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Vixen vmc-110L ota review.

stafford_stargazer

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stafford_stargazer

stafford_stargazer

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OVERVIEW.

The vixen vmc-110L is a modified cassegrain type telescope,very similar to the matsukov but without the big lens at the front,and instead its an open tube design with a small correcting lens just ahead of the secondary mirror out of sight.

After having a visit from my opticron rep at work,who i now know are distributers for vixen,i couldnt resist this cute little scope and ordered one there and then.

It arrived at my home next day,boxed well with the red "vixen" name in large letters on the outside of box,i now started to get excited.

So opening the box all was solidly packed,came with red dot finder and dovetail plate,which does incorporate a standard tripod adapter thread for use on photographic tripod.

The dovetail plate can be unscrewed with the supplied allen key and placed at the bottom of the scope or at the side for use with a goto mount.

QUALITY

This is where it does get impressive,its all metal construction and has that very nice finish in vixen white.It actually feels very solid,and im sure it would last a long time and plenty of accidental abuse.

The tube itself is made of a strong thick metal that wouldn't dent or go out of shape easily at all.Nice and black inside although im sure it could of been better,there is a slight sheen to the blackening in the tube but as of yet hasnt been noticable in my viewing experiences.

The spider is a curved type and again all metal and very rigid,the depth of the the vanes from the top of the scope going into it must be about 30mm so very substantial.

The flip mirror system is a joy to use,no problems here,all aligns up as it should do,quick test is to view something in the straight through position and then flip the mirror up and view from the top,make sure the subject is centred the same in both views.It was in my example so all is good there.

The red dot finder is adequate and easy to align,nothing better needed on this scope to be honest and i have found it is very accurate once setup,also there is an adjustable brightness control for the intensity of the red dot too.

OPTICS

The mirror was flawless,no foreign elements on it when received and nice and clean.

Testing the scope it gave me some fantastic views of saturn and the moon,star test revealed that it was slightly out of collimation when received,nothing unusual as couriers tend not to care to much about throwing boxes around.

This slight mis-collimation did not have any detrimental affects on planetary viewing and only noticed it on the stars.

This was adjusted later...see collimation.

The open tube design does allow for quicker cooling,30 minutes was allowed and this was fine,no disturbances from warm air.

In terms of what to compare it too,it was easily as good as my skywatcher 102 mak in terms of clarity,if not slightly ahead,and also as expected slightly brighter.

So optically fine sharp views,very pleasing results,so no worries there,if you want a good looking sharp planetary scope this is ideal.

COLLIMATION

I was not impressed with the push-pull screw system to collimate this scope.It just made the job very difficult indeed,and when out at night and you need to make a small adjuistment you dont need this hassle believe me.

I did get it collimated fine and the star test that previously were slightly out were now spot on.

But hating this design i modified the scope and made it a one collimating screw design with rubber washers between the mirror cell plate and the rear of the scope,this gave enough adjustment and made things so much easier,hence a more pleasing and less frustrating experience.

So now when out in the field and you may need to collimate it,its so easy,quick turn with a screwdriver in whichever way needed and bobs ya uncle,done.

After all only a very small amount of adjustment is usually needed to bring any scope into collimation if everything else is aligned properly.

This way of doing it with the rubber washers gives plenty of adjustment if needed,i did test this out and theres plenty,and i did put it right out of collimation on purpose to test the amount of movement,but to bring it back to collimation was a breeze,instead of frustratingly having to use the 2x screws in a push and pull manor which made life hell.

All in all i would definately recommend this telescope,its ideal for the grab n go type of astronomy,which sometimes in this country we do have to do unfortunately.

Planets were a breeze,and sharp detailed views were easy to acheive.

I didnt try any deep sky apart form m13 which appeared as a smudge with my 32mm eyepiece,moving to the 9mm it show lots of bright stars.

It looks lovely,sort of clinical and something nasa might use,though probably not.

Made to last and after all its only £229 in the uk.

Not bad really.

Hope this helps anyone maybe looking into buying one.

Thanks Gary

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John

John

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Nice review Gary,

I've always liked Vixen scopes although they are usually pretty highly priced in the UK. The VMC-110 seems to be an exception to this.

Seems like a nice "grab and go" alternative to a Mak-Cassegrain with shorter cool down times.

Good stuff :)

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SMahon

SMahon

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Hi Gary,

Great review!This seems to be a very underated scope for the price.

I bought one of these about 12months ago and found it a very good scope, but I could never quite seem to get a sharp focus on planets at higher mag. At the time, I presumed it was slightly out of collimation after the courier trip, so in my infinite wisdom I attempted to re-collimate with the push-pull screws and ended up stripping the threads on one of them (don't forget to dissolve the glue on the adjustment screws first!). It was now very definitely out of collimation and has remained so ever since, so I am very interested in seeing how you have modded your one as described:

"But hating this design i modified the scope and made it a one collimating screw design with rubber washers between the mirror cell plate and the rear of the scope,this gave enough adjustment and made things so much easier,hence a more pleasing and less frustrating experience"

Sorry about the long post, but I would love to get this back in action as I need something "airplane-size" for a trip to Australia next year.

Any info would be a great help

Stephen

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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When I built my first Newtonian, gave it a push-pull screw design. It is a hassle to set up correctly, but once set it held collimation very well. I very rarely had to recollimate the primary, only the secondary. Thus, I understand why people hate these systems, but I rather liked it for its stability.

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