[John]

I read an owner review of the ED102S some time back and it did seem to be a sparkling performer.

When I acquired my ED102SS I got a copy of the Sky & Telescope 2001 comparison review of the GP102M, the ED102S and the ED102SS which was an interesting read. I think the ED103S might have replaced both the ED102S and the ED102SS - the focal ratio seems to fit somewhere between them.

Unfortunately I mislaid the article and have not been able to find it for the past couple of years

I suppose that the FL102 is the one that is the most sought after and venerated. I would certainly love to have owned one at some point.

I wonder what the current Vixen A105M II F/9.5 achromat is like ?

 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2021 by John

[Sunshine]

On 01/07/2021 at 17:28, JeremyS said:

Don’t feel bad Marvin: it took decades for me to appreciate the benefits of refractors and now I am making up for lost time. 😊

As Dave @F15Rules might say, grab one when you can 😊

By snatching up every refractor that crosses his path 😄

[Stu]

3 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I later read somewhere that the ED102 was intended to replace the legendary FL102s.

Couldn’t resist just chucking these into the thread. I’ve been lucky enough to have owned two FL102S scopes, and I still have the second one which seems to be a cracking example.

The FL102S looks pretty similar to the SP102M, although if anything the f10 looks even more like a proper scope 👍

[F15Rules]

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

The FL102S looks pretty similar to the SP102M, although if anything the f10 looks even more like a proper scope 👍

Er...in that case, Stu, would you like to do a straight swap, my F10 102m for your FL102s??

I'll even drive down to yours to do the swap, if that helps?

Dave👍

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Er...in that case, Stu, would you like to do a straight swap, my F10 102m for your FL102s??

I'll even drive down to yours to do the swap, if that helps?

Dave👍

Tempting Dave, but errr…. 🤣🤣

[lguise]

Hi Dave,

All good here thank you. I’ve not had the chance to compare my Vixen ED (which is the 102S f9 version) with a fluorite model, hopefully may get the chance at some stage. My ED has a 2” focuser and I added a vixen reduction unit for fine focus which is an improvement. Views through the ED are very good with minimal false colour either side of focus.
 

 I agree with your thoughts on the various Vixen mounts, I have my original SP with a modification by Peter Drew which corrected the poor design of the latitude adjustment. I also have a very smart black version of the GP which Celestron marketed. Both have stainless steel counterweight shafts that Phil made for me.

I was lucky enough to find a heavily reduced Berlebach tripod for sale in a camera shop that was closing down, the Vixens sit very solid on it. Picture of the ED in action early evening in the Spring with Yvette enjoying some Lunar views.

Stu : maybe we will get the two scopes together sometime, your fluorite looks very fine, same tripod I think?

Best wishes all,

Linton

[F15Rules]

Superb looking setup, Linton, just superb.

I love that "in your face "ED decal...kind of says "I'm an excellent Vixen ED doublet - so there!!"😂

I for one would love to see that shootout with Stu's fluorite!👍

Thanks for sharing.

Best wishes,

Dave

[Rusted]

My 90M on a welded stainless steel tripod and MkIII Fullerscopes mounting.
The tripod is far too heavy to lift. So I have to drag it around in short spurts.
An early, local eclipse from the top of a hill. Compact camera held to the eyepiece of the 90M on a video tripod.
Early morning Venus transit handheld to eyepiece from another hill. Same video tripod. Jupiter through 90M.
Am I off topic? Probably. 👴🏻

[John]

2 hours ago, lguise said:

Hi Dave,

All good here thank you. I’ve not had the chance to compare my Vixen ED (which is the 102S f9 version) with a fluorite model, hopefully may get the chance at some stage. My ED has a 2” focuser and I added a vixen reduction unit for fine focus which is an improvement. Views through the ED are very good with minimal false colour either side of focus.
 

 I agree with your thoughts on the various Vixen mounts, I have my original SP with a modification by Peter Drew which corrected the poor design of the latitude adjustment. I also have a very smart black version of the GP which Celestron marketed. Both have stainless steel counterweight shafts that Phil made for me.

I was lucky enough to find a heavily reduced Berlebach tripod for sale in a camera shop that was closing down, the Vixens sit very solid on it. Picture of the ED in action early evening in the Spring with Yvette enjoying some Lunar views.

Stu : maybe we will get the two scopes together sometime, your fluorite looks very fine, same tripod I think?

Best wishes all,

Linton

Lovely setup Linton😀

Vixen didn't state what ED glass they used with the ED 102S and ED 102SS but from the colour correction that my F/6.5 SS gives I feel that it's got to be FPL-53. I'm sure your F/9 is even better.

My previous scope to my Vixen was a Skywatcher ED100 F/9 and I was pleasantly surprised when the Vixen F/6.5 matched it for colour correction 😀

I had been prepared for a slight trade off in CA in return for the faster focal ratio.

 

 

[lguise]

Hi John,

Could you post a photo of your 102SS if you have one to hand ( you probably have already done so in another thread), I’ve not seen one but have read they perform very well.

All the best 

Linton

[Gonariu]

22 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I Vixen sono ancora sottovalutati, mi sembra..non si aiutano con una mancanza quasi totale di marketing adeguato, eppure in Giappone credo che detengano ancora circa il 60% del mercato degli oscilloscopi amatoriali. me, una montatura iconica e ben progettata, molto meglio dei cloni cinesi che oggi fanno la parte del leone nel mercato britannico.

Penso che un nuovo arrivato nell'hobby farebbe meglio a cercare un acromatico Vixen da 80 mm o 102 mm e una montatura SP/GP/DX in buone condizioni, piuttosto che un equivalente cinese nuovo di zecca 👍😊.. forniscono davvero delle belle immagini .

Surely those who buy Vixen know what they are buying, the "price" is having to spend more! Chinese production has significantly lowered prices, a 12 cm long-focus achromatic once cost a fortune, now a 120/1000 one pays much less. What is the downside? Companies that have a name check all their products before putting them on sale (Astrophysics does this, it seems strange to me that Vixen or Takahashi do not), products "made in China" (or "chinoiserie" what to say if you want) no, so one can find the successful model or the one that seems bought from the flea market ... .... I also thought that the Vixen was too expensive but thinking about it ... ....

[John]

2 hours ago, lguise said:

Hi John,

Could you post a photo of your 102SS if you have one to hand ( you probably have already done so in another thread), I’ve not seen one but have read they perform very well.

All the best 

Linton

Sure. I hope Dave /  @F15Rules doesn't mind this "shorty" in his thread 

 

 

[F15Rules]

Lovely scope John, just a little shorter than the ED103s which is F7.7..maybe Steve/ @Saganite could post one of his ED103s dual mounted with Andromeda (his superb D&G 5" F15)☺️👍

Dave

[Saganite]

There you go Dave, happy to oblige, but Andromeda in a Vixen thread....is that allowed ?

Sorry about the eyepiece caps on the 16.8 Ortho's , that's all I can afford...

Edited July 5, 2021 by Saganite

[F15Rules]

Just an Awesome combination Steve!😎

Dave